Terry,
After reading your post, I edited my definition of YEC up above. I hope it is more accurate now.
My own views:
I grew up being taught that evolution was not only true, but had been unequivocally proven by science to be true. I was in a program called “Advanced Studies” in High School, and I was taking college-level science courses. In college itself, I was a Biology major. I never once doubted the science of evolution. On the contrary, I was amazed at how knowledgeable and, really, incredibly intelligent, the scientists were, and especially at how much they could ascertain from the often sparse fossil evidence available to them.
When, as an adult, I became a Christian, I began attending a very liberal church which taught that although the Bible is “true”, some of these truths are found deep within fictional stories – parables and such - and that a perfect example of this is the creation story in Genesis. I became a theistic evolutionist.
Years later, I had my “emperor’s new clothes” moment. I was watching a video showing an artist’s rendition of a small animal up on a tree branch. About the size of a mouse, it had huge round eyes, striped fur, and a long tail. It was said to occupy a position on the evolutionary path leading up to humans, and described as “shy and nocturnal”. Yet, the only fossil evidence available for this particular animal is one solitary tooth, the size of a grain of rice. It was at that moment that the scales fell from my eyes. That was the moment I decided to look with a critical eye at everything I had been taught.
The more I study, the more ridiculous the theory of evolution becomes, and I mean that from a scientific point of view. Frankly, the discovery of the genetic code *should have* been the death knell for evolution. Now, scientists are discovering sub-routines within the master code. Amazing.
As for the poll, I did not know what option to pick. I no longer believe in evolution, so all options referencing that are out.
Unfortunately, the choice for Intelligent Design was defined in such a way that I could not, in all honestly, pick that option, either. I could not pick the option about believing in a 6-day creation 6,000 years ago, because I honestly do not know. I cannot rule it out, but I cannot say definitively that it is so. I’m still reading both sides on that argument (OEC vs. YEC).
I do believe in science, and I do believe God made the universe to be knowable. How ironic that today we are told that Christianity and science are at odds, when it was the conviction that God had created laws for nature just as He had laws for man, which led to the search to determine, in a systematic way, just what these laws of nature were. It is only in the recent past that evolutionists have redefined science in such a way that the greatest scientists ever known, the very pillars of modern science, if they were alive today, would be told that their work was not science at all. Evolution, on the other hand, *is* considered science, which is kind of funny when you think about it, because every scientific fallacy known to man is incorporated into the so-called “proof” of evolution.
Anywho… back to the poll. Because of the way the poll options were written, the scientific theory which best describes my beliefs was not included, but my personal, religious belief was. The only option on the poll, as written, that I can unequivocally say I believe to be true is that the Bible is the Word of God, and God never lies. So that was the answer I chose.
