Project: Compare the Two Primary Views of Earth History

For this project, you will answer each question below to explain the differences between the two views. You can write these out, or just answer them in your head. Use the dropdown under each question to reveal the answers. At the end, there are additional questions that you can answer to explore the logical consequences of holding the different views.

A Bit of Background

There are two basic views concerning the history of the earth, with the essential difference being their views oftime.

1. The young earth, Historical Genesis view says the earth and universe are less than 10,000 years old and that the events recorded in Genesis happened in a literal way.
2. The old earth, Conventional view says the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old and the universe is 13.7 billion years old, with differing parts of Genesis 1-11 being symbolic or non-literal.

All who hold to the Conventional view agree on what may be termed cosmic evolution or development (the first 9 billion years of the universe) as well as geological evolution or development (the next 4.5 billion years when the earth was forming). They agree on the Big Bang, the formation of atoms to planetesimals to galaxies, how volcanic forces shaped the earth over billions of years, and the deposition of the fossil record over long ages as oceans slowly transgressed and regressed many times over the continents. They agree there was a local flood in the Middle East at some point in the last 10,000 years which was recorded in near eastern literature.

In other words, there is enormous agreement on all the primary events that happened during the 13.7 billion years of the history of the universe.

There are, nevertheless, variations within the Conventional view in terms of the causes of some events and the appearance and development of biological life. Within the Conventional view, there are three different approaches to these questions:

1. Progressive Creation– God created complex marine and animal life in 20+ unique but progressive creation events every 20-30 million years, with numerous extinction events happening throughout the last 540 million years.
2. Theistic Evolution– God created bacterial life that He guided over billions of years to evolve into all the life that has lived on this planet. Instead of unique creations, God used a form of descent from a common bacterial ancestor.
3. Atheistic Evolution– After the spontaneous appearance of life, mutations and natural selection acted over billions of years to evolve into everything that has lived on this planet. Nothing is created, but everything alive today descended from a common bacterial ancestor.

We will try to note any distinctions under the Conventional view below. The point of this exercise is to try to reveal the differences between the two views in terms of the natural history of the world.

Please note: One criticism of the film argues it creates a false dichotomy by positing only two basic views of history. The fact that within the conventional view there is agreement concerning 96% of the events that occurred in the astronomical and geological history of the world for the first 13.1 billion years, including much of biological life and extinction over the next 0.6 billion years, demonstrates there is really just one view of history with slight variations. Those variations in causality and biology occur only within 4% of their history of the world (the last 540 million years).

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Key Points of Comparison:

As you can see, there are significant differences between these two basic views. These differences result in major consequences for how one interprets the Bible. We will see how those views work themselves out in the lessons to come.

Additional Questions to Answer:

Are these views of history able to be reconciled with one another, or are they each telling a different story? Is there truly a conflict? What events in the conventional view don’t fit with specific comments of Biblical authors?

Write out your answers to each of these questions. These are designed for you to follow out a line of thinking to its logical conclusions.

1. God declared the Creation to be “good” when He finished with each day. How does that fit with the idea of millions of years of death?
2. In the fourth Commandment, God bases our normal week of six days of work and one day of rest on the seven days of the Creation week. Why does this comparison make it difficult to interpret the days as long ages or as symbols?
3. Paul talks about a real Adam and Eve sinning. What does that mean for those who believe Adam and Eve are symbolic?
4. Paul says that death came as a result of Adam’s disobedience, and that the creation is in bondage to decay. How does that fit with the idea of death before Adam?
5. Jesus compares His second coming with Noah’s flood. How does a local flood change the meaning of Jesus’ comparison?
6. God promises to Noah never to flood the earth again in the same way. If the flood was a local flood, and local floods are still happening, what does that mean for God’s promises?
7. Peter talks about the Creation and the destruction of the world by the flood as two things that people want to ignore or forget. Why is that?