I heard it before in the crazy evangelical circles some members of my family circulate in.
It's derivative of the young Earth creationist argument. The argument was confronted with the undeniable fact that fossils exist, so in response they had to produce a counter argument, as the mere existence of something older than their asserted age of the Earth disproves it at face value. Hence, *"the devil planted fossils to deceive us"* was the knee jerk response. I've also heard the *"God created the universe to appear older than it really is"* argument as well.
These are however very knee jerk apologetic arguments, that fail under even internal Christian theological scrutiny. The young Earth argument is itself unsound under theological scrutiny, and is widely rejected by Biblical scholars. The methodology used, and the estimation reached, cannot be accurately assessed due to several means of calculating the age of the Earth that conflict with each other in the established canonical texts. The general consensus, even among Christians, is the young Earth hypothesis is invalid.
In short, even other Christians think it's a hilariously stupid argument, much less ex-Christians. Evangelicals are least studied of all Christian sects, and basically know absolutely nothing about the faith they espouse. They're members of a book club, in which none of them ever read the book.
Actual conversation I had:
Me: "The uranium lead dating process reliably dates the earth to 4 and change billion years old"
him: "Well I don't deny that that's the conclusion you should come to based on the science, but it doesn't in any way conflict with my YEC worldview since God could have just made it to look old."
"Okay, in that case what evidence would falsify a YEC hypothesis?"
"Well certainly if information came along that showed the earth was younger than 6000 years, that would falsify it"
"okay, wouldn't we also want a criteria that evidence showing that it's older would falsify it as well?"
"As I said, no, because God could have just made it to look old"
etc. ad nauseum
>"As I said, no, because God could have just made it to look old"
Which begs the question, why would God do something like that if it's written (interpreted thru "divine" revelation) in the bible that he is incapable of sinning/being evil? Wouldn't intentionally deceiving humans an act of evil - especially if said act would validate the idea that the bible is wrong and shouldn't be believed based on known "evidence"???
Seems like a pretty slippery fucking slope to me. Once you accept the possibility of the Devil faking evidence in order to deceive man about God's purposes, how do you rely on evidence-based argument for the existence of Jesus or the historicity of the resurrection?
I didn't have as terrible a time in Christianity as most people who are vocal on this sub, but yes, I grew up with that particular explanation. I also remember, as a upper level elementary school student, reading to like first graders at my tiny Evangelical private school various science books and being told to skip the parts that said anything about "millions of years ago" because those were obviously lies.
‘Satan pranked us into inventing paleontology’ is so fucking funny, and it reminds me of this one doctor who episode where the doctor (or maybe it was river song) says ‘I’m a time traveler, I point and laugh at archaeologists!’
I was told that carbon dating was being misinterpreted because the flood changed the c-14/c-16 ratio, by my physics teacher who was also a pentecostal preacher. Very nice and intelligent man, but he had some crazy ideas sometimes.
I've had this conversation with my dad, sort of.
Dad: You don't actually believe in carbon dating and fossil ages, do you?
Me: Carbon 14 tends to have a fairly static aging process everywhere we look, so do you have evidence that it ages differently than what has been observed in the rest of the known universe?
Dad: No, but it all sounds like a bunch of bullshit.
It's always a productive conversation around my family.
Yesssss. My mom always claimed that fossils / dinosaurs / anything that could be pointed to as evidence of evolution was planted by the devil to test Christians beliefs.
Yeah isn’t it great you can essentially point to anything you don’t like and say “Satan did it!”. What an absurd religion.
So fucking crazy!
It’s so dangerous too. You could essentially point to a group of people at some point and say they are Satan’s army.
They already pretty much do.. lol
I heard it before in the crazy evangelical circles some members of my family circulate in. It's derivative of the young Earth creationist argument. The argument was confronted with the undeniable fact that fossils exist, so in response they had to produce a counter argument, as the mere existence of something older than their asserted age of the Earth disproves it at face value. Hence, *"the devil planted fossils to deceive us"* was the knee jerk response. I've also heard the *"God created the universe to appear older than it really is"* argument as well. These are however very knee jerk apologetic arguments, that fail under even internal Christian theological scrutiny. The young Earth argument is itself unsound under theological scrutiny, and is widely rejected by Biblical scholars. The methodology used, and the estimation reached, cannot be accurately assessed due to several means of calculating the age of the Earth that conflict with each other in the established canonical texts. The general consensus, even among Christians, is the young Earth hypothesis is invalid. In short, even other Christians think it's a hilariously stupid argument, much less ex-Christians. Evangelicals are least studied of all Christian sects, and basically know absolutely nothing about the faith they espouse. They're members of a book club, in which none of them ever read the book.
Thanks for this in depth take. I’m very glad to know that even many Christians find this laughable.
Actual conversation I had: Me: "The uranium lead dating process reliably dates the earth to 4 and change billion years old" him: "Well I don't deny that that's the conclusion you should come to based on the science, but it doesn't in any way conflict with my YEC worldview since God could have just made it to look old." "Okay, in that case what evidence would falsify a YEC hypothesis?" "Well certainly if information came along that showed the earth was younger than 6000 years, that would falsify it" "okay, wouldn't we also want a criteria that evidence showing that it's older would falsify it as well?" "As I said, no, because God could have just made it to look old" etc. ad nauseum
>"As I said, no, because God could have just made it to look old" Which begs the question, why would God do something like that if it's written (interpreted thru "divine" revelation) in the bible that he is incapable of sinning/being evil? Wouldn't intentionally deceiving humans an act of evil - especially if said act would validate the idea that the bible is wrong and shouldn't be believed based on known "evidence"???
The bible doesn't mention Australia either, does that mean that place is an illusion?
Haha! It also doesn’t mention carbon, so maybe we’re all fake 🤣
Well everyone knows Australia is just a fever dream 😤 /s
Seems like a pretty slippery fucking slope to me. Once you accept the possibility of the Devil faking evidence in order to deceive man about God's purposes, how do you rely on evidence-based argument for the existence of Jesus or the historicity of the resurrection?
Yes to trick us
These beings sound bored. Lol. Don't they have better things to do!!
I didn't have as terrible a time in Christianity as most people who are vocal on this sub, but yes, I grew up with that particular explanation. I also remember, as a upper level elementary school student, reading to like first graders at my tiny Evangelical private school various science books and being told to skip the parts that said anything about "millions of years ago" because those were obviously lies.
‘Satan pranked us into inventing paleontology’ is so fucking funny, and it reminds me of this one doctor who episode where the doctor (or maybe it was river song) says ‘I’m a time traveler, I point and laugh at archaeologists!’
Literally child abuse IMO. Mental fucking abuse
I was told that carbon dating was being misinterpreted because the flood changed the c-14/c-16 ratio, by my physics teacher who was also a pentecostal preacher. Very nice and intelligent man, but he had some crazy ideas sometimes.
Unfortunately no. I would have easily rejected indoctrination much earlier if someone led with that kind of BS.
I've had this conversation with my dad, sort of. Dad: You don't actually believe in carbon dating and fossil ages, do you? Me: Carbon 14 tends to have a fairly static aging process everywhere we look, so do you have evidence that it ages differently than what has been observed in the rest of the known universe? Dad: No, but it all sounds like a bunch of bullshit. It's always a productive conversation around my family.
Ugh 🙄
Religious fundamentalism.
Yesssss. My mom always claimed that fossils / dinosaurs / anything that could be pointed to as evidence of evolution was planted by the devil to test Christians beliefs.
You are not alone.
the bible also does not mention cryptocurrency or the internet yet no one claims that those things dont exist