Take a look at this interactive display of the relative sizes of things in the universe, going from subatomic levels all the way to the entire universe itself.

http://htwins.net/scale/index.html

Now, look at this alternative scenario:

http://htwins.net/scale/wrong.html

Look ridiculous, doesn’t it? And yet this claim is equally ridiculous: that the Earth, instead of being 4 1/2 billion years old, is probably about 10,000 years old.

How wrong is that? First review this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale

Then see this:

And this:

And this:

Here’s the YouTube channel those videos came from. There are many more!

Science is based on the idea that there is a definite order and consistency to the universe we live in. So if there are patterns to nature and laws to its operations, then we can investigate those patterns and laws, work out from them the nature of the universe itself, and thus increase our knowledge of it.

Creationists will deny this. They claim instead that the only “truth” that matters is what some ancient scriptures say, but that is an absurdity. Anyone can make up scriptures. But only God could have made the universe itself. If God is a consistent being, then the laws of physics and chemistry must be applicable to all of it, throughout space and time. Thus, even if you believe in God, you must conclude from the study of the universe that the timelines and descriptions of certain events given in the Book of Genesis cannot be literally true. Otherwise, if you don’t believe in a consistent God, then you might as well believe in a chaotic, senseless universe like the one in the second link I posted here.

And that is exactly why I call both Young-Earth Creationism and Biblical fundamentalism blasphemous dogmas.