Just how old is the earth?

So just how old is the earth?  Is it 4.54 billion years
old as is currently accepted by the mainstream

scientific community or is it 6,000 years old as young earth creationists insist?

It's a difficult question to ask, not only because of the massive amount of information one can consider, but even more so because of the intense emotional baggage that invariably enters the debate from both sides of the isle.  My guess is that most readers of this blog have already had an emotional response and are steeling themselves behind their firmly established opinions. But if I may presume to offer a suggestion here, set aside your emotions and firmly held beliefs and really try to view the question from a different angle.  I can honestly say that the greatest leaps in my own understanding have come when I start with the attitude, "I might be wrong". It's the shallow mind that assumes all who disagree with them are idiots.

The 4.54 billion answer is based on scientific and rational arguments such as radiometric dating, observations of geologic formations such as the grand canyon and so forth.  The young earth camp would point out that the "old earth" arguments are based on historical assumptions and that there is an abundance of evidence that supports the idea of a young earth which is mostly ignored by mainstream science (click here) for an example. The 6,000 year answer comes from a literal interpretation of the Bible based on the creation account in Genesis and the fairly detailed genealogy recorded throughout the old and new testaments.

If you wade into this debate you find that you are quickly inundated with data and heated arguments, but for the sake of simplicity I'm just going to consider one piece of data, the distances between stars and galaxies. This measure of the age of the universe is troubling for Biblical creationists as there is little debate that distant galaxies are billions of light years away, so considering a constant speed of light it's rational to assume that the light from those galaxies has been traveling for billions of years, far more than the 6,000 years a creationist would expect.

One solution advocated by some creationist is the "Day Age" theory, meaning that the 7 days of creation are not to be taken literally, but are rather symbolic of extremely long eons of time in which the universe unfolded.  This is a tempting solution except that the Biblical account seems to go out of it's way to emphasize that the creation days were literal 24 hour days. For each creation day it says "And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.", "And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day." and so on. Why would the creator of the universe spend billions of years creating a universe then record for humanity that he did it in 6 days?

I think an exercise that can help solve this dilemma is to assume for the moment that the heavens and earth were all created in 6 literal 24 hour days and put yourself in the creation story at day 7.  You encounter the first man, Adam, and strike up a conversation.  In observing him you might estimate his age to be, say 28 years old, but if you were to ask him his age he'd reply, "I'm one day old".  Now if you try to scientifically verify his answer you would quickly contradict his claim since every measure of Adam's age, (height, weight, intelligence, speech), would give you an age that far exceeds 24 hours. So we see here that, in this instance, scientific analysis is of no use in determining Adam's age as his creation was a miraculous event, turning dust into man, and not a natural and scientific event which the rest of us experience.

So we see then, that God created Adam and Eve as complete adult beings, that appear by every measure to be much older than they are and with the ability to propagate their species in a natural manner. In effect, God created a 28 year old man in one day.  Using pure scientific analysis leads you to the wrong conclusion by a factor of 10,220. In this instance faith and divine revelation are the tools that will lead you to the correct answer. There's nothing wrong with the scientific analysis you did, it's just that it doesn't apply to Adam as a rare miraculous event occurred that science cannot account for.

By extension we could then observe other plants and animals to determine their age.  We could cut down a tree and count it's rings to determine it's age. How many rings would you expect to find in a tree that was miraculously created 1 day ago?  If we hold to the notion that God would create species fully mature and complete and able to reproduce we could say that here's a 75 year old tree that God created 4 days ago. Further we could analyze the soil and estimate how old the soil is by it's depth, composition, chemical analysis and determine that the soil would have taken 200 years to form at this depth, but once again we've reached the wrong conclusion since it was created miraculously a short time ago, though it will continue to form and accumulate at a scientific rate.

We could dig further and examine the rock layers, travel abroad and study the mountains and canyons, the sediments at the bottom of the sea and estimate the earth to be billions of years old, but once again we'd have reached the wrong conclusion.

Now, using the same line of thinking, if we take out our telescope and turn out attention to the stars, we could measure star distance and, observing that we can detect galaxies that are 12.6 billion light years away, thus the universe is at least 12.6 billion years old by scientific measure. But by revelation we understand that the universe was created in a day and light from distant galaxies has been created "in flight".  It may seem like cheating for God to create light mid flight, but if if you were an omnipotent deity would you wait the 12.6 billion years, to avoid cheating, or would you speed things along a bit?  Also, if you look closely at the biblical text you'll see that the light was actually created on day one, the sun and stars were added on day 4.

So, we can see that no amount of scientific research is going to lead us to the correct conclusion since all of creation came about as a miraculous historical event that can't be directly confirmed scientifically.  To learn the truth you would need to rely in faith on the historical account from the eyewitness creator of the universe.

So, back to our original question, is the earth billions of years old or 6,000?  I think the best answer is, seemingly contradictory, that it is a 4.5 billion year old planet that was created about 6,000 years ago. But, then again, "I might be wrong."

What do you see?

About 6 months ago my family joined Living Waters (LW)church in Elk River.  I really enjoy going to church there, and for me that's a big deal since I normally don't care much for going to church. 

I think what appeals to me about LW is you never really know what you are going to get any given Sunday.  First off, you never know who is going to be speaking.  We have 2 pastors but they account for probably half the Sundays, the rest are others in the church or guest speakers.  In addition to that there is time set aside for any believer in the church to walk up to the front and share what God's putting on their heart.  I always felt that the church could benefit from hearing from more than just one voice every week.  Nobody is that interesting.

The worship team has a general idea of what songs they will be doing but will often spin off into singing lyrics that just come to them at the moment.  People also have a lot of freedom to worship as they feel lead, without feeling judged. Often Somebody is up waving flags at the front of the sanctuary, some are laying prostrate, sometimes it seems half the church is up at the alter dancing and swaying to the music.  Other days are pretty sedate.  The only thing you can be really sure of is that you don't know what's going to happen.

I enjoy the freedom of those services, though I find I'm a little too reserved to walk up front and start dancing, simply raising my hands is pretty "out there" for me. That's just as well, though, since I'd probably look pretty stupid doing it.  More than once I've watched a middle aged man with a generous midriff waving flags and spinning on tiptoe like a little girl.  My personal opinion is that he should maybe do that at the back of the sanctuary, but then I'm pretty sure he doesn't care what I think, in fact I'm sure of it.  That's kind of the point though, he's worshipping God and apparently he and God are thoroughly enjoying themselves.  If I have a problem with it I can worship with my eyes closed, which is what I normally do.

One Sunday was particularly exuberant and there were 20 or 30 people were up front dancing.  I was sitting behind an elderly African American lady who walked stooped over a cane. She has difficulty making it to a seat but is faithful to come every week, despite her physical ailments.  As I was worshipping I noticed her start to make her way out into the aisle and slowly start shuffling her way to the front leaning heavily on her cane.  I was worried about whether she would make it there or if she might get bumped and knocked over.  Also, I had no idea what she was planning to do when she got there, other than sit closer to the front. 

I was frankly mesmerized as she made her way through the dancers to the very front of the crowd in the middle of the sanctuary.  She raised one arm while supporting herself with her cane on the other and she began dancing, swaying back and forth and waving her free arm.  It's one of the most beautiful things I've seen and found myself getting choked up.

I felt like, for a moment, I was able to see behind the veil to see things as they really are.  She's not the fragile worn out old woman I was seeing, she's a beautiful child of God who is free to dance to the delight of her Father.  It won't be that long before she is dancing before him with a young and healthy body once again.  That unshakable reality is the one she chooses to live in.  I was the fool for thinking otherwise.

I'm not that old yet, but I will be one day, and probably sooner than I think.  The joys and pleasures of this life will fade over time, but the reality of eternal joy and peace is on the horizon, and can't be snuffed out.  That lady helped me see more clearly that morning.  What do you see?

Practical Fatherhood

I'm a father of 5 kids, three teenage girls and 2 preteen sons. I love spending time with my kids and have found being a father one of the most rewarding things I've done. On the flip side, it can be nothing short of bewildering. How can you possibly stay ahead of the needs of 5 different children spanning 10 years, each at a different stage in their development, male and female. Add to this a full time job, a home, cars, my own needs and interests and it can seem like a genuine pandora's box. As I heard a speaker say once "Ever feel like a one armed paper hanger with the hives? The glue is drying, and you have 12 rooms to go?"

I clearly don't have the answers, just ask my kids, but I have stumbled upon a couple basic concepts that have helped me immensly. I've found them so helpful because they are practical, and simple.

The first is, "Find something you are passionate about, and do it with your kids" Kids know when you are faking. I've pretended I like fishing to introduce my kids to the love of fishing, but all that's been accomplished is 5 kids who hate fishing. I couldn't fake them out. The caught the reality that I hate fishing, despite my insistance that this was a great way to spend your Saturday afternoon.

Tae Kwon Do, on the other hand, has been an awesome family experience. At one time of another every member of my family was in Tae Kwon Do and though we are not currently involved it's been a bonding experience between me and my oldest daughter who is now a black belt. We've spent countless hours together at practice and driving and back and forth. I never needed to fake interest in TKD. It was a genuine passion I had and my kids "caught" it from me.

Rock climbing is an even better example. There's nothing I delight in more than roping up to a huge slab of rock and testing my abilities, strength, skill, and stamina to see if I can reach the top. My kids started climbing with me a few years back and now it's a favorite past time for me and the 3 teenage girls. It's been fun quality time in some of the most beautiful places in the area.

The second "principle" I've started living by is "Never do anthing alone" . As an example, I was lamenting one day, with a tinge of self pity, that my dad never taught he how to change the oil on my car, I had to figure it out on my own. In the depths of my self pity I realized that I'd not taught any of my kids how to change oil. As any dad knows, it's a lot easier to change oil by yourself than to have the kids "help". But what a wasted opportunity. You get to spend time interacting with your kid, they learn a valuable life skill, and you eventually get the oil changed, which needed to be done anyway.

We live on a 5 acre hobby farm, and there is always work or some project or another that needs to be done. What I'm teaching myself to do after formulating my do list for the day, is to look around for the nearest idle kid and say "How'd you like to help your old dad with a project?" They are quickly learning to duck and run for cover when they see me coming, but with 5 kids there is always someone who is free to spend some time with me. If the work seems truely burdensome I can alway sweeten the pot with some cash.

Need to run to the hardware store? Grab a kid. Gonna ride your bike for exercise? See who's available. Not sure what to do? Ask the kids, maybe you can join in with them. Even watching a movie can be time well spent.

Live well "today"

In C S Lewis' "Screwtape Letters" the wise old demon Screwtape has some sage advice for his nephew, a novice demon who is learning the business of luring men away from God. "He (God) would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity ...or with the Present ... Our business is to get them away from the eternal, and from the Present. "

So the strategy from hell is to get us to spend our time either thinking about the past, dwelling on past failures or injuries, or to dwell on the future which easily leads to fear and anxiety, or to greed. With your mind filled with failure, injury, anxiety and greed, precious little life energy is left for living well "today".

I think there is profound wisdom in this idea and a life principle that makes a huge difference in one's daily living. How much of the angst that you feel is rooted in something that you are responsbile for today versus some point in the future? How much of the guilt, regret or injury you experience is from some event in your history? Imagine if both your past and future were removed from your mind's eye and you were only aware of what was on your plate for today? Wouldn't that be a tremendous relief!

Jesus says basically the same thing in Matt 6:34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." The birds of the air are smart enough to let tomorrow take care of itself, what's our problem? Remember the prayer "Give us this day..." Not much in there about tomorrow is there? When you get right down to it Jesus doesn't promise to take care of "tomorrow", but he does have "today" covered, and if you manage to take care of your "todays", tomorrow will eventually get taken care of.

I'm not as far from retirement as I once was and I sometimes catch myself obsessing over the performance, or lack thereof, of my 401k. In Luke 12 Jesus speaks pretty directly to this " And he told them this parable: The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” " I don't think scripture forbids saving for the future, but it's far too easy to get your hope in your nest egg and forget that it's God who looks after our future, in this life and in the next.

A wise old man once told me a little jingle that's stuck with me, "By the yard it's hard, by the inch it's a sinch". I have several ambitions for my life, I want to be a great husband and father, to be a great infuence on others and to experience all the beauty and wonder life has to offer, but I don't have the ability to control what my life will be, other than what I do "today". "Now" is where my will affects the world, it's the "inch" that I can get my mind around. If I live well "today", and do this on a daily basis, I'll find in the end that my life was well lived.

So, if you want an extrordinary life, live an extrordinary day. I believe that's our birthright as children of God, and that's also what Screwtape fears.

Reflections on a deer stand

Deer hunting for me has changed over the years. When I was younger I was much less patient and much more obsessed with bringing home a huge rack. It used to be that I was climbing down out of my stand by 9:00 and start tramping around the woods looking for a better spot.

Now that I'm older I'm recognizing the value of just getting time away to myself, to take in the beauty of the woods and to pray. I'm in no hurry to leave the stand as in my younger days and last week found myself still in the stand at 11:00 with no real desire to come down. In fact I wasn't that eager to see a deer as that would interrupt a time of perfect solitude and peace.

It seems that God speaks to me in the woods more now as well, probably a direct result of waiting and being patient. I was feeling very anxious and vulnerable last week but couldn't pinpoint the reason why, so I talked to God about it. He reminded me of a great loss I'd recently suffered and how I was fearful that I might loose others in my life that I love. He then reminded me that his love is everlasting and unchanging and that I will never be completely on my own.

I took some comfort in that but still felt vulnerable about those in my life that I love. My children will one day leave home and start families of their own, my dad recently died and my mom moved to Portland. One day even my wife and I will be separated through disease or death. If God is unchanging, people are anything but. Change is a constant for us humans and someone who is there for you at one point in your life, may not be the next.

So God asked me what I believe about love, I said "It doesn't last". In one sense, this is true regarding human relationships, but that doesn't negate God's promise to love me with an everlasting love. The thing is, He so often love me through other people. As a youngster it was through my parents and later through friendships and through my wife and children. As a result it's easy to focus entirely on the love you are experiencing through those God put in your life and to forget that it's actually God's love flowing through them to you.

So when you lose someone you love, the pain is real and you need to mourn it, but that is not the end of the story. God is waiting to meet you in that place and to lead you deeper into his love. One chapter ends and another begins and as a believer there is always hope for what is yet to come. God never does things exactly the same way twice, He's far too creative for that, so you just need to learn to let go of some relationships and look for what He has next for you.

I drove home from the hunt feeling somehow stronger. I did finally get a deer, but I took home something much more worthwhile in my walk with God. My faith has grown through hardship and I know I'm a better man for it.

Don't just do something, sit there!

We are all familiar with the exhortation, "Don't just sit there, do something!" This productivity focused mindset of most Americans is so universal that it is accepted without question. Being busy, productive, and involved seems to be the foundation of a meaningful life, both inside and outside the church. I've concluded that this is a load of crap.

I summarized my thoughts on the matter a few months ago in my journal, "Do the work God gives you to do, this glorifies the Father. Don't just work thinking God will be pleased, he won't. He gave his Holy Spirit to tell you what he wants you to do. This is obeying his commands. When you know what he wants you to do, do it with all your heart, whether sharing the gospel or sweeping the porch. do it with zeal and with joy, glorifying the Father because you are doing his will. If you don't know his will, do nothing. Take time to connect with his heart and to hear what he is saying. Shut out the other voices until you hear from him and know his will."


The church of today honors activity, busyess, frenetic endeavor, like a bee hive. The more going on the better. The church despises solitude and silence, but these are the most essential spiritual disciplines if you are to grow in your faith. As Dallas Willard says "The greatest spiritual achievement is the capacity to do nothing" -Divine Conspiracy.


So to put my own spin on the time honored American maxim, "Don't just do something, sit there!"

Abide in the Vine

Our small group has been studying John 15. If you aren't familiar with it, it's the part where Jesus says he's the vine, we are the branches and if we abide in him we bear fruit. I have for a long time felt that this section of scripture was really really important. If John 3:16 is "the" foundational verse on how to become a Christian then John 15 is "the" foundational verse on what's supposed to happen after you become a Christian.

The question of how to "be" a Christian has perplexed me for a long time. I'm a "If...Then...Else" kind of guy, after all I'm a computer programmer so I have to think like this all day long. If you do A, then B will happen, else C. If you read your Bible every day, you will be happy, else you will be miserable.

What has bothered me about this passage is that "If..Then..Else" thinking doesn't seem to capture what he is talking about very well. He says "If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love", which sounds like it might fit the "If..Then..Else" paradigm, so all you need to do is figure out what those commandments are and you are off to a happy life, right? Well you read a little further and he says "My command is this, that you love one another" OK, seems a little vague, but surely I can construct a "do list" on how to love someone.

But then it dawned on me that abiding in Jesus isn't really about faithfully keeping a do list, but more about a relationship with a living person. Jesus isn't asking me to wear myself out with a bunch of religious rules, activities, and standards (It didn't work out so well for the Pharisees did it?). He's asking me to live in intimate communion with him in a love relationship and to love those around me as an outflow of my friendship with him. The imagery of a vine kind of supports this idea as well. A vine branch doesn't really "do" anything other than abide and bear fruit. Maybe Jesus had this in mind when he chose the vine analogy.

So, to understand John 15 I think you need to throw out the "If...Then...Else" paradigm and think rather in terms of a love relationship. If you consider what it takes to love a woman well, you can "do" all the right things to mechanically love a woman, but if there isn't that genuineness that comes from the heart, it's going to ultimately fall flat. So, once again, it comes down to the issue of the heart. If you don't engage with God at the heart level, you can neither walk with him, nor know him..

So the question to ask ourselves is the same that Jesus asked Peter so long ago, "Do you love me?"