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You've invented some things there to finagle them in an attempt to side-step the problem and have two acts of creation, one in "witnessed time" whatever that is, and one in space-time. The problem is, as far as I can tell there is only one reality and one stream of history. So which stream of history are we living in, space-time or witnessed time?
Can you present the two propositions that are incompatible?
Thanks for the reference. This is how to do referencing in a scholarly manner:
There's all types of evolution (architecture, music, education, etc.).
The bible does use metaphor, analogy, parables, stories, etc. We can use literal combined with any of those 4 you mentioned in one sentence.
From a Christian standpoint, the Creator is a reality.
Sure.
Ex nihilo creation of what? Of the universe billions of years ago -- not at all. Of the universe, the Earth, and all living things a few thousand years ago -- yes. (That is, everything about the world indicates that it's much older than that and that life evolved. If we can trust our sense to reflect reality, than yes, YEC is ruled out. If we can't trust our senses, then we can't know anything at all.)
Yes, within the last ~500,000 years, barring repeated miracles whose only function would be to deceive us.
I wasn't necessarily referring to YEC. But I do lean towards that. I don't know what your stance on God/Christianity is, but if a Christian accepts the miracle of ex nihilo creation, and the miracles and resurrection of Jesus, then how can they rule out any miracle that seemingly contradicts majority scientific conclusions?
The idea of God creating something mature is not out of the question as far as scripture is concerned. Jesus created mature wine from water. That may not be proof of God creating a mature universe, or 2 adult humans. There was a specific purpose for Jesus creating mature wine. There's nothing said in scripture about there being purpose in God creating a mature universe, but it might be for a similar reason as with the wine...for His glory! It's an assumption that God would be deceiving us in that God tells us what He did in His Word.
I'm a Christian and I have no problem in principle with miracles. But literally everything about the physical world says that it's ancient, while everything about living things says that they arrived here via evolution. Invoking miracle after miracle after miracle for the sole reason of denying the evidence of our senses, and doing so solely to support a belief based on what is (to me) a serious misunderstanding of what Genesis is -- yes, I have a problem with that.
We don't have to be present at the moment to judge the evidence that's been left behind.
It's the only explanation anyone has offered that makes sense of the data.
My point above was that even if you posit that God created exactly two humans ex nihilo and allow them to have been in whatever mature state you like, that still would result in human genetic diversity that does not match what we observe, unless they were created a very long time ago. You have to also invoke subsequent miracles to doctor the genetics to make us look like we came from more than two recent ancestors.
I don't really think there was that many miracles. It's sort of a catchy thing to say the bible is a book of magic, and then using plurals like talking animals which gives the impression of a mythological tale. There were specific moments where divine province took place mentioned over a very long period of time. Most of the miracles that took place were probably orchestrated by Jesus.
Where would God's Word fit in with evidence?
What scientific data would you apply to the miracle of the fishes and loaves?
How do you know the recent ancestors were not made in the image of God, and considered a man like us?
I must not be making myself clear, since your responses here don't seem to have anything to do with what I've written. I'm not talking about the miracles described in the Bible. I'm talking about the countless things that would have had to be created, not to make a mature world, but a world with a false history. All of the layers of sedimentary rock that were never actually sediment, all of the fossils of creatures that never existed, all of the cooled lava from eruptions that never happened.
I'm assuming they were, in this scenario. What does that have to do with my point? You can't get current human genetic diversity from a single pair of recent ancestors.
