Tricks from God...?

Question

As I understand it, Christians who don't believe in evolution then believe that God has placed dinosaur bones and oil (fossils millions of years old), light from distant stars which would have taken billions of years to get here, all as tricks to fool us. He deliberately placed objects for us to find that disupte the bible to test us.

Please then tell me how you cannot be certain that God hasn't tricked us by creating the world only say 200 years ago and placed all records and society to trick us this way? Surely, you believe He is capable of doing this as He is all powerful. Surely you also believe He might do this as he has tried to trick us with fossils.

Is it just 'obvious' that he didn't, in which case, with all the evidence that the world is older than the Bible leads us to believe, isn't it also 'obvious' that He didn't as the same logic applies?

Thank you for your emails so far. I can understand about carbon dating being inaccurate, but what dinosaur fossils? Even if they have been incorrectly dated, if they existed, don't you think the bible would have mentioned them at some point?

Answer 1

I am a Christian who does not believe in evolution but neither do I believe God did things to trick us. Nor do I bury my head in the sand when it comes to scientific reasoning for what I believe. There are scientific explanations for the things you have mentioned if you'd care to investigate them.
You have assumed that dinosaur fossils are millions of years old and yet that is not proven scientifically. The various dating systems to "prove" this are all flawed but because it has become so widely accepted as a fact people simply don't question it.
The issue of light from distant stars is also explainable through theories such as time dilation.
Whilst I don't expect to convince people to believe in God I would hope that the open-minded would at least look honestly at the option.
If you are genuinely interested there is a wealth of information here www.answersingenesis.org and www.creationontheweb.org.

Answer 2

I don't believe in evolution. But God tricking us? No, that is desperate Christians trying to find some rational explanation for irrational events. Six days the world is created. It defies science! You know though, if we are finding evolution everywhere, then why don't we figure out why God put evolution on this planet instead of trying to disprove God with evolution? You question is odd to me though: it seems as if you believe in God, but also believe in evolution. I'm not criticizing you, it just points to that path.
All in all, the Bible is correct. The earth is older than a couple thousand years. That's obvious and let me tell you why. The word "create" in Genesis is not what we think create is. The word actually refers to a dateless past. If you notice, it says it in a single sentence. The Bible never says "In the beginning, God created all that is in six days." No, the Bible says that in the beginning (whenever that was) whatever started, whatever was there, God created it. The Bible names it the Heavens (stars and such) and the earth. THEN the Bible even goes on to say that the earth was without form. Who knows how long God allowed the earth to be without form? On top of all this: The Bible refers to a previous creation prior to the creation of man. We also don't know what this is either. All of these things people neglect to study out, when all along the Bible states them.
Quite frankly, it doesn't matter to me. The Bible says that we will have complete knowlage and understanding when we finally are in the City of New Jerusalem. So I'll stick to things that I can see, and rather than putting my faith into man-made theory's (no matter how true), I'll put my faith completely into God.

Answer 3

Many scientists who are Christian believe that the fossils were deposited during the flood and that dinosaurs didn't survive very well after it. Also there are some animals mentioned in Leviticus and Job that we don't know what they are and it is possible they were dinosaurs. The Bible also mentions 'dragons' a few times as if they were real creatures, so if we were to take the Bible as true, these 'dragons' would also probably be dinosaurs.

Answer 4

It is evident that you know the story, but not the reason. God proved to Satan that Job was not just being faithful to God just because God made Job's life cushy before the test. Satan said to God, "No wonder Job worships you, you give him a comfortable life.!" But if you took the good life away from him, he will smite you and hate you!! (Doesn't this sound a bit like some people today?) God proved to Satan that Job worshiped him because He was loved by Job and that he was a faithful and righteous man. Job stood the test. Job didn't like or understand what was happening to him,but hew stayed faithful to God anyway. After the test God restored EVERYTHING TWO FOLD back to Job. This is also a testament for what God does for others. The Lord gives, he takes away, he gives again..... The Lord takes things away from us to remind us it all belongs to him in the first place. God is the God of second chances. If God gave us everything we could ever want, would we even need God after that? God likes to remind us from time to time that we need Him. Do you know some people who turn their backs on God when God starts taking things away? How many people do you know that stays faithful to God during hard times? These are the people who God rewards in the end.

Answer 5

I don't think the premise is strictly true. Evolution deniers and young earthers don't think god created the world with false evidence, they deny that the evidence means what scientists say it means. They do not believe that evidence for an old earth is valid, for example they claim that the assumptions used for dating by radioactive elements are false. They claim that radioactive decay is not constant through time, and that the assumed initial ratios are false.

The basic tenets of geology are denied, rather than the evidence itself, for the most part, at least as I understand the arguments.

Answer 6

There is only a problem if you take the six creative days to be literal days as opposed to six creative periods of unspecified length. The sea creatures and dinosaurs were created before man. Clearly long before man.
Scientists do not agree on the details so who do you believe? If there have been many cataclysms in the earths history how reliable can dating evidence be, especially as scientists seldom agree on the dates, sometime disagreeing by thousands of years.

Answer 7

Maybe the opening lines of the bible solves all the problems, if the time is taken to go back to the origional hebrew script.

Translation:-"The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep."
Modern translation:- The people of the earth no longer conformed and therefore the whole earth thing had to be terminated and started again.

So now we have evolution and creation hand in hand, but for the narrow mindedness of some of the christian fanatics!!

Answer 8

No one disputes the fact that the world is older than the bible. Knowing this, is it not possible that the dinosaur age came and went before Adam and Eve? That the old testament was written before Christ and new one after? Your questions are articulate and you are correct in that I believe God could do any of the above.

Answer 9

Thats a very well thought out argument Markymark but I continue to believe in god. I dont believe the world started out as Adam and Eve etc etc, its clear dinosaurs etc existed but then Im not a Christian it would be interesting to see how other religions say the world began.

Answer 10

I would not say tricks, but i do know that he has answerd my prayes ,very much different than than the way i thought he would ,and always in a better way. And if he can send the sun back i am sure there is nothing he can not do.