Can We Really Trust the Bible? — Ken Ham

I appreciate all the people coming to hear what we have to say and of course I know people like the way we say it because we speak the way you're supposed to. I always tell people get used to it anyway because you're going to speak it in heaven, you can't prove I'm wrong yet.

Creation, Revelation, and the Authority of Genesis

The very first verse of the Bible says in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Yet people like the late Dr. Carl Sagan and others like him that still live today believe the cosmos is all it is or ever was or ever will be.

So what are we going to believe, in the beginning God created or in the beginning the cosmos? You know one of my favorite verses in the Bible is Romans 1 .20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so they are without excuse.

You know what the Bible says, there's enough evidence in the world to convince everyone that God is creator, if you don't believe you're without excuse. What would happen tonight if a skeptic from Arizona came up here, and there's probably a couple out there, and they said something like you believe in God?

You believe in creation? Well I don't see any evidence of God, I don't see that God is creator. What would you say to them? You know for a lot of people they say, oh we just accept it by faith. You know what the Bible says, it's not a blind faith, it's obvious that there's a God.

In fact if the Bible is right, then that should be logically defensible, shouldn't. After all 1 Peter 3 .15 tells us to be always ready to give an answer to every man that asks of you of the reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

So how would we do that? You know I was a teacher in the public schools in Australia, and I wanted to teach my students how to think. That's a little radical, because today they don't learn how to think, it's mainly what to think.

But I wanted to teach them how to think, and I know some of you were there last night when I did this, I'll do a bit more detail tonight. But how would I teach them the evidence that it's obvious that God created?

As you came in here tonight, I'm sure you looked around at this building and said, wow it got here by an explosion in a brick factory. Of course not, you know that intelligent design went into building this building.

Well take Mount Rushmore, you know the president's heads, my favorite president, Abraham Lincoln. You know it's embarrassing when people ask me if I'm a living fossil or something like that. I have people stop me all over America saying, you know you look like Abraham Lincoln.

Of course I tell them at least I look like a good president. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. But how did the president's heads get there? Well I've got a theory, I think what happened was this. I think millions of years of wind and water erosion acting on Mount Rushmore, and eventually we produced the president's heads.

Now we look at that, well we put a little design into that too, but you know that's not true. You know that those heads are a result of a lot of intelligent input. In fact, why do scientists get so excited when they find stone tools with bones?

Find the Indian arrowheads. Why do they say the Indian arrowheads? They recognize the effect of intelligence. And you see, design implying a designer has really been the main way we've taught in our churches to help our children understand it's obvious there's a God.

Information, DNA, and the Limits of Chance

A motor car didn't get there by chance. We know somebody built it, your brain couldn't have got there by chance. Somebody had to make it and so on. But you know, the church needs to catch up. Because those arguments today have been answered by evolutionists in a way that many people think, oh, therefore you don't have to believe in God.

And you know the sad thing, I find a lot of times the church doesn't catch up. The church lags behind. Because you know Richard Dawkins, those of you who saw the early bird movie this evening, from Oxford University, ardent evolutionist, says, we have seen that living things are too improbable and too beautifully designed to come into existence by chance.

He says design doesn't mean that you've got to believe in God. He says after all, if evolution's true, you'd expect organisms to be adapted to their environment and there's going to be apparent design because they'll be fit for their environment.

You don't have to believe in God. So how do you deal with that argument? I know when I was at school as a teacher and taught my students about design, they'd go to the next class and the teacher would say, look, you don't have to believe in God.

With life, it's different. You see, life is built up on the basis of that molecule heredity DNA. All the information that builds you in our genes, in ourselves. In fact, if you were to type out all the information from one of your trillions of cells, all the information that builds you, it's been estimated to fill a thousand books, 500 pages, close typed, written.

A lot of information. And you see, that information is sort of like this. As an analogy, if you know the Morse Code and you take beads in a rope, you can actually write words. You could write the entire Bible using a piece of rope and beads, if you know the Morse Code.

In a sort of a sense, a very crude analogy, we've got little beads or molecules lined up on this rope of DNA and that writes all the information that builds you. Now, the teachers would say, look, you don't need to believe in God, as long as those molecules line up in the right order, basically, you can get life.

Look, let's look at it, students. Take the letters of an alphabet, shake them up, put them in a hat and pass the hat around the class and three students in a row happen to pull out B-A-T. What's that word?

Bat. Ah, we got a word by chance. Well, that's true. But that means we can get words by chance. Yeah? Well, as improbable as it seems, you could still get sentences by chance, couldn't you? Well, yes.

And even though it seems improbable, it's still remotely possible you could get the encyclopedia. You see, even though it seems impossible, as long as you pull out the right order of letters. See, students, you don't need God.

Now, that's how some people are taught today. But you know what they're not taught? There's something dreadfully wrong with that analogy. You know what it is? That word B-A-T, who is that a word to?

A Frenchman, a Dutchman, an Englishman, an Irishman, a Chinese? It's only a word to somebody who already has what? The language. Do you know what this word is? That's the word days. How do I know that?

That's German for days. It's the only German word I know. Because I had someone who knew German do this and I hope they did it right. But you see, you wouldn't have known that unless you knew the German language, right?

And see, that's one of the things that we need to understand. You know, the order of letters is actually meaningless unless you know the language to make the order meaningful. If you realise something in our DNA, the order of molecules is actually meaningless.

But we now know from studying our biochemistry that in the cell there's a code system, a language system, if you like, other chemicals that constitute the language system that read the DNA to make it meaningful.

And in doing that, that enables the DNA to make the language system that reads the DNA that makes the language system, that reads the DNA that makes the language system. In other words, it's all got to be there.

In fact, it reminds me of Dr. Gary Parker's book Creation, The Facts of Life. Dr. Parker will be the second speaker this evening. He talks about the fact that you realise that when you look at a 747, you know a 747 is made of 6 million parts?

Do you realise, he says, not one part flies? You know, I've often thought about that when I'm flying at 35 ,000 feet. You know, I'm in something of which not one part flies. But when it's all together, it's like a machine.

It works. And you see, life is like that at different levels. Look, take a mosquito. I don't like mosquitoes. I don't like cats either, but I don't like mosquitoes. But, here's what I like to do to mosquitoes.

We call them mozzies in Australia. Okay? Now, I have a very important scientific question for you. Why did the mosquito die? So, you squashed it. No, no, no. Look, you've got the best primeval soup an evolutionist could ever ask for.

All the DNA, the RNA, the proteins, all the enzymes that are necessary, it's all there, but it's not going to get up and fly. You know why not? Because I actually disorganized it. That's really what happened, right?

It's sort of like, look, if you put a frog in a blender. Now, it's not a really good experiment to do, but if you do, see, the total frog is there. But it's not going to croak and, well, it's already croaked, but see, it's not going to get up and jump away.

But yet, everything is there. See, but once you've disorganized it, it no longer works. You know, life is like that at different levels. It's like a machine. And, in fact, there's a man called Dr. Michael Behe.

He's not a biblical creationist like myself. In fact, he's a theistic evolutionist, but he believes in God. He's a professor of biochemistry, wrote an interesting book, Darwin's Black Box. You know what he says?

Look, let's face it. When you get down to the biochemistry of a cell, for instance, do you realize, for a particular organism, just to sense light and turn it into electrical impulses takes this chemical and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one, page after page after page, all these chemicals, all the right place, all the right time, all the right concentration, all there at the right time, or it won't work.

That's called a biochemical machine. And, you know, in a sense, the workings of a cell, it's like thousands upon thousands of 747s that all communicate with each other, if you like. We don't even know how that works.

In other words, he says, you've got to believe in God. You can't believe in chance random processes producing life, he says, because life starts with machines. It's like a 747. Unless it's all there, it doesn't work.

And it's got thousands of these biochemical machines. But see, then there's another problem. Where did the information come from in our cells in the first place? Where did the language system come from, the code system that reads the DNA?

There's a German scientist called Dr. Werner Gitt. He wrote a book called In the Beginning Was Information. And in this particular book, he has challenged people around the world. He's lectured at universities across America and Germany, other parts of the world.

Let me sum up what he says. He says this, there is no known law of nature, no known process, no known sequence of events which can cause information to originate by itself in matter. He says matter never by itself gives rise to information.

And he's challenged university professors across the world. Give me an example, he says. He goes on, there is no known natural law through which matter can give rise to information, neither is any physical process or material phenomenon known that can do this.

Real science in the present never observes matter generating information. And then he says, a code system is always the result of a mental process, like the Morse code. It didn't get there by chance. It had to come from a mental process.

It requires an intelligent origin or inventor. It should be emphasised that matter as such is unable to generate any code. Have you ever seen a computer program pop into existence? The ones that are designed are bad enough.

And then he goes on and says this. All experiences indicate that a thinking being voluntarily exercising his own free will, cognition, creativity is required. Do you know what Dr. Wernig is saying? Here's what we observe.

Information only comes from information and ultimately it comes from an intelligence. So you see, when little Johnny would come to me as a high school teacher and say, alright so where did God come from?

I would say, well wait a minute Johnny. You think you've got me by asking where did God come from? And I go through all of that. I went through this evening with him, but in more detail. And then say, now Johnny, here's the point.

Where did the information come from in ourselves? A greater amount of information. Where did that come from? A greater amount of gain. Where did that come from? A greater amount of gain. You know the only thing that makes sense?

You start with infinite information. And you know where information comes from ultimately? Code systems and intelligence. The only thing that makes sense is an infinite intelligence. In the beginning God.

The most scientific statement you could ever make. Logically defensible. I can't prove it to you, but you know what? It fits with what we observe in real science. But Billy, Johnny, I want to ask you a question.

What do you believe? Matter eternally existed? Matter came from nowhere for no reason? Matter by itself generated information systems against what we observe in science? I'm sorry son, you've got a blind faith.

I don't. I have a faith that fits with real science and explains the facts. And it's logically defensible. Yours is not. I think you'd better listen to verse 2. Isn't it exciting being a Christian? It really is.

Scripture as History and the Church's Foundation

And by the way, that's the level we need to be teaching in our churches. You know one of the sad things today? Most of our churches teach the Bible to children and young people and so on as if it's a collection of stories about Jesus and missionaries and sort of a religious book not teaching that it's a history book that connects to the real world.

And it's about time we woke up and started doing that. Now, something else I want to get across to us. You know, I often get on radio. I certainly have recently a lot of times. I was on secular public radio just recently and the interviewer was a little antagonistic and so she would say to me, Oh, so you've got the religious view of origins.

I said, Excuse me? She said, Well, you believe in creation. That's a religious view, right? I said, You know what? Creationists believe in science. We believe in natural selection. We believe in mutations.

In fact, everything an evolutionist observes in this world we agree with because it's what you see. It's what you observe. I said, You know what the difference is? Connecting it to the past when you weren't there, the beliefs about how you think all this got going in the first place and so on.

Now, that's outside of observing things in the present. In fact, there are both scientific aspects to evolution and creation and both religious aspects to evolution and creation. But see, the thing that we have to come to grips with, if you believe in molecules to man evolution, evolutionists have to believe matter somehow generated information systems and then over millions of years as one kind of animal changes into another you've got to have a continual increase in information.

Think about it. If reptiles are going to turn into birds, reptiles don't have feathers, birds do. Where's the information for feathers which are complex structures like hair follicles? Where's the information going to come from?

It's not in the genes of a reptile. Where's it going to come from? See, evolutionists have to propose that over millions of years new information keeps being generated from matter and somehow added into the genes.

Friends, it doesn't happen. It's impossible. But of course, and we'll do more on this tomorrow at one of the sessions, they say, Ah, mutations. You've heard of mutations, haven't you? You've heard of poodles.

You've heard of mutations, right? We'll talk more about that tomorrow too. Dr. Lee Spetna, who is a fellow at Johns Hopkins University, and I haven't got time to do this tonight, we'll do this tomorrow, but he says, all point mutations that have been studied on the molecular level turn out to, what's his word?

Reduce the genetic information. Do you know in public schools our students are often given an example, Ah, when bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, that's evolution. When you understand it, it's the opposite of evolution.

The opposite. Because they lose the ability to do something which can actually cause them to become resistant, but it's the opposite of evolution. And you might say, Now, come on. Look, if it's so obvious that real science fits with what the Bible says, and evolutionists can't really explain the generation of information and so on, do they ever admit it?

The answer is yes. They do. Can you give me an example? Sure. National geographic. National geographic. Let me tell you about national geographic. By the way, how many of you have heard of national geographic?

Uh-huh. How many of you have read at any time in your life some parts of national geographic? Uh-huh. How many of you have ever read at some time in your life articles from Creation magazine? Not as many hands.

I hope you feel guilty. You will not allowed tonight to leave this auditorium until you have subscribed to a truthful magazine. Okay? Now, I'll tell you about Creation magazine a little later on. Now, the reason I say national geographic, by the way, you know in November they had an article about a feathered dinosaur, all full color, beautiful number of pages.

This is it, the missing link in evolution. Who remembers seeing that, by the way? A number of you saw that? Did you know national geographic have got to apologize to the world now? And I guess they'll do it in fine print on the back page like they normally do, but they've got to apologize to the world because the fossil they based this whole article on was a hoax.

Somebody put the tail of a dinosaur on a bird fossil. And they presented it as just absolute proof of evolution to the world. Isn't that sad? Now, how many of you are going to get Creation magazine now?

And, I better see a lot of my hands in that. National geographic, January 2000, talking about Paul Davies, he's a very prominent physicist, even on earth the origin of life is stubbornly enduring mystery how can a collection of chemicals form themselves into a living thing without interference from outside asked Paul Davies, a physicist and writer, on the face of it life is an exceedingly unlikely event.

Then they say, there is no known principle of matter that says it has to organize itself into life. Do you notice that? That's exactly what I said, isn't it? I'm very happy to believe in my head that we live in a bio-friendly universe because in my heart I find that very congenial but we have not yet discovered the life principle.

What does that mean? It means, in the beginning God. That's what that means. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. But you know something, here's the interesting point. If I was to go across America preaching, in the beginning God created in church after church after church, I would hope that they would all agree and say, of course we believe God created.

But let's be honest about this. If I said, in the beginning God created in six literal days just thousands of years ago, would the majority in our churches agree with me? The answer is no. In fact, I found the majority of theologians do not believe in six literal days.

Why not? I've often thought about this. I mean, it sounds pretty radical, doesn't it? I believe God created in six literal days just a few thousand years ago. And you know, whenever I'm interviewed by the secular press, oh boy, they like to rub that in.

So Mr. Ham, you actually believe God created in six literal days just thousands of years ago? Because that sounds so radical to billions of years, doesn't it? And unfortunately most of the church, the majority of church leaders will not believe in six literal days.

I wonder why that is. You know, the Hebrew word for day. Do you realize the Hebrew word for day is used over 2 ,000 times in the Old Testament in the singular and plural form? You know the thing that's fascinating to me?

The only place I find people questioning what it means is Genesis chapter 1. Have you noticed that? Do you hear people questioning what the word day means in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers? I mean, do you at church sit around discussing how long did Joshua take to march around Jericho?

Was it a million years? Or was it a hundred thousand years? Or was it a day? Do you ever hear those sorts of discussions? You don't. Now, why is that? I'd like to suggest this to you. Back in the late 1700s, early 1800s, the idea of millions of years started to become popular.

Before that time, people thought the earth was only thousands of years old, particularly people who believed the Bible. And what happened was the idea of millions of years was sort of handed to the theologians.

Now, here's an interesting thing. The theologians then said, how do we fit this with the Bible instead of saying, wait a minute, does the Bible agree with this? You see, a lot of people unfortunately have been indoctrinated to believe that scientists know how old the earth is.

Do you realize there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dating methods that age-date things on the earth and more than 90 of them get dates younger than evolutionists require?

All dating methods are based on assumptions. They all are. You know what blows my mind? When I get into even talking to schools and to teachers, I find most students and most teachers think that carbon dating has to do with millions of years.

I mean, let's be honest. If you don't believe this, who's heard of carbon dating having to do with millions of years? See, carbon dating has never had anything to do with millions of years. It can't do.

It's not the method that does. And then people think scientists have proved the earth millions of years old and they don't even understand the methods. Now, the methods that do give millions of years are methods like potassium argon, uranium lead and so on.

But if you use potassium argon in Hawaii to date a lava flow that formed yesterday and therefore should be one day old, it will date to millions of years old because there's a lot of excess argon in the mantle that they now know comes up in the lava and that's why it doesn't work.

And you see, all those dating methods have problems like that. Now, the interesting thing is if you start with the Bible and nothing else, just the Bible, you'd never get the idea of millions of years.

Can you show me millions of years just starting with the Bible? No, you can't. Where does the idea of millions of years come from? Outside the Bible. And think about this. You know those passages of the Bible you all like to read before you go to sleep?

I know I do. So and so begat so and so begat so and so begat so and so begat so and so. Do you know why they're there in the Bible? They're there for an important reason. To show you the Bible is a history book.

And to show you so and so begat Joseph begat Mary and Jesus Christ to show that Jesus Christ became a man, a descendant of the first Adam. You can trace it all the way back. And so you see, if you wanted to add millions of years to the Bible, you can't put them in those genealogies because if you try to do that that would destroy them.

And so, when you think about it, if you were trying to fit millions of years into the Bible, where are you going to do it? You can't do it between Adam and the present so you've got to try and do it before Adam.

And that's exactly what you find. People started to invent ideas like, ah, between Genesis 1 .1 and 1 .2 there's a gap of millions of years and you put the millions of years in there. Who's heard of the gap theory, by the way?

And that's where the fall of Lucifer comes in. Hey, you know what? At the end of the sixth day of creation God said, everything he made, everything, which included principalities, powers, Lucifer, included everything was very good.

How could you have rebellion in the universe before that time? That doesn't make any sense. But you see, it was trying to fit millions of years into the Bible. Other people said the days of creation are long periods of time.

Others said the universe was there for millions of years and then God created in six days. But they all have one thing in common, trying to fit millions of years into the Bible. Now look, I had a pastor once who said to me, but look, the word day can mean something other than ordinary day.

I said, that's true, but it can also mean day. You know what amazes me? I've had people say to me, but the word day has a number of different meanings in Hebrew. I said, that's true. You know the interesting thing?

The main meaning it has, you might be surprised at this, but it's day. That's its main meaning. Now you see, any word can have two or more meanings depending upon context, right? I mean, take context.

Back in my father's day it took ten days to drive across the Australian outback during the day. That sort of reminds me that, you know, context is important. There was an Australian and a Texan talking and the Texan said to the Australian, you know, it takes me three days to drive across my property in my car.

The Australian said, yeah, I had a car like that once too, mate. So you see, context is important, but back in my father's day means what? Time. It took ten days, ordinary days, during the day, the daylight portion of a day.

You see, any word has two or more meanings depending upon context. You know, when you think about the Bible, you know, people often say to me, oh, but that's your interpretation of Genesis. To be honest, I don't think I interpret it.

You know, Jesus quoted Genesis' history, so did Paul, the other New Testament writers. When I was over in Belgium a number of months ago and I went to the monument to the Battle of Waterloo, I was with a friend and we were reading about Napoleon.

Napoleon took this many horses, went over here, pitched these tents, took this many soldiers over here, and so we sat there and we said, what do soldiers mean? What does it mean by horses? What does it mean Napoleon?

My friend thought I was nuts. I said, I'm trying to understand what this writer really means. He said, he means what he says. Napoleon took those horses and went over there. You know, it's like that with the Bible.

People say to me, look, it says God took dust and made a man. What do you think that means? I think it means God took dust and made a man. But it says, Adam took the fruit of the tree. What do you think that means?

I think it means he ate some fruit from a tree. You know, it's incredible. See, I don't interpret Genesis. It's a history book. What do I do? I read it as history. How do you read a history book? You analyze every word.

What do you think this really means? No, you read it as history, don't you? Just like Jesus did. Now you see, how does God communicate to us? He communicates to us through language. Who invented language?

God did. If the Bible is a revelation from God to us, from an infinite being, then we should let him speak to us through the language that he invented and not let us try to impose our ideas on what he's saying.

Correct? So it should stand alone, shouldn't it? How is the Hebrew word for day used in the Old Testament? Outside of Genesis 1. Let's ignore Genesis 1. Here's how the Hebrew word is used. And by the way, the word day can have different meanings.

But here's when it means an ordinary day. Whenever the word day is used with a number over 400 times, always means an ordinary day. Whenever evening and morning is used as a phrase without the word day, 38 times always means an ordinary day.

Whenever the words evening or morning are used with the word day, 23 times each always means an ordinary day. Whenever night is used with the word day, 52 times always means an ordinary day. Now let's look at Genesis 1.

Night, evening, morning, number, day, evening, morning, number, day, evening, morning, number, day, evening. You know I think the Hebrew writer was saying, look it's an ordinary day and in case you didn't get it, it's an ordinary day and in case you're a little thick, it's an ordinary day and in case you're really intellectually challenged, it is an ordinary day.

How else can you tell us it's an ordinary day? But see, I always wondered why God took so long. Couldn't God create in six seconds? It's like the lady who said to me once, oh I'm not like you creationists.

I don't limit God to six days, I allow him millions of years. I said, lady I don't limit God, I limit myself to letting God tell me what he did. I don't try to tell God what he did. You know in Exodus 20, we're told God made everything in six days and rested for one.

That is the only basis you have for a seven-day week in the universe. You know where you get our day from and our month from and our year from, astronomical observations, where do you get the seven-day week from?

If God made everything in six million years and rested for a million years, that'll be some week. Then the trade unions could have a basis for striking forever, couldn't they? And by the way, there are lots of Hebrew words that can be used to explain long periods of time.

Why wouldn't the writer use those? But of course then I get these people who call up and say, I do talk shows a lot. Oh but the Bible says in 2nd Peter 3, a day's like a thousand years. You know what I say?

Yeah, and read the rest of the verse. A thousand years are like a day. That just cancels that one right out, doesn't it? You know, you can't use a phrase from the New Testament to determine the meaning of a Hebrew word in Genesis.

You can't do that. A Hebrew word depends upon the Hebrew language. This has nothing to do with defining a Hebrew word. I'm amazed people quote that verse and try to use it that way. Because see, this is talking about God's outside of time.

That's not defining a Hebrew word. A day's like a thousand years. A thousand years is like a day to God. A Hebrew word depends upon the Hebrew language. And by the way, if they were a thousand years, 6 ,000 years isn't going to help you.

You want 16 billion. And people are so inconsistent. You notice, it's the same old thing again. They only do it with Genesis 1. Do you hear them doing it with the rest of Scripture? I mean, do they go to Jonah and say, oh he must have been in the whale 3 ,000 years.

I mean, you don't hear that, do you? Now look, by the way, I have to explain something to you. Tonight, and again tomorrow morning, sometimes I get into trouble for doing this, but I want you to understand my heart in this.

I quote famous Christian leaders. But when I do that, I am not attacking them personally. In fact, some of these people I have a great respect for. And sometimes I use their material from Genesis 11 onwards.

But you know, doesn't the Scripture say that there were Bereans who searched the Scriptures to see if these things be so? I think we need to be Bereans. And you know, in Thessalonians, Paul said to test all things.

If it doesn't fit with Scripture, you throw it out. You see, we've all got feet of clay, myself included. But I want to quote to you some famous Christian leaders, because I want you to see a pattern of a problem that exists in the church.

Reading Genesis Against Scientific and Theological Compromise

And this is not to attack them personally, not at all. Here's a great Christian man of God. Dr. Dobson doesn't believe in six days. He makes no apology about that. He said it on radio, and if you write to him, he'll tell you that.

But here's one of his reasons. He says, the sun was not created until the fourth day, so is the first day really a day? I don't know. Now wait a minute. See, this is where I believe is a big problem in our church.

We look at the Bible and say, oh, the sun wasn't made until day four. How can you have day and night without the sun? They couldn't be ordinary days. Whoa, it's got nothing to do with the sun made on day four.

It's to do with what does the language say. If we let God speak to us through the words of Scripture, if the word day means day for those three days like it does the next three days, it means day. And then we should say, well, how do we understand the sun on day four?

People, we've got it the wrong way around. We're not letting God speak to us. And by the way, people say, well, how can you have day and night without the sun? You don't need the sun, you need light. Was there light on day one?

Let there be light. Wow, what a revelation. And then people say, where'd it come from? I haven't got a clue. Why didn't God tell us? Look, if God told us everything, we'd have an infinite number of books, we'd never graduate.

But he's given us enough information, and besides which, it's a matter of what does the language say. Friends, think about this. If the language convention doesn't work, in other words, if you can't accept the language convention, how do you decide what any word means?

It's ridiculous. But you see, ultimately, like Dr. Dobson, for instance, he believes in the Big Bang. You believe in the Big Bang, you believe in billions of years, you believe in billions of years, you can't have six days.

See, here's the pattern that I see in the Christian world. Have a look at these quotes. Here's a man who believes in billions of years, he's a Christian man, and he says this, Christians are often inclined to take the young earth's position simply because it appears to be the plainest reading of the Bible.