Young Earth creationism

The divine comedy
Creationism

Running gags

* Biblical literalism
* Young/Old Earth
* Intelligent design
* Creation scientists

Jokes aside

* Creationism and social history
* History of the Earth
* Evidence against a recent creation
* Diamond

Blooper reel

* Creationism in public education
* Intelligent Design vs. Evolution - Letters to an Atheist
* God of the gaps
* Wedge Strategy

Evolutionism debunkers

* Jonathan Wells
* Stephen Meyer
* Jonathan Otto
* Mike Johnson

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“”Despite a full century of scientific insights attesting to the antiquity of life and the greater antiquity of the Earth, more than half the American population believes that the entire cosmos was created 6,000 years ago. This is, incidentally, about a thousand years after the Sumerians invented glue.

—Sam Harris[1]

Young Earth creationism (YEC) is the belief that our planet and universe were created, from nothing,[note 1] in six days, which means six 24 hour calendar days, approximately 6,000 years ago, by the God of the Abrahamic religions. Adherents of young Earth creationism are known as "young Earth creationists," or simply YECs.

Their belief derives from a literal interpretation of the two  creation myths in the Biblical book of Genesis.[2][note 2] This means that young-Earth creationists believe the six days enumerated in Genesis were standard 24-hour[note 3] days and use James Ussher's chronology (or a suitable alternative) to date the Earth's origins to only a few thousand years ago. Answers in Genesis claims science is the work of "fallible" humans while the Bible is the infallible word of God. This must be true  because the Bible says so.[3] Young earth creationists reject the  mountains of scientific evidence demonstrating the earth is older than a few thousand years, as well as the various attempts to reconcile the stories in Genesis with science, such as day-age creationism. Many Christians do not hold this view, as they accept much of the science done on this and are reduced to  allegorical interpretations.[4]

According to a study released in 2019, as many as 40% of Americans believe in a creationist view of human origin within roughly the past 10,000 years.[5]

A firm belief in the biblical  worldwide flood and in the story of  Noah is also a cornerstone of young Earth creationism. Proponents of YEC use this flood myth to explain away almost all observations that scientists have interpreted as pointing to a significantly older Earth.

Creationists who believe in a created earth that doesn't conflict (as much) with science are called Old Earth creationists. This category sometimes includes believers in theistic evolution despite acceptance of evolution (albeit minus the methodological naturalism in the case of the guided-evolution branch of theistic evolution).

Young Earth creationism tends to flourish in conservative, fundamentalist, and Protestant Christianity and occasionally in the Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican churches and in Judaism. Islamic creationists like Harun Yahya tend to be old Earth creationists.

## Contents

* 1 Ellen said "Let there be woo!", and there was
* 2 When was creation?
* 2.1 Ussher
* 2.2 The Omphalos hypothesis
* 3 Problems
* 4 Demographics
* 5 See also
* 6 External links
* 7 Notes
* 8 References

## Ellen said "Let there be woo!", and there was[edit]

Ellen G. White (1827-1915), co-founder of Seventh-day Adventism (SDA), can be viewed as the creator (no pun intended) of YEC — not that many people noticed while she was alive, though.[6] White proclaimed that the Earth was created in 6 literal days, and furthermore that The Flood rearranged the geological record, key elements of YEC.[6] A fellow-SDA member, George McCready Price (1870-1963), published three books that helped popularize White's pronouncements, Outlines of Modern Christianity and Modern Science (1902),[7] The Fundamentals of Geology (1916),[8] and The New Geology (1923).[6][9] SDA members are basically required to believe in YEC because of White, but Price's books brought her ideas to fundamentalist Christians. Among fundamentalists, most dispensational pre-millennialists are YEC believers.[6] In 1961, The Fundamentals of Geology was given a retelling by John C. Whitcomb Jr. & Henry M. Morris in a new and more ~~credulous~~ popular book titled The Genesis Flood.[10]

## When was creation?[edit]

### Ussher[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Ussher § Ussher's chronology

“”How did Young Earth Creationists decide that the Universe was only 6,000 years old? A 17th century monk added up the obviously dubious ages of generations of fictional characters from his favorite folklore, and from that, he determined that the world was magically created on October 23rd, 4004 BCE.

—AronRa, How Dendrochronology Disproves Noah's Flood[11]

Although the book of Genesis does not mention any specific creation date, the 4004 BCE date of creation upheld by young Earth creationists was calculated by the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh, James Ussher,[12] in 1658 and John Lightfoot in 1644.[13][note 4] These chronologies involve meticulously tracing the lineages recounted in the Bible (including Noah's supposed 900 years) back to known time, and compared Middle Eastern, biblical and Mediterranean sources to come up with the surprisingly exact date of October 23, 4004 BCE. At 9:00 in the morning, EST.

This figure would put the age of the Earth many orders of magnitude less than the scientifically agreed figure based on radiometric dating among other pieces of evidence. Specifically, the actual age of the Earth is about 75 million percent longer than the Biblical age of the Earth. To put this in perspective, those with the YEC worldview believe the world was created after the first domestication of the dog (and possibly the goat), after the first stones were laid at Stonehenge, after people settled in Scotland and more. Evidence against a recent creation is quite simply overwhelming.

In a typical case of moving the goalposts, many modern young-Earth creationists have blurred the date of creation to "under 10,000 years" thus avoiding the nasty problems of a written history just over 7000 years old, and those pesky comments that are "always under 10,000 years old." Being less specific also avoids any problems people have with the actual genealogies in the Bible.[14]

### The Omphalos hypothesis[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Omphalos hypothesis

Some branches of YEC explain away inconvenient evidence such as dinosaur fossils, ancient rock strata in the Grand Canyon, and light from stars millions of light years away, as red herrings planted by God to test the faith of believers.

This hypothesis, that God created the world, and indeed the universe, deliberately to appear much older than it actually is, was promoted by the Calvinist and naturalist Philip Henry Gosse in his 1857 book Omphalos, giving rise to the Omphalos hypothesis, although there are earlier examples of similar theories.

The Omphalos hypothesis reconciles the Biblical account of creationism with scientific findings which would seem to contradict it, and in fact was probably created with this intention in mind. However, it doesn't fare well against Occam's razor, since it presents a more elaborate explanation for scientific evidence than we would get from interpreting evidence at face value. It is also unfalsifiable and resembles Last Thursdayism or the idea that we're living in a simulated reality.

The Omphalos hypothesis also suggests a deceitful God and many creationists reject it for this reason.[note 5]

## Problems[edit]

Are we talking Venusian, Earth, or Uranian days?

See the main articles on this topic: Creationism § Problems and Evidence against a recent creation

“”Nearly all peoples have developed their own creation myths, and the Genesis story is just the one that happened to have been adopted by one particular tribe of Middle Eastern herders. It has no more special status than the belief of a particular West African tribe that the world was created from the excrement of ants.

—Richard Dawkins

The concept of the Earth being instantaneously formed only 6000 years ago obviously flies in the face of many fields of modern science. The branches of science you have to ignore to believe in young Earth creationism are numerous—covering practically all of known science—but most notably these sciences are biology (the theory of evolution and palaeontology), astronomy (starlight problem), geology (volcanic formation, sedimentation, plate tectonics), archaeology (historic development of ancient civilizations), dendrochronology (tree-ring dating), and physics (radiometric dating).

These scientific fields are backed by centuries of research by the scientific method, are falsifiable (yet unfalsified) and have accumulated vast quantities of supportive evidence.

Young-Earth creationists have an easy out: they can simply challenge all scientific evidence for an old Earth with the unfalsifiable belief that God simply created Earth with all the evidence of an old Earth already in place.

Also, the Bible does not explicitly say the world was created 6,000 years ago, so YECs have interpreted the Bible, which serious Bible-believing Christians sometimes insist must be  taken literally.

As a school of thought, Young-Earth creationism, though sometimes termed "New Earth creationism",[15] seems to prefer a moniker for itself which suggests the trendy modern secular cult of Youth rather than risking referencing the repeated venerable traditional Biblical  prophecies and fore-shadowing of "new heavens" and a "new earth" (Isaiah 66:22; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1).

## Demographics[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Creationism § Demographics

Young Earth creationism exists primarily among Christian, Muslim, and Jewish fundamentalists, and is most popular in the USA.

## See also[edit]

* Old Earth creationism
* Branches of science you have to ignore to believe in young Earth creationism
* Fun:Statements that are wrong on the level of a Young Earth
* Evidence against a recent creation
* Intelligent design
* The incontrovertible evidence of common descent
* Leviathan
* Challenge: Falsifiability of Creationism
* Starlight problem
* Creation Museum
* Russ Miller
* Got Questions

## External links[edit]

YEC Resources:

* Answers in Genesis
* Creation Ministries International
* Young Cosmos
* Carbon-14 Biblical literalist date 'calculator' — A 'tool' for converting scientific ages to YEC dates, where everything older than 2348 BCE is converted to 2348 BC. It is basically an aid for YEC confirmation bias.

Refutation resources:

* Talk Origins
* No Answers in Genesis
* The Plesiosaur Site, Creationism
* Why do people laugh at creationists?
* Why Young Earth Creationists Must Deny Gravity
* The Skeptic's Dictionary on YECs.
* Ronald L. Numbers The Creationists University of California Press 1993
* Seventh Day Adventist Believe in Young Earth
* Creating Creationism Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
* Early Church Fathers on Genesis, This article from the DMD Publishing CO. site addresses and debunks the young earth lie about early church fathers embracing the young earth concept
* Young Earth Evidence Rebuttals
* Exposing the Roots of Young Earth Creationism Letters to Creationists, by Scott Buchanan, July 9, 2015

## Notes[edit]

1. ↑ Latin: ex nihilo.
2. ↑ There are references to other creation myths elsewhere in the Bible, as in the Psalms and Book of Job, but creationists mostly ignore those.
3. ↑ Once upon a time.people defined hours as fractions of a day, but Science now offers a more precise definition in terms of atomic seconds, so we can avoid the  fallacy of circular definition.
4. ↑ It should be mentioned in Ussher's defense that his methodology was probably as sound as possible given his time and premises.
5. ↑ Romans 1:20 contradicts this hypothesis. Romans 1:20 says "... being understood from what has been made..." we can't really understand this world if the Omphalos hypotheses was correct.

## References[edit]

1. ↑ The Case Against Faith by Sam Harris (Nov 13, 2006) Newsweeek.
2. ↑ Genesis, King James Bible version.
3. ↑ Don't call us young-earth creationists
4. ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Hermeneutics.
5. ↑ Gallup, July 26, 2019, (accessed on October 2, 2019)
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Righting America at the Creation Museum by Susan L. Trollinger & William Vance Trollinger Jr. (2016) Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 1421419513.
7. ↑ Outlines of Modern Christianity and Modern Science by George McCready Price (1902) Pacific Press Publishing Company.
8. ↑ The Fundamentals of Geology and Their Bearings on the Doctrine of a Literal Creation George McCready Price (1916). Pacific Press Publishing Association.
9. ↑ The New Geology: A Textbook for Colleges, Normal Schools, and Training Schools; and for the General Reader by George McCready Price (1923). Pacific Press Publishing Association.
10. ↑ The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications by John C. Whitcomb Jr. & Henry M. Morris (1961) Presbyterian & Pub. Co. ISBN 0825433266.
11. ↑ How Dendrochronology Disproves Noah's Flood (1:41)
12. ↑ James Ussher's Date of the Creation, Ohio Sate University
13. ↑ Bishop Ussher Dates the World: 4004 BC, Lock Haven University]
14. ↑ Evidence for a Young World by Russell Humphreys (June 1, 2005) Answers in Genesis.
15. ↑ For example: Idler, Thomas (29 May 2024). Discovering the Revelations of God: Nine Witnesses to God's Existence. Winnipeg: Word Alive Press. ISBN 9781486625123. Retrieved 19 November 2024. "[...] new earth creationism [...] New earth creationists believe that everything was created in a literal six-day period. This knowledge could have come directly from God and been given to Adam, if we rely on oral tradition, we may conclude that the creation account could have been memorized by Adam and passed on to successive generations to reach Moses, who then wrote it down onto scrolls."

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Articles about creationism

Types of creationism: |

Gap creationism • Day-age creationism • Old Earth creationism • Progressive creation • Hare Krishna creationism • Intelligent design •

Evidence against a recent creation: |

Creationism and social history • Geomagnetism • Petrified forest • Radiometric dating • Carbon dating • Dendrochronology • Y-chromosomal Adam • Mitochondrial Eve • Starlight problem • Plate tectonics • Rotation of the Earth • Atmosphere of the Moon • Biogeography • K-Pg extinction event • Geologic timeline • Fossil • Transitional fossil • Fossil record • Lake Agassiz • List of transitional forms • Punctuated equilibrium • Bird evolution • Geology • Grand Canyon • Fossil fuel • Paleontology • History of the Earth • Evidence against a recent creation • Yellowstone • Diamond • Iron • Age of the Earth • Evolution •

| Creationist claims: |

Geomagnetism • Do you want to be descended from a monkey? • Evolution and religion • Evolution and morality • C-decay • Peanut butter argument • Intelligent design and academic freedom • Science was wrong before • Science doesn't know everything • Catastrophic plate tectonics • Hydroplate theory • Lunar bukkake hypothesis • Creationist mathematics • Biblical literalism • Bumblebee argument • Orchidaceae • Irreducible complexity • Leap second • Wedge Strategy • Noah's Ark • 101 evidences for a young age of the Earth and the universe • Noah's Ark sightings • Evolution conspiracy • Recession of the Moon • Rotation of the Earth • Atmosphere of the Moon • Lunar dust • Lunar radioactivity • White hole cosmology • Firmament • Evolutionism • Haji Yearam • Galactocentricity • Hanzi of Genesis • Historical and operational science • Proof of the inconsistency of arithmetic • List of creationist claims • Global flood • De-evolution • Microevolution and macroevolution • In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood • Borel's Law • Dinosaur denialism • Baraminology •

| Global flood: |

Flood geology • Noah's Ark • Noah • Lunar bukkake hypothesis • Fossil sorting by the global flood • Hydroplate theory • Global flood • Grand Canyon • Noah (film) • Epic of Gilgamesh • Didit fallacy • God's Love • Noah's Ark sightings • Haji Yearam • Lake Agassiz • Parasites during the global flood • Life and the global flood • Global flood chronology • Yellowstone • Petrified forest • Baraminology •

Intelligent design creationism: |

Falsifiability of creationism • Irreducible complexity • Cdesign proponentsists • Intelligent design and academic freedom • Argument from design • The Wonders of Creation Reveal God's Glory • Biological Information: New Perspectives • Seeking God in Science: An Atheist Defends Intelligent Design • John A. Davison • Evolution Under the Microscope: A Scientific Critique of the Theory of Evolution • Rethinking Darwin: A Vedic Study of Darwinism and Intelligent Design • Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False • Providence Lost: A Critique of Darwinism • The Darwin Myth: The Life and Lies of Charles Darwin • The Mystery of Life's Origin: Reassessing Current Theories • The Origin of Human Nature: A Zen Buddhist Looks at Evolution • Thomas Nagel • Darwinism Under The Microscope: How Recent Scientific Evidence Points To Divine Design • The End of Darwinism • Ask Darwinists • Polonium halos • Explanatory Filter • Flowers of asexually-reproducing plants • Eye • Argument from fine tuning • Argument from beauty • Argument from first cause • Flagellum • Moody Institute of Science • Intelligent design • Laryngeal nerve • Suboptimal design • Adam and Evolution: A Scientific Critique of Neo-Darwinism • Expelled: Leader's Guide • Banana argument • Vault-Co •

| "Intelligent" alternatives: |

Intelligent falling • Scientific storkism • Pastafarianism • Scientific Geoterrapinism • Wedgie strategy •

| Teach the controversy: |

Santorum Amendment • Missouri House Bill 1227 • Indiana Senate Bill 89 • Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District • Academic Freedom Act • Louisiana Academic Freedom Act • Tennessee monkey bill • Edwards v. Aguillard • Thomas More Law Center • School vouchers • Eugenie Scott • Teach the controversy • Truth in Science • McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education •

Creationists: |

Ben Stein • Barry Setterfield • Jonathan Sarfati • Ray Comfort • B.H. Shadduck • Kirk Cameron • Harun Yahya • Wendy Wright • Carl Wieland • John Ankerberg • Jack Cuozzo • William Jennings Bryan • Russ Miller • Lee Strobel • Brother Stair • Paul Nelson • James Nienhuis • Art Robinson • Alan O'Reilly • PPSIMMONS • Hank Hanegraaff • Charlie Wagner • Rush Limbaugh • Roy Spencer • Grover Norquist • Ann Coulter • Christopher Booker • Andrea Minichiello Williams • Tom Bethell • Chuck Baldwin • Rick Perry • Bradley Monton • Christopher Langan • Aimee Semple McPherson • Richard Kent • Ljiljana Čolić • Abuz Zubair • Scott Huse • Barry Arrington • Grant Jeffrey • Janet Porter • Alan Clifford • Kurt Wise • Kenneth McKilliam • Bradlee Dean • Hugh Ross • Geoffrey Simmons • James Le Fanu • Norman Nevin • Shaun Johnston • John C. Sanford • Fazale Rana • Benjamin Wiker • Hugh Dower • Lee Spetner • Mark Ludwig • Alan Hayward • Werner Gitt • William Fix • Maciej Giertych • John C. Landon • Barbara Cargill • Ken Jopp • Frank Tipler • Richard William Nelson • Todd Friel • Bob Sorensen • Eugene Windchy • Berit Kjos • Glenn Beck • Robert McLuhan • George C. Deutsch • Ross McKitrick • Daniel Neiman • Ron Wyatt • Desmond Paul Allen • Jay Wile • Jack Chick • Ian Juby • Anthony Peake • Tim Ball • Sheik Feiz Muhammad • J. P. Holding • Michael Cremo • Chuck Norris • Steve Milloy • Rick Santorum • Christine O'Donnell • Larry Craig • Mike Bara • John Hawkins • Alan Keyes • Chris Carter • Ted Cruz • Bobby Jindal • James Ussher • Larry Pratt • Bob Dutko • Steve Fuller • Denyse O'Leary • Mike Huckabee • Babu G. Ranganathan • Ben Hobrink • Carl Baugh • Humans Are Free • Mary Lou Bruner • Educate-yourself.org • Andrew Schlafly • Ian Paisley • VenomFangX • Todd Akin • Paul Broun • James Manning • Shockofgod • Sye Ten Bruggencate • Brad Stine • Charlton Heston • Pat Toomey • Josh Axe • Ben Carson • William Dembski • Presents Of God Ministry • Jim Allister • Whale.to • Jonathan Otto • Becky Fischer • Roy Moore • David Wilcock • Jerry Falwell Sr. • Mark Dice • Ron Paul • Sam Brownback • Pat Buchanan • Don McLeroy • Marco Rubio • Michele Bachmann • Pat Robertson • John Hagee • Mary Fallin • The Vigilant Christian • Betsy DeVos • WND • Joseph Farah • Media Research Center • Theodore Beale • Encyclopedia of American Loons • Got Questions • R. L. Wysong • ProphecyFilm.com • Kent Hovind • Steven Anderson • Dennis Prager • Bernard d'Abrera • Mohammad Tawhidi • CJ Pearson • Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry • Eric Hovind • Cornelius Van Til • Frank Turek • Sarah Palin • William Lane Craig • Alex Jones (slovensky) • Charlie Kirk • Owen Benjamin • Steven Crowder • Rick Warren • Jerry Falwell Jr. • Ted Holden • Alex Jones • E. Calvin Beisner • Kate Tieje • Michael Denton • New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Movement • Mark Cahill • Jim Inhofe • Gary Birdsong • R. J. Rushdoony • Pat Boone • The Washington Times • Canada Free Press • NewsBusters • Jimmy Swaggart • Miroljub Petrović • Marjorie Taylor Greene • Chuck Colson • Stephen E. Jones • Lew Rockwell • Tom Tancredo • John Kasich • Gary North • E. W. Jackson • Kevin Stitt • Zachary K. Hubbard • Conservapedia • Mike Johnson • National Rifle Association • Butch Hartman • Joshua Feuerstein • Christopher Rufo • Peter Sweden • Alvin Plantinga • Tucker Carlson • Mission: America • American Thinker • Brandon Tatum • Nick Fuentes • Mike Pence • Zakir Naik • Glenn Morton •

| Fundie schools: |

Brigham Young University • Cedarville University • Patrick Henry College • Regent University • Patriot Bible University • Fundie school • The Master's University • San Diego Christian College • Columbia Pacific University • Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools • Pensacola Christian College • Bob Jones University • Hyles-Anderson College • University of South Los Angeles • Cambridge Theological Seminary • Haven University • Liberty University • Louisiana Baptist University and Seminary • New Eden School of Natural Health • Andersonville Theological Seminary • Ambassador Baptist College • Hillsdale College • Illegal schools in the United Kingdom •

| Discovery Institute: |

Teach the controversy • Of Pandas and People • Wedge Strategy • Text of The Wedge Strategy • Explore Evolution • David Berlinski • Biologic Institute • Jonathan Wells • Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed • Michael Egnor • Douglas Axe • Academic Freedom Day • Casey Luskin • What is intelligent design? • Behe: The Edge of Evolution, Interview • Science and Human Origins • Wedgie strategy • Project Steve • BIO-Complexity • Texas Board of Education • Richard Weikart • Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District • Human exceptionalism • Darwin's Predictions • Stephen Meyer • Howard Ahmanson • Melvin Mulder • Lists of creationist scientists • Discovery Institute • Complex Specified Information • Michael Behe • Phillip Johnson • Joel Brind • Non-materialist neuroscience • Academic Freedom Act •

| Answers in Genesis: |

Answers in Genesis Dawkins interview controversy • Bodie Hodge • Andrew Snelling • Affirmations and Denials Essential to a Consistent Christian (Biblical) Worldview • Answers in Genesis/Creation Ministries International's Statement of Faith • Hanzi of Genesis • Atheists Outline Their Global Religious Agenda • 12 Arguments Evolutionists Should Avoid • Creation Ministries International • Lists of creationist scientists • Answers Research Journal • Ark Encounter • Jason Lisle • Answers in Genesis • Ken Ham • Creation Museum • Buddy Davis • Bill Nye debates Ken Ham • Ham Hightail • Cedarville University •

|  | Answers Research Journal: |

Answers Research Journal volume 2 • Answers Research Journal volume 3 • Answers Research Journal volume 5 • Answers Research Journal volume 1 • Answers Research Journal volume 6 • Answers Research Journal volume 4 • Answers Research Journal • Answers Research Journal volume 7 • Answers Research Journal volume 8 • Answers Research Journal volume 9 • Answers Research Journal volume 10 • Answers Research Journal volume 11 • Answers Research Journal volume 12 • Answers Research Journal volume 13 • Answers Research Journal volume 14 • Answers Research Journal Volume 15 •

| Institute for Creation Research: |

Nathaniel Jeanson • Jeffrey Tomkins • Lawrence Ford • Henry Morris • Brian Thomas • Duane Gish • RATE • Your Origins Matter • John Morris • Jerry Bergman • San Diego Christian College • Timothy LaHaye • Russell Humphreys • Lists of creationist scientists • Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools • Andrew Snelling • Alpha Omega Institute • Jason Lisle • Institute for Creation Research • Danny Faulkner • David DeWitt •