The Cruelty Of Young-Earth Creationism

Fred Clark wrote recently:

Young-earth creationism is a cruelly efficient machine for manufacturing spiritual crisis. It has created more atheists than all of Richard Dawkins’ books put together. It exchanges the truth of God for a lie — a lie that’s spectacularly indefensible because none of the people caught up in that lie lives on a young Earth. They live, instead, on this one — this ancient Earth that confronts its inhabitants with its vast and incomprehensible oldness at every turn.

Click through to read the rest of his post. I consider myself fortunate not to have grown up with young-earth creationist beliefs – had I done so, it would surely have been much more difficult to shed them. As it was, even though I found my way to antievolutionism in my teens, all it took was a clear presentation of evidence that young-earth creationism was not merely false but deceitful, offered in a manner that did not pretend that I needed to abandon my Christian faith in order to let go of young-earth creationism.

Of related interest, Matthew McClure created a tract – in the style of the infamous Chick Tracts – warning about the dangers of young-earth creationism from the perspective of Christian faith. I think this may be my favorite part, illustrating the evolution of young-earth creationist ideas:

HT Michael Roberts

I just realized that I posted my round-up of the highlights of my extensive blogging about young-earth creationism almost ten years ago! I won’t try to do another round-up now, since it is much easier than it used to be to find relevant materials on this blog, whether using the search bar on the Patheos site or simply Googling. But let me include here some links to past posts about young-earth creationism that I think are specifically relevant here, namely posts that address the deceitful character of young-earth creationism and why, far from being a natural expression of Christian faith, is in fact diametrically opposed to it:

Literalists Have a Choice

Christianity or Young-Earth Creationism? Time to Choose

Is the Young-Earth Creationist Idea of God Compatible with Christianity?

Young-Earth Creationists Undermine Confidence in the Bible

Ken Ham is a Con Artist (see also Why Is Ken Ham Believed?)

Ken Ham Reads the Bible Like an Atheist (see too Ken Ham Continues Winning Souls for Atheism)

Ken Ham Thinks He Is God

Beware of False Teachers – and Be Aware You Might Be One!

Young-Earth Creationism is a Cult

Young-Earth Creationists Substitute Words of Men in Place of the Word of God

Genesis 1-3 on How to Interpret Genesis 1-3

Young-Earth Creationism vs. the Plain Meaning of the Creation Stories