Some old friends of mine visited the "Ark" theme park in Kentucky and mentioned how "scientific" it was.
Well this post isn't about that. In-fact, it's not even a discussion about the age of the earth, the bible, or Noah, or evangelical Christians. It isn't even a discussion about what's true and what's not.
This is a discussion about how to tell the difference between the two. A discussion about education.
If any of you know young people that would benefit from this message, I hope you'll pass it on to them. If not these words verbatim, then at least the critically important idea that it's possible to know things by evidence and that human beings have an obligation to educate ourselves sufficiently to stand a chance of being able to evaluate and analyse that evidence.
The earth (and the rest of the solar system) is 4.5 billion years old, and any educated person should be able to describe how that number is arrived at.
Human beings arrived on the scene 65 million years or so after the last of the thunder lizards died out, and an educated human being should be able to describe how we know that as well.
The earth is roughly spherical, and an educated person should be able to tell how to determine that by sheer observation.
Here's the most important part, the part I hope you will all pass on to young people who need to hear it:
Don't take my word for the age of the earth, or any of that other stuff I mentioned above. Don't take your friend's word, and don't take the word of a huckster that runs an over-priced amusement park. Don't take wikipedia's word, or the word of your school book, or the word of your parents or preacher.
Learn how to tell.
Learn enough physics and geology and mathematics to be able to discern for yourself how old the earth is. Learn enough biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics to be able to determine for yourself whether a global flood could have possibly happened.
Ignore memes, ignore quick and easy explanations.... educate yourself. It's a long, challenging road, but is worth every moment of the journey.
Learn how to tell.
And teach your kids how to tell.