The Scriptures do not teach Young Earth Creationism. They don’t teach Old Earth Creationism either.

Taken literally they simply express themselves in the cosmology of the time they were written.  Try reading these verses with ancient eyes as the original audience would have read them…

Does this mean Scripture taught error? No. Why not?

Cosmological models, like all scientific truths, are not absolute truths. Science is made up of tentative truths which can be corrected as more is learned. What makes a scientific model “true” or “not true” depends on whether it is predictively useful.

At the time Moses wrote Genesis the ancient Hebrew… Continue reading →

In a recent exchange with an anti-theist I was asked to defend the supernatural and why the Bible is similar to so many other ancient religious texts. I think that last claim is exaggerated but I chose not to quibble about it. As for the first criticism, it is interesting how often the philosophical naturalist’s anti-supernaturalism based on science rears its head these days in discussions.

My anti-theist friend wrote, “Science provides enough evidence to make the explanation that the Bible was written by normal men, and the supernatural episodes in it are largely myth, vastly more probable than the alternative that they actually happened.… Continue reading →

Fiat Lux! The Vulgate’s rendering of the divine command, “Let there be light!” I have been engaging in several online debates with Young Earth Creationists on Facebook and it seems that not many of them are aware of the deep problems that undermine their position for a 6000 year old universe when the measurable constant velocity of light is considered in relation to the immense size of the universe.

The usual argument is that God not only created the stars and galaxies on Day 4 of Creation Week but also beams of light from them to us. This results in quite a few quandaries not… Continue reading →

Please offer prayers for the departed servant of God my father, Richard Hawthorne, who passed away today and for the comfort of those he has left behind. Requiescat in pace, Daddy.

Death is a tragic mercy. Tragic because of the pain of being separated from someone we love, the regret of things not said often enough and the disappointed of lost opportunities. Yet death is often also a mercy for each of us as we depart since we do not have to live forever in bodies that wear out or with souls weakened by the sins to which we are prone in our fallen human… Continue reading →

In response to a question on Facebook about how an Old Earth Creationist or an Evolutionary Creationist can justify animal death before the Fall of Adam. I thought this might be helpful for anyone with a similar question…..

Question: “How does a theistic evolutionist take into account the fact that evolution is built on the mounds of dead, diseased things underneath us, and that thorns and thistles were there and not a result of the curse? I’ve never had someone explain that to me properly.”

Answer:  I am more of an Old Earth Creationist than an Evolutionary Creationist (meaning that while I accept… Continue reading →

I still remember when I first came to really enjoy reading the Bible. I had begun to be interested in spiritual things and even liked going to church and hearing all the Bible stories each week. However, whenever I sat down to read the Scriptures I would quickly become discouraged because it was hard to follow what was really being said in my pocket-sized King James New Testament. All those -eths and -ests and thee’s and ye’s simply left my fifteen year old head swimming after a few minutes of concentrated effort. It was discouraging to hear how important it was for a Christian to… Continue reading →