Guest post by Paul Brooks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
I previously argued in Public Square Magazine<\/a> that advancements in AI may be making a compelling secular case for the existence of God. Following on from that article, I\u2019d like to explore another related topic.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Was the Earth created in six literal days? For millennia, the average believer would have answered in the affirmative, but a traditional understanding of scripture has fallen out of favor over the past couple of centuries.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n A widespread sentiment today is that belief in a young Earth is simply a failure or refusal to accept the facts, and therefore has no place in any serious discussion. It is akin to believing in a flat Earth or one carried on the back of a turtle, and any relic of such thinking will be eliminated through enough education. In contrast, an old Earth is seen as the straightforward conclusion for anyone who accepts scientific evidence, namely:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Have our advances in science finally put a young Earth to rest? Perhaps not. In fact, our advances in technology<\/em> have potentially opened a can of worms.\u00a0 Let\u2019s start by considering two interesting facts made clear as we progress in our technological knowledge and expertise.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Fact #1: The world around us can be recreated, to an increasingly high degree, in a very short space of time <\/strong>– <\/em>Over the last few decades, advancements in virtual reality have enabled us to recreate the world around us with astonishing speed, scope and accuracy. These re-creations, once rudimentary, have evolved into immersive environments<\/a> that mimic the complexities of the physical world with remarkable fidelity. Sometimes perhaps too realistically<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Applications of these re-creations are vast, including medical<\/a> and scientific training in which participants are able to engage in activities and procedures which would otherwise be too dangerous to try for the first time in the real world.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The rise of generative AI has even enabled re-creations of reality simply at someone\u2019s word<\/a>. As the capabilities of AI continue to evolve, the boundaries of what can be created in a short space of time will be continually pushed. For sure it takes time to construct the mechanism of recreating reality, but once established, generating a new instance can be accomplished in a very short space of time, even at someone\u2019s word.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Fact #2: Measurements taken within an environment do not <\/strong>necessarily<\/em><\/strong> reveal the age of the environment itself – <\/strong>This point is easiest explained and understood using an example. Imagine a sophisticated video game in which the characters explore the world around them and accurately measure the age of natural things such as trees, rocks or the entire universe they are in. Would their measurements reveal that everything is just a few minutes old (when the video game began) or would their measurements reveal ages consistent with the properties of the world created for them? Using the tools available, the characters would indeed be measuring things that appear older than the game itself.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The characters in the video game would obviously be justified in using their measurements to conclude their environment was not created just a few minutes ago but they would not be justified in using those measurements to conclude their world could not possibly <\/em>have been created just a few minutes ago. To deny this possibility would certainly be fallacious.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The possibility of a young Earth – <\/strong>With the above two facts in mind, why think that God had no option but to create the Earth over billions of years? Us mere mortals have no trouble recreating the world around us (to an increasingly high degree) at someone\u2019s word, and our long measurements do not necessitate a long creation period.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n God\u2019s method of creation is not given in scripture, and church leaders have remained open on the issue.<\/a> Should we not at least be open to the idea that God created the Earth much more quickly and recently than our long observations suggest? If not, are we any different to characters in a video game making such a simple mistake?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n To be clear, I do not argue that the Earth is young, nor claim that there is good evidence to support the idea. Instead, I suggest that a young Earth is not incompatible with the consensus of scientific evidence and is made increasingly plausible, and popular<\/a>, in light of ongoing technological advancements. While this discussion so far has centred around virtual reality, it is only out of convenience. This is a relatively recent technology that has been conceived of and implemented in a matter of decades. We know nothing of all the options available to God; the method of creation may be entirely material or completely different from anything we can currently understand.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Why being open to a young Earth matters<\/strong> – Whether God created the Earth thousands or billions of years ago might make little difference in our daily lives. However, not being open<\/em> to a young Earth could have real consequences. For example, many who are not open to a young Earth feel no option but to deny the existence of a literal Adam and Eve, leading to a quiet rejection of modern scriptures that detail Adam\u2019s blessings<\/a>, some events<\/a> preceding the second coming, and descriptions<\/a> of the spirit world. It is easy to see the theological rabbit hole that can ensue.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n Paul Brooks is an independent writer who comments on philosophy, technology, and social issues. Paul is married with five children and resides in the UK.<\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I previously argued in Public Square Magazine that advancements in AI may be making a compelling secular case for the existence of God. Following on from that article, I\u2019d like to explore another related topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10404,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latter-day-saint-thought"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48168"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48178,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48168\/revisions\/48178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\r\n
So long as the method of creation remains unknown, we should probably exercise a little humility about its\u00a0 duration and timing, even while accepting all our long scientific measurements and observations. As our ability to quickly re-create the world around us grows, more people will likely consider how this could impact the age and creation of the Earth (including Nobel prize-winning astrophysicists!)<\/a>. Dismissing a young Earth out of hand for being anti-science may not be appropriate anymore.<\/p>\r\n