The universe was created with apparent age

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Contents 1 Claim 2 Source 3 Responses 4 Fallacies contained in this claim 5 Related claims 6 Acknowledgments

Claim

The universe was created with apparent age.

Source

• Gosse, Philip H., 1857. Omphalos.
• Morris, Henry M., 1974. Scientific Creationism, Master Books, Arkansas, pp. 209-210.

Responses

1. One of the more ingenious rationales YECs have devised to prop up their worldview is the concept of "apparent age" -- the Universe was created complete with an impressive array of internal evidence that (wrongly) indicates the Universe to be far older than it actually is. But while "apparent age" is logically possible, and is likewise incapable of being refuted by any evidence whatsoever, real scientists overwhelmingly reject it.
   1. The main reason is this: If you start with the premise that the Universe is an elaborate illusion where nothing is how it appears, it's impossible to do science!
   2. If the Universe is indeed younger than the evidence says it is, there is no reason to believe that the Universe wasn't created last Thursday, nor is there any reason to believe that a 10,000-year-old Earth is any more or less likely than a 1-day-old Earth.
2. This argument clearly shows that creationism contradicts itself if it claims to be science, because here it at least assumes a mighty power which obviously can produce any illusion and uses this power to great extent which means that science and also "creation science" would simply be impossible. We could not be sure that any one of our observations reflects reality and not only an apparent reality created by the mighty power which makes it impossible to verify or falsify any theory. We could not even be sure about our thoughts and conclusions because they could also be illusions. Therefore it would be impossible to make any conclusions from the initial assumption of the mighty power nor would it be possible to justify this assumption. Even if we accept this assumption a priori it could not even be concluded that this mighty power is identical to what we call God, because although it can produce any illusion it is not necessarily omnipotent or omniscient. This mighty power could theoretically be a computer freak in another world who simulates our world on his computer as proposed by Stephen Wolfram (and earlier by Konrad Zuse and others), but who is in his world as limited as we are in our world and far from being what we would call God.
3. It is like saying, when on trial for murder, that the reason your fingerprints are on the murder weapon is that an advanced engineer developed an unheard of technology, able to magically transfer your fingerprints onto the gun, and then did so with the intent of framing you. It's shameless ad hoccing and a total trashing of Occam's Razor. No one should take such a ridiculous hypothesis seriously.
4. This claim, of a logical necessity, requires the Creator to be a liar and a malicious trickster.
5. add more responses

Fallacies contained in this claim

• Nihilism (Impossibility of knowledge)
• Just So Story (The universe isn't old, it was made to look old)

Related claims

• The universe is 6000-10000 years old
• The earth is 6000-10000 years old
• Humans are a few thousand years old, not millions
• Mankind has existed essentially unchanged for billions of years

Acknowledgments

• Cubist