> . and I think this type of debate (eg whether there is
> scientific explanation for these people to have lived 900
> years, etc.) is such a narrow focus.
If you work in the engineering community, as I do, any logical inconsistency discredits the whole premise. Unless you have a clear grasp of the scientific aspects of the Genesis account, then you are helpless when trying to bring the witness of the Gospel to these types of people.
The scientists and researchers at ICR have encountered these challenges all their professional lives. ICR was established as a means to answer the negations of the Genesis Flood and of Special Creation by the prevailing atheistic, humanistic “science” that became dominant in the mid-20th Century.
ICR even contributes its own original research with papers on the human genome, Radiometric Decay and the Age of the Earth, Pollonium halos, and other genuine scientific inquiries and studies.
If you follow modern physics, the very nature of reality itself is coming into question. Atheistic physicists are stunned by what seems to be the underlying metaphysical nature of the Universe. I’ve heard one physicist say, “It’s as if we’re living in a vast holographic projection.” (Let there be light)
Niels Bohr said, “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.”
I think you make two distinct points:
1. There are challenges to the superficial (my word, not your) interpretations of parts of Scripture (eg the Flood) by scientists and ICR pushes back on these attacks; and
2. There are serious metaphysical challenges posed by (and to) physicists and their Atheistic dogma, and they are increasingly becoming aware of those challenges.
I guess my poiint is that the second point is the more important one, and the most effective way to witness to them. The first point is more problematic, for the reasons I have given.