EjP wrote:

Murf wrote:

Hello everybody,

Last week I was wandering the shops during my office lunch break when
I was harassed by a religeous zealot selling magazines and CDS.

Feeling argumentative I asked him whether he was (1) a creationalist
and (2) a "Young Universe" creationalist - i.e. one who believes that
dinosaurs etc didnt exist and that the universe is about 4,500 years
old...

When he replied that, yes, he didnt believe in evolution, dinosaurs
(and women's rights I assume) I suggested that he was a little
misguided.

In evidence I said "how come you can see all of the stars at night
then? After all, many of them are clearly more than 4,500 light years
away?"

He told me that "astronomy is a souless science - they lie to you".

Hmmph. He was obviously a twat, but is my line of arguemnt sound -
i.e. that you can see (or even detect) stars more than say 10,000
lightyears away a robust argument against a "young" view of
creation/existance?

You might as well try to explain "green" to a man
who's been blind since birth. If someone believes the literal
truth of Genesis, then they are so entirely ignorant of science
and logic that no argument on your part will sway them.

I agree, If I have the time I have a bit of fun with them, then tell them to
run along.

Those that understand the issues at all will counter your arguments
with the statement that the world was created 6000 years ago with
all the fossils, geological formations, radioisotopes, and light
from distant stars put there to make it look older as a test of
faith.

Two counterarguments immediately come to mind:
   - The world was actually created 15 minutes ago with all of us
     and all of our memories in place, because God is just such
     a tricky SOB.

   - God created the universe 15 billion years ago, via the
     big bang.  After that, everything happened more or less
     as scientists believe, except that he put in the Genesis
     story to weed out the stupid.

I like it and may have occaision to re-use it. Do you mind?
--
~misfit~