I never hid the fact I was a Christian from my work colleagues and so on occasion there would be inevitable discussions on Christianity. I don’t recall any difficult discussions with work colleagues on the subject of Christianity, though I am certain several were atheists. We all got on with our jobs and in general were decent to each other.
One day, during a discussion of things religion, one of the girls said that her uncle was a US pastor and that he had written a book about the beginnings of the world. I expressed an interest in it. She had not read the book in question and so could not comment on it, but promised to get a copy from her parents and let me have a read.
The book was a creationist book. Sadly I can not remember the title or the author and given the number of books on the subject it will be difficult for me to track down exactly what book it was. I can’t even remember what the cover picture was.
This was the first book I had read, since school, that had any form of science content and I lapped it up. The book covered many topics, dating methods, geological methods, the formation of crystals, how caves are not really that old, how eroding waterfalls are much younger than assumed and more. I was sold.
This was the first time I recall being conscious of any sort of scientific battle between the science of an old earth and evolution and the attempts by some fundamental Christians to preach a literal biblical creation.
I remember reading the authors description of what would likely be the results of a world-wide flood in terms of erosion and sedimentation and thinking about my geography teacher explaining glaciation. To my shame I picked the wrong argument to back.
The book sparked a hunger in me for more knowledge and so over the following years I would hunt out several books on the subject, all from a Christian perspective of course. I would have several enthusiastic discussions with others, some opposing my acceptance of Creationism and some supporting. At no point did my utter faith in Creationism get dented. I was right, and I knew I was, nothing was going to change that.
Looking back, some of the books I bought did try and make a join between religion and science and show how the two looked at life from very different perspectives. What I don’t ever recall reading is that the knowledge that science discovers is valid and should be adopted. If I had, my emerging Creationism may have been pruned somewhat, but instead it grew and blossomed because it was not sufficiently challenged by any of the literature that I read. Of course it could also have been my own fault in the way that I chose which books to read.
It would be a long time before I would see sense. About 20 years in fact.
Until that time came, I would look at rocks and other features and imagine the young earth way in which they were created, or formed; I would watch nature documentaries and shudder every time evolution was mentioned, getting angry when I deemed that the word was only put there to try and reinforce evolution to the uneducated because I certainly could not see what it could possibly have to do with the specific subject in hand.
Confessions Of A YEC - Featuring Still Unbelievable! 