Hi TMK,
I appreciate your post and the only thing I strongly object to is #2- the "God created the universe with the appearance of age" argument. I realize God can do what he wants, but I believe this argument slanders the character of God. Greg Koukl (apologist) wrote this article addressing this problem: http://www.reasons.org/articles/star-light-the-age-of-the-universe
I always had a problem with this theory even when I first heard it- and I think I was in middle school. I just don;t think God would "trick" us.
The idea that the universe was really crated 15 billion years ago but only seems to have been created 6000 years ago does not really explain the age of the earth.
Thanks for the link. It is an interesting perspective. However, I would like to clarify my perspective behind my second consideration.
I wrote:
2.) I had a physics professor at the university that I attended who was a Christian. He believed that God created a "mature universe." The way he described it is that God -- who isn't confined to science -- created all of the elements and pieces of the university (that stretch across the 13.8 Billion light year width of the universe) at the very moment that He said, "Let there be light." In other words, light waves from the deepest regions of space were already here by the time Adam looked up at the night sky.
Initially, I had expounded on this but decided to delete what I wrote because of your preference for a non-lengthy response.
My university physics professor's idea of a "mature universe" is a little different than how it is described by other creationists. The point wasn't that God "deceived" the world to make it seem older than it really is. Rather, his idea is sort of a bridge with my previous (first) consideration.
God is not confined to the laws of nature. This was never more true than when He created the world prior to the establishments of universal laws of physics. He could produce light without a star. He can create "day" and "night" before the stars or Moon. He could create living plants before the Sun.
When God created "light" and set the universe (and its laws) in motion, God was not only at the beginning point of that light. He was -- and is -- everywhere. He didn't have to create light and confine it at 186,000 miles per second. As scientists believe that light moved exponentially faster in the moments following the "Big Bang," God could move light across the universe in an instant.
During creation, the Lord could easily move some light faster than other light. God is not even confined to forcing light to travel along the "bends" in space-time (which would make light travel "slower" due to greater distances across bends and gravitational spacial-plane distortions). Rather, God could make light go in any direction He wishes -- and even make it behave contrary to now-observed behavior. This would be, more or less, God setting up creation before God's creating had concluded.
Now, of course, all of this is conjecture. Yet, we believe in a Creator who is untamed by the laws of creation. If we believe that God came to this Earth and died for the sins of mankind, then why would it surprise us about the extent of His omniscience and omnipotence during creation?
I have previously used an anecdote about my childhood when discussing what my professor spoke about. When I was a little boy, I enjoyed playing with my room filled with toys. I had a bedroom where I would set up my toys on the floor for hours before engaging my creativity into play. I would take my Star Wars toys, Transformers, GI Joe figures, Legos and other robots, spaceships and play sets (including model trains) and build different "kingdoms." Once I completed building everything (and all of the pieces were in place), I would then begin playing and having my toys interact in the world that I created.
Now, I am not trying to compare God and his methods of creation with a little boy playing with toys. However, there is something to be said about how I set my toy world in motion and how this could mirror (ever so slightly and in concept only) how God built a world BEFORE applying the laws (e.g., gravity, motion, etc...) to it. In this sense, God could create light and speed it up before confining it to a universal speed limit. I hope this clarifies a little of what this means. Otherwise, I can further elucidate this a bit more if you like.
As for the neanderthals: I do think that much of the research into human biology is built upon the notion that the Earth must be approximately 4.5 billion years old. Consequently, the principles of evolution are built upon the premise that similarities between species translates to common origin. Thus, human biologists search for links and I think that they tend to "stretch" in order to provide them. The fossil record is sketchy (at best) and even the best fossil records (e.g., the Leakey's "Lucy") aren't necessarily interpreted correctly (although I know that Lucy isn't considered a Neanderthal). I often wonder if overzealous paleoanthropologists are creating a "brontosaurus" out of what might be the bones of a subspecies of ape or even an abnormality in a human.
The DNA evidence -- in which many humans seemingly have DNA that traces to a "Neanderthal" -- doesn't mean that they aren't human. "Neanderthals" are deemed human by scientists and are distinguished by the region from which they derived (*Europe, North Africa, Mesopotamia).
There is a "connection" between the DNA lineage (which cannot determine specific genetic features but simply specific "signals" determining lineage) and modern humans. However, the notion that the "Neanderthal" is a pre-human (as described by movies and works of fiction) is incorrect.
The scant fossil remains do not mean that they point to ape-links in early humans. Rather, it simply means that there are some differences between modern humans and the skeletal remains that have been found. Even the skeletons could be the result of physical abnormalities -- much the same way that, say, Andre the Giant might appear if he had lived thousands of years ago and had been uncovered by paleoanthropologists. It is interesting to point out that human bones collected under tones of shifting dirt and rock (and after floods, humidity, etc...) aren't exactly the best indications of what the bones looked like prior to death either.
I will speak with my sister-in-law about this. She recently graduated with a degree in Human Biology from Stanford and I know that she took a class in evolutionary biology from a well-known paleobiologist too. I'd like to hear some of her thoughts.
