Murf wrote:

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...

Tell your zealot to reread his Bible.  Nowhere in the Bible is the date of creation written down.  The passages on creation in Genesis should not be read as science but as a declaration of belief in God.
A Bishop Usher did try to 'calculate' the creation date based on the succession of generations mentioned in the Old Testament.  According to him, the world was created in 4004 BC.

I am comfortable with a 13.7 billion year old universe* created by God.  The process doesn't matter to me - Big Bang, or whatever.

The non-believers are also more than welcome to prove that God does NOT exist.

As Einstein wrote :
"Religion without Science is blind,
Science without Religion is lame."


* - based on our current knowledge (WMAP mission results)