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I pray the Lord gets hold of your heart some day. I was an atheistic evolutionist until I was in my early 40s. Then I saw an undeniable miracle of Supernatural intervention by a loving God. Since then I have come to realize that my very existence, the very existence of this universe, even every breath I take, are all likewise stunning and astounding miracles.

I think you're using a different definition of "miracle" than me. Your existence and every breath you take are a function of biology, not the supernatural. As the the universe itself...you find a creation myth sufficient explanation. Well, to each their own. I don't know why the Big Bang occurred 13.7 billion years ago, but the evidence is overwhelming that it did. Was it directed by an Intelligence, or was it simply a natural process a la vacuum decay occurring in the quantum foam of the Multiverse?

Beats me. Without sufficient data it's amusing to speculate, but not particularly informative.

You know, if there were a catastrophic, world-wide flood, you might expect to find billions of creatures fossilized in lithified mud layers, laid down rapidly by water, all over the earth. You may also expect to find rapid extinctions of many of those creatures who may have been preserved through such a catastrophe, because of the unfavorable conditions existing for many years thereafter.

If there was a catastrophic, world-wide flood only 6,000 years ago I would expect the fossils to
a) Actually be only 6,000 years old, whereas radiometric dating methods from radiocarbon dating to samarium-neodymium dating show that they're much older. I was recently in Carlsbad Caverns, and while I was taking a tour of Lower Cave (highly recommended, by the way) the ranger pointed out a bat that had died on a stalactite which then "grew" over it. You could see it by shining a light through it. He said it had been dated to about 50,000 years ago by radiometric dating.

Hey, speaking of Carlsbad...there are delicate formations there that are tens of thousands of years old. Don't you think a few billion gallons of water rushing through the caverns would have had a deleterious effect on soda straws that break if you so much as brush against them?

b) I would also expect the fossils to completely mixed up...you never see (for instance) a fossil from the Cambrian in the same layer as fossils from the Cenozoic. All it would take is a single instance of something like this to throw evolution biology into chaos. Why do you suppose this hasn't happened?

Those are just 2 examples off the top of my head. Noah and the flood is a story, the best attempt of a technologically primitive people to explain the world around them. There's no reason to take it any more seriously than we do the story of Athena springing fully-formed from the head of Zeus.

Nevertheless, none of us was there. We get to choose whose interpretation of the data, and whose account of how it got there.

Precisely so. Some choose to base their understanding of the universe on the authority (as they see it) of the Bible, the Koran, the Vedas, etc. Others such as myself rely on science.

I can’t change your mind, and you won’t change mine.

I think I can honestly say that if I was presented with enough valid scientific evidence for the Biblical creation account I would change my mind. Mind you, it would take a lot, given how much evidence currently shows it to be wrong. Thought experiment: suppose an overwhelming amount of valid scientific evidence was shown to you that the Biblical flood never occurred. After all is said and done the only argument you're left with is "It must be true, because it's in the Bible".

Do you change your mind?

> I think I can honestly say that if I was presented with
> enough valid scientific evidence for the Biblical
> creation account I would change my mind.

I am an engineer. I have an engineer’s education and almost 40 years of experience in the field. I understand your point of view, as I was imbued with the same. Trust me when I say that, as an engineer, my new understanding of the world, that Design implies a Designer, and that Code implies an Author, has actually helped me with my career.

The more intimate you become with the nature of the Universe, the more miraculous its existence becomes. Consider the uncanny effects of nonlocality that imply exchanges of information at great distances among sub-atomic particles.

The more intimate you become with the nature of life itself, the more miraculous its existence seems. Consider unconscious molecules working together exchanging highly coded information for goals that transcend, by many orders, the existence of the molecules themselves.

These entities are either self-aware, or they are being directed and orchestrated.

I don’t believe that Noah’s flood happened just because it is in the Bible. I have seen what I consider to be compelling evidence. You may not consider it so, but I submit that is more likely a function of your world view, rather than your world view being a function of the evidence.

As for radiometric dating, there was a book published a few years ago, a scholarly work done by credentialed scientists, Radiometric Dating and the Age of the Earth.

There is also another work, Starlight and Time, written by another credentialed scientist.

You will probably prefer the Evolutionist reviews of the books rather than read the books themselves. But if you do read them, I’m certain questions will arise, as they would in any inquisitive mind.

I know when, as an ardent evolutionist, I consumed the works of the evolutionist apologists. But there were times when their stories seemed too “just so”, contrived.

I find some of the posits of the Creationists to be “just so” contrivances as well. We will likely never know all the answers on this plane of existence, because we were not there when the Universe was formed, nor were we there to see life emerge or be created, depending upon the paridigm you prefer.

You see, we both have the same data. We prefer differing interpretations of that data.

I am familiar with the smug, condescending posture of the Evolutionist. I used to be annoyed by that, but, looking back at my own attitudes when I was an evolutionist, I now find it a cause for prayer.

It’s like Socialism. It is wrong. It fails everywhere it’s tried. Yet, its adherents continue to believe the Lie, regardless of the evidence mounting against them, regardless of how many times they have to readjust their narrative to encompass or reconcile newly emerging facts. And they tend to be condescending and smug in their ideology, considering those who reject it to be rubes, or even evil.

It is their worldview that directs their interpretation of the evidence, not the evidence that directs the orientation of their world view.

I freely admit that my worldview directs my interpretation of the evidence. In fact, it always has. I believe that is the case with everybody who has seriously considered the interpretations of the evidence presented by both sides of the Creation/Evolution debate.

Certainly, greater minds than yours or mine have competed and struggled with these questions.

And just as certainly, relatively few minds have actually been changed in either direction.