I appreciate the thread at least. Perhaps we can all be respectful to each other?
I’ve struggled with this for a while now. I grew up in the church. Catholic up till about end of high school then baptist church. I once thought a person could just figure out how old the earth is by simply looking at the genealogies in the Bible. Turns out people have done that. From what little I know of carbon dating it’s supposed to be relatively accurate sub 40k years. So just looking at archeology, I can’t get on board with young earth. As to the existence of God - I’d be lying if I said I haven’t questioned things. I hate to say that, it makes for a pretty depressing existence to just live and die. I think I’m in the camp of a lot of the Old Testament is figurative, at least genesis anyway. Evolution in some manner exists, but to think we came from the “big bang” seems a stretch. Yet why is our DNA so similar to apes/monkeys (whatever primate)? That bothers me. When I look around me, I think how can there not be a creator?
Anyway, I don’t know how to put my thoughts in words. But that’s maybe the best I can do. I’m still a believer, but I want to be steadfast in my convictions. Questioning things is unsettling