Why I am not a Young-Earth Creationist

Here are 3 brief reasons that I am not a YEC...

1) It does not mesh with modern science (cosmology, astronomy, geology, etc...) Latest estimations put the planet at almost 14 billion years old. So that leaves one of three options on the table:

a) Science is wrong about all its current data and the earth is not that old, its actually 6000-10,000 years old. (The YEC view)
b) The planet was made to look old despite its young age when God made it. (This makes God a deceiver, thats unbiblical)
c) Both YEC and the deception views are wrong and the planet is very old just as science says it is.  (What seems the only answer in face of the natural and special revelation we have)

2) The creation account in Genesis does not force itself to be read uber-literally. The 6 days of creation are probably not literal days, a very sound way to translate the Hebrew word used (yom) refers to a long period of time. In any case, the account is certainly vague enough to be legitimately viewed as something besides 6 literal days. Furthermore, despite the opinions of some, a non-uber-literal reading of these passages does not seem to have any logical bearing on wether or not one accepts that God did the creating. More over, it doesn't affect an understanding of who Christ was, why he died, and that he rose again.

3) I believe that placing a huge emphasis on the age of the earth as young, loudly proclaiming that belief, and holding fast to it in the midst of overwhelming evidence...that does more to hinder the gospel than to help spread it. Too often, the world sees Young-Earthers as crackpots and superstitious wierdos who button their polos all the way up and think that humans rode on saddles attached to vegetarian dinosaurs. Since the age of the earth is a non-essential doctrine, I argue that we should take the worlds view on this into account and leave it alone.

The best thing we can do is to love people, serve their needs, and tell them the good news of a Saviour that died for them. If we can see unbelievers moving to accept the essentials of the faith, then we can have in-house discussions on the secondary and tertiary issues. To place emphasis on those non-essentials, like YEC, is to take the focus off Jesus and to actually put up walls between an unbeliever and Christ that impede that person from finding true joy.

Most often, I find that ardent YEC are more interested in being correct than in proclaiming the gospel. I would urge them to drop their hard-line stance, even if they turn out to be right, for the sake of the central message of our faith.