Non Essentials of Creationism
Posted by Matt Postiff January 5, 2011 on Matt Postiff's Blog under Creation
One of the main points of my talk at the Preserving the Truth Conference will be that there are certain "non negotiables" that must be believed for one to be a Young Earth Creationist. These are the sine qua nons or indispensable elements regarding the doctrine of creation. I will go over them in upcoming posts. In this post, I want to cover a number of items that are not necessary to believe regarding young earth creationism. They are:
- To believe in an exact age of the earth, “6,000 years”, or “Ussher’s Chronology”. Dogmatism on the precise age is not necessary as long as the age is “young.”
- To believe in the water vapor canopy theory.
- To believe that the second law of thermodynamics started at the Fall.
- To believe that the speed of light has changed or that the universe is a particular (small) size or that time dilation accounts for the appearance of age.
- To believe that radioactive half-lives have changed.
- To believe that angels were created at a particular point in the creation week.
- To believe that God only created fresh water and not salt water.
- To believe a particular view on the initial light source used during the first three days.
- To believe a particular identification of “evening and morning” in the six days.
- To know the answer of every possible question that may be raised about creationism.
- To abandon true science or be intellectually backward.
That is to say, you do not have to believe a certain way on these particular questions. Multiple answers or hypotheses are consistent with young earth creationism.
