Truth is Falling Everywhere Except

Part 2 of 3.  The entire essay, including footnotes, can be found at my website: www.christianityontheoffense.com

                Now I anticipate strong objections to my earlier suggestion that YECs are neglectful of scientific evidence.  It is obviously true to the contrary that in some manner they do appeal to scientific data.  But as I stated in my opening sentence, this happens only selectively in the sense of “cherry-picking” for those “fruits” they deem desirable.  Yet the filter they employ for discriminating between good and bad fruit  is Genesis ch. 1.  In other words, on their assumption that that passage teaches a 6-10 thousand year old earth, then only scientific evidence that is consistent with their time-frame is afforded consideration.  This effectively means that only evidence of a kind that is already supported by Scripture is admitted.  Yet this entails two logical fallacies.  Firstly, it commits an oxymoron in that the “facts” they allege support Gen. 1 are intrinsically under girded by the very passage they seek to substantiate.  Yet in order for an argument to qualify as evidence, it needs to stand independently from the authority that it is intended to support.  Secondly, it commits the bait and switch fallacy in that it claims to herald as truth an interpretation of Genesis 1 which is attained by the dubious means of redefining truth.

                As I stated earlier, no other means for substantiating a given assertion as true exists than by submitting it to the scrutiny of the data it purports to address.  My suggestion that even God obligates Himself to that challenge, then, is not disparagement of His majesty.  To the contrary it is a profound affirmation of the very character of the Triune God of Truth (John 16:13) in that, what His word declares will in actuality correlate with the facts of the real world.  And so it demonstrably is the case, that “The heavens declare the glory of God [even as] the firmament proclaims His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).

To be continued...