What does it really matter? ...part 1

What does it really matter what your creation and end time views are as long as you're saved, right? Well, my argument is that it really does affect your attitude in several ways. Take climate change, for example: If you believe the scientists who say the earth is billions of years old, then all this rapid melting of this glacier and that ice shelf represents an abrupt [and therefore alarming] change. On top of that, if you're a pre-millennialist, this sense of alarm could feed right in to thoughts that "the end is near". Now I do believe we should be personally ready at all times as our individual ends may be near, but living with the sense that our own children likely won't live long enough [before the rapture happens] to die of old age can really change your perspective on life [more on this later]

Back to climate change: if on the other hand we see the earth as roughly 6-10,000 years old, then the things that are happening with the climate are on the same scale as the rest of history and don't represent a drastic change.

Some quick examples of dating problems: 1. a plane of early vintage found buried in greenland ice in a layer normally interpreted as being up to 10,000 years old. 2. Human artifacts found embedded in coal. 3. Carbon14 found in diamonds. [more on this later too.]