Dear hijas,
Where did ‘deep time’ come from? Most unregenerate people would say that scientists in the course of their investigations of the natural world discovered it. They would claim that advances in science over the centuries have allowed us to peer further and further into the heavens to see distant galaxies and stars, combining that with the speed of light from these stars and extrapolate vast billions and billions of years for that starlight to reach us here on earth. The wise and intelligent Christian would analyze these claims against the Word of God however, understanding the presuppositions involved and the interpretive nuances in play for the unregenerate to come to that conclusion.
The unregenerate would claim that ‘deep time’ is seen in the rocks of the earth. She would claim that the stratigraphic layers, one on top of another, took millions and millions of years of slow deposition and accumulation to form as seen with present-day rates, or that canyons like the Grand Canyon were cut and formed over millions and millions of years of erosion at present-day rates to be as deep as it is. The wise and intelligent Christian would go to the Word of God however, understanding the assumptions involved and the interpretive nuances in play for the unregenerate to come to that conclusion.
The unregenerate would claim that ‘deep time’ is seen in the rings of growth from a tree and by comparing the thick rings with the thin rings, and dead trees in a forest with the living trees in a forest, a master chronology can be built to count back many, many years. She would also claim that ‘deep time’ is seen in the annual ice layers from glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica and that by drilling these deep ice cores and counting the ‘annual’ layers scientists have determined hundreds and hundreds of thousands of layers and therefore ‘years’. The wise and intelligent Christian would again evaluate these claims against the Word of God, understanding once again the presuppositions and assumptions of the unregenerate worldview, and the interpretive nuances in play for the unregenerate to come to that conclusion.
So where did ‘deep time’ come from? How did the idea start? Was there an historical beginning in some person, or some era, that we can trace back to? Like most ideas of thought, mis hijas, the answer is yes. Like any idea of thought, we need to look at history; the history of persons and the history of the ideas originating with those persons. What we find is fascinating, but more on that in my next post.
Here’s an interesting article by Dr. Terry Mortenson, at Answers in Genesis, on the church’s compromise with deep time: https://answersingenesis.org/creationism/old-earth/deep-time-and-churchs-compromise-historical-background/. Read his article as a primer for my next post.
With love, I remain,
Dear ol’ Dad
Vaya con Dios mis hijas!
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