Dear Jon from Malta (WL Craig)

Jon from Malta wrote a letter to William Lane Craig and it was given the title  "Should OT Difficulties Be an Obstacle to Christian Belief?"  Jon says that his trouble with the early chapters of Genesis is, "... the principal reason why I cannot bring myself to accept Christianity, to which I have yet to receive a satisfying response."

Jon confesses that, "when I read the Book of Genesis through (as I have done many times), based on the various exegetical analyses I have reviewed of the Genesis accounts I find it very difficult to avoid the necessity of a literal  interpretation."  Very good.  I would recommend Jon read chapter 6 in Coming to Grips with Genesis where Steven Boyd demonstrates that Gen. 1:1 to 2:3 is historical narrative and that the Scripture teaches a young earth.

Jon specifies a number of his puzzles:

...the whole wild account of Noah's ark and the Deluge, the inordinate life expectancy of the first men which for some reason decreased with each generation, not to mention references to the existence of giants and accounts of women copulating with evil spirits (Genesis 6:4), among many other things which I've no doubt you are aware.  These accounts incorporate very specific language and do not seem to lend themselves to figurative interpretation.

For an excellent account of how Noah and his family could have taken care of the animals and survive and thrive themselves, be sure to check out Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study by John Woodmorappe.  Also, read more on this challenge here.  There is, in fact, a great deal of evidence for the Deluge.

Approximately one fourth of the factors affecting life span are genetic.  Adam and Eve were made perfect and could have lived indefinitely (Gen. 3:22).  Mutations accumulated over time increasing the difficulties of aging.  A genetic bottleneck occurred at the time of the Flood limiting the healthy advantage of a large gene pool.  The Sumerian King List documents long ages before the Global Flood and a drastic reduction in life spans afterward.  It shows eight kings before the flood and if we don’t include Adam and Noah, this matches the historical chronology from Genesis.  If we convert the life spans of the line of Seth from decimal to base 60 (using my method) we can see that the Sumerian King List is somewhat close to the actual values from Genesis.  Chuck Missler has some intriguing thoughts on the nephilim.     

I would argue that the whole Bible supports a young earth.  YES - Young Earth Science defends a youthful world from history, philosophy and science.  If the world is young, then evolution is wrong.