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Honestly, if God created the universe 6,000 years ago and made everything seem as if it were older—I mean, that’s just a fundamentally unfalsifiable metaphysica

Honestly, if God created the universe 6,000 years ago and made everything seem as if it were older—I mean, that’s just a fundamentally unfalsifiable metaphysical hypothesis. For all we know, God did that last week or maybe 5 seconds ago. There’s nothing stopping that hypothesis from being true, it just makes, by definition, no measurable or practical difference and is hence irrelevant to scientific inquiry.

whatshisface 7y ago
But that would go against how things are supposed to work according to the Bible: would God really be playing a big trick, aiming to deceive? A philosophically motivated abstract godlike being might be expected do that, but the Bible is a lot more specific than that about what God's like...
- philwelch 7y ago
  Yeah but at that point you’re arguing theology.
  - whatshisface 7y ago
    Right, but YEC is theology. You were arguing theology from the beginning!
    - philwelch 7y ago
      I was just arguing a distinction between physical and metaphysical truth. My “theology”, such that it exists, is merely that God is fundamentally beyond human understanding and that we can’t meaningfully use human motivations or morality to model God’s actions.
      - whatshisface 7y ago
        If everything about God is beyond human understanding, then a belief in that god doesn't leave you with any more beliefs than you started with, which makes it atheism by a different name. I would argue that you would have to have at least one religious belief to be counted as religious (and no, "the belief that I have a religious belief" doesn't count.)
        philwelch 7y ago
        I didn’t say I was religious, and in any case this is a distant digression.
- rsynnott 7y ago
  I mean, to account for the existence of stars over 6k light years away you basically have to embrace the "God is fucking with us" view anyway. It's the _only_ context in which YEC could work.

whatshisface 7y ago

But that would go against how things are supposed to work according to the Bible: would God really be playing a big trick, aiming to deceive? A philosophically motivated abstract godlike being might be expected do that, but the Bible is a lot more specific than that about what God's like...

philwelch 7y ago
Yeah but at that point you’re arguing theology.
- whatshisface 7y ago
  Right, but YEC is theology. You were arguing theology from the beginning!
  - philwelch 7y ago
    I was just arguing a distinction between physical and metaphysical truth. My “theology”, such that it exists, is merely that God is fundamentally beyond human understanding and that we can’t meaningfully use human motivations or morality to model God’s actions.
    - whatshisface 7y ago
      If everything about God is beyond human understanding, then a belief in that god doesn't leave you with any more beliefs than you started with, which makes it atheism by a different name. I would argue that you would have to have at least one religious belief to be counted as religious (and no, "the belief that I have a religious belief" doesn't count.)
      - philwelch 7y ago
        I didn’t say I was religious, and in any case this is a distant digression.
rsynnott 7y ago
I mean, to account for the existence of stars over 6k light years away you basically have to embrace the "God is fucking with us" view anyway. It's the _only_ context in which YEC could work.