Atheism: The Ultimate Guide (COMPLETED)

28. Young Earth Creationism

Fact: The Universe is 13.8 billion years old

Fact: Earth is 4.5 billion years old

Not a fact: Earth is 6-10,000 years old

Why are so many people divided on this issue?

The truth is, they're not. The vast majority of educated people know both the Earth and the Universe are very old. The educated people who still somehow believe in a young earth have a completely misguided mindset who don't quite understand many aspects of science.

I find the idea of a young Earth to be as preposterous as the idea of a flat Earth. That's my brutally honest opinion, sorry not sorry. I put flat-Earthers and young-Earthers on the same exact rank of ridiculousness.

I'm going to divide this chapter up into four sections:

1. World History

2. Scientific Breakthroughs

3. Methods of Dating

4. Funny Quotes

World History:

Let's look at a timeline of Earth if it was 10,000 years old, like most of the young-Earthers I've encountered on this website believe.

Humans came around approximately 200,000 years ago. According to young-Earthers, this cannot be possible. So, let's make them happy and ignore that scientific fact.

Moving forward, early human history can be traced back to our hunter-gatherer days and the Agricultural Revolution, which occurred around 15,000 years ago.

Even that fact is false according to young-Earthers, for the supposedly entire planet didn't come to be until 5-9 thousand years later.

What does this mean? Mesopotamia alone existed roughly 10,000 years ago, empires alone existed for roughly 5,000 years, and taking into account Indus River Valley civilizations, the entirety of Ancient Egypt, Ancient China and their many dynasties, it just doesn't add up.

If Earth is truly 6-10,000 years old, that would mean all these extensive human empires and civilizations would've had to exist at the same time, compacted into an extremely short period of several thousand years, excluding the time before humans were created on day 6.

How is this even plausible to people? Cramming all of human history into a tiny period just to satisfy the needs of a young Earth?

Quick side note: The Great Pyramid of Giza alone was the tallest man-made structure for 3,800 years. If the Earth was 6,000 years old...?

Another side note...according to the Hebrew calendar, Jewish people have been worshiping God for over 5,700 years!

One last side note: isn't it weird to think that young Earth creationists are under the impression that all modern day textbooks, articles, research papers, etc are completely wrong by stating Earth is millions of years old?

Here's a great timeline for y'all to look at to see all of human history starting with Mesopotamia: http://www.essential-humanities.net/history-overview/world-history-timeline/

Scientific Breakthroughs:

The idea of a young Earth was popular among scientists...in the 1700's. Then important things happened such as the Age of Enlightenment, the scientific revolution, and new scientific discoveries, marking a significant change from primarily young Earth beliefs to old Earth beliefs, where most scientists rest with today.

Geology itself outright demands an old Earth, directly challenging literalist views of a merely 6,000 year old Earth.

The Age of Enlightenment was a defining moment for science. It brought about a great number of official academies and societies devoted to science, advancements in mathematics, physics, chemistry, natural history, and countless others.