If on the grounds of cosmology and geology and biology, we can say that YECs have it wrong (and of course, they do), by fairly applying the same principles, if not all the same scientific disciplines, we can say that people who believe in a virgin-born Jewish sorcerer who can suspend physics and negate death also have it wrong.

Discarding only some of the crazy parts just makes you inconsistently benighted.

Many YEC folks (who prefer to call themselves Six Day Creationists) would consider James McGrath's views on this subject as heretical. Thankfully we don't live in an era anymore, when anybody suspected of views deemed heretical was attacked (physically) by those who found those views heretical .

A location would be more accurate. Unfortunately there are places where people still get killed for holding different religious views.

(January 3, 2014 at 8:29 pm)Chad32 Wrote: A location would be more accurate. Unfortunately there are places where people still get killed for holding different religious views.

Oh true, I should have meant in the civilized world :p

(January 3, 2014 at 12:05 am)ChadWooters Wrote: To my thinking YEC isn't an essential doctrine.

Why? Because it's demonstrably wrong, and this raises awkward questions about the veracity of the bits you DO regard as "essential doctrine"?

This is a central - and very telling - flaw in the case for religion. As long as religions restrict themselves to making pronouncements on subjects no-one CAN know anything about for certain (invisible beings inhabiting imperceptible realms, what happens after you die) they're in the clear. As soon as prophets and prelates pronounce upon a topic about which the facts CAN be discerned, not only CAN they be proven wrong but they almost invariably ARE wrong. Bats are birds! The earth has corners! The sun goes round the earth! Salt and fresh water don't mix! Bananas were personally designed by God as a perfect snack food!

This is because religion is a product of, and sustained by, IGNORANCE.

Has there EVER been an example of a rational scientific explanation of a given phenomenon being supplanted by a supernatural one?

Incidentally, Matt Dillahunty once opined that you can't be a true Christian WITHOUT being a Young Earther. As he pointed out; if there's no Adam & Eve, there's no original sin, so what was Christ here to redeem us from?