I Admit It: I Was A Yec Idiot

[Guest Geese Aplenty]

It’s almost incomprehensible to me the extent of my former idiocy.

 

How could I have bought into such a story? Was it the threat of Hell? Yes, but that’s no excuse. Others are similarly threatened with damnation for not subscribing to the faith and properly recognize the message for what it is—a cultic sham, no different than other extra-biblical religions that do the same thing. There is a reason that the models of the lesser cults follow the evangelical model: they are exactly the same, only on a different scale. Evangelical xianity uses the same techniques, spreads the same lies, and instills the same fears.

 

Thankfully, I am no longer afraid to confront the asinine claims of those who insisted I believe, lest the flames consume me for eternity. That was key to my de-programming—confronting the fear rather than running from it or burying it. (Isn't it interesting that confronting one's fear is one of the more noble Pauline exhortations to the church?)

 

And what I learned is that once YEC goes, the whole thing utterly collapses.

 

This epiphany struck me recently when I was watching one of those evil science shows (something I was hotly discouraged from watching by my brethren). The show was about super volcanism and it led me to thinking about other forms of catastrophe that the earth has endured, like comet and asteroid bombardment.

 

Hundreds of catastrophic asteroid and comet impacts have occurred in earth’s history:

 

• The Showmaker-Levy comet confirmed this.

• Satellite imagery of earth’s surface confirms this.

• The iridium layer confirms this.

• Scores of pockmarked moons and planets confirm this.

 

The implications to YECism are enormous of course. So I went a-searching to see if others had thought of this. Big surprise: they had! I found several articles on the matter and numerous forum debates in which reasonable people tried to convince YECists that science indeed can be trusted on this matter and that the evidence is overwhelming.

 

One savvy skeptic calculated the frequency of such bombardments in a 6,000-year timeframe based on the extant supercraters we have identified through satellite imagery (many craters obviously would have disappeared as the result of evil Satanic tectonic activity and evil Satanic continental drift...which also nullify YECism, BTW). His (or her) calculation was something on the order of a cataclysmic impact every 35 years!

 

Some paradise!

 

YECists often rush to stem this Satanic disinformation by explaining that all the impacts must have occurred during The Deluge (i.e., in one year).

 

You see, in the mind of the YECist, that fixes the problem. Some even go on record to say that the deep water and sediment cushioned these impacts, which is why Noah and family never batted an eye when the space rocks came a-crashing all around them(perhaps they were too busy tending the beasts to notice).

 

If this sounds like exaggeration—and I don’t blame you for thinking that I’m making this up—consider Henry Morris’s take on the meteorite matter (he being the father of modern YECist belief). Henry Morris posited in one of his early books that meteoric bombardment was the result of a rather nasty rock fight between the demons and the angels.

 

I kid you not. Look it up.

 

Now many facts that I have learned had served to awaken me from my intellectual slumber, but that little nugget roused me like no other. How could a grown man with degrees and the same rational mind that I possess entertain such fanciful and unscientific fantasies as a huge rock fight between fallen and unfallen cherubim?

 

The answer is easy, I have come to learn. Survival. His and his ilk (emphasis on “il”) cling to such rationalizations because the truth threatens the foundations of their belief. That’s why when OECists tell me to get over my indoctrination by YECists and just believe and love the Lord, I have to remind them that the entire church, pre-scientific awakening, also clung to such notions. I also remind them that half of all Americans—not half of all American Christians but half of all Americans—also believe in YECism and likely do so because they think it essential to comprehending the gospel and properly serving God. This is why empires are built on YECism (AiG, ICR, The Creation Network, etc.). If it were not an essential component of correct Christian thinking, these ministries would not make it their main thrust.

 

And that’s why the whole house of cards tumbles when YEC is exposed for the pernicious fraud it is.

 

Now I know the true meaning of free pursuit of truth.

[Piprus]

I hadn't investigated exactly what the YEC peoples' claims were, I just knew that they believed the earth was only 6000 years old so it could fit in with what Genesis says. Aren't these people a small minority, even among the fundies?

[Dave]

It’s almost incomprehensible to me the extent of my former idiocy.

Would you be surprised to hear that many ex christians say the same thing?

One savvy skeptic calculated the frequency of such bombardments in a 6,000-year timeframe based on the extant supercraters we have identified through satellite imagery (many craters obviously would have disappeared as the result of evil Satanic tectonic activity and evil Satanic continental drift...which also nullify YECism, BTW). His (or her) calculation was something on the order of a cataclysmic impact every 35 years!

God made it look that way just to fool you.

 

The scary part is that many would actually believe that.

.....How could a grown man with degrees and the same rational mind that I possess entertain such fanciful and unscientific fantasies as a huge rock fight between fallen and unfallen cherubim?

To belong to a herd.

The answer is easy, I have come to learn. Survival.

For much of human history if you were not part of a herd, or community, you would die. Evolution took care of those that suspended reality in order to believe something the flock believed in. That way he got to stay in the flock and stay alive.

 

Welcome to our flock. It's a much nicer one.

[Legion]

Welcome to our flock. It's a much nicer one.

I agree Dave. Old Earth Gang... YAY! Young Earth Gang....BOOOO!

[Guest Geese Aplenty]

I hadn't investigated exactly what the YEC peoples' claims were, I just knew that they believed the earth was only 6000 years old so it could fit in with what Genesis says. Aren't these people a small minority, even among the fundies?

 

 

No, they are not a small minority. That's why I said:

 

"I have to remind them that the entire church, pre-scientific awakening, also clung to such notions. I also remind them that half of all Americans—not half of all American Christians but half of all Americans—also believe in YECism and likely do so because they think it essential to comprehending the gospel and properly serving God."

[NotBlinded]

You know, there was a book my mother had when I was growing up (and she still had gathering dust later) that I used to look at about a young earth. It resembled an illustrated encyclopedia showing how the earth was only 4000 years old. Now, I'm old but not that old! What happened with the other 2000 years or is my memory failing me?

[brad_religion]

I also was a YEC idiot, along with being a fundie, calvinist, adventist idiot. My christianity was a process of discovery that many christians don't believe what the bible says. However, you are right about the YEC position making or breaking the entire faith of Christianity. What I mean is that if the earth is billions of years old and Adam and Eve were created a mere 6,000 years ago, what was God doing the other billions of years? Or rather, if you accept the earth is billions of years old, then it is much easier to believe that the story of Adam and Eve is a myth or allegorical/symbolic. If Adam and Eve were symbolic people in a myth, then original sin was also symbolic, not literal. If Noah's flood is proven to be local and not involving a guy named Noah, then the "global" fire creationists warn evil evolutionists about is not global either. But, what is more interesting is if Jesus came to die for the original sin of Adam, and Adam was a mythological/allegorical person, that means Jesus died for a myth/allegory rather than a real problem of literal original sin. In other words, it either means Jesus died for no good reason OR it could possibly mean Jesus was also a myth (since the Jesus in the bible supports a literal Adam existing).

 

So, it makes sense why YEC are so literalist and they attack anyone who does not take their position on the bible (because any subtrefuge is considered blasphemy no matter how small the difference of opinion is). I even saw on Youtube.com there was a YEC who posted a debate between Kent Hovind and Hugh Ross who was merely an Old Earth Creationist, nothing else differed on his beliefs as far as christianity was concerned, and this guy on the site said he was a liar, and called him a bunch of names.

 

So, in review....

 

If the earth is billions of years old, then:

 

1)Adam and Eve most likely did not literally exist

2)Original sin did not literally exist

3)Noah's flood was probably a local flood legend that existed in previous cultures

4)Jesus either died for a non-existent original sin or Jesus was a myth himself

5)Jesus' and the apostles' warning of a judgment of fire is reduced to a non-global judgment, since they based it on Noah's flood theme (if Noah's flood was local, so is the judgment by fire).

 

 

So, with all this at stake, is it any wonder that YEC behave the way they do towards others?