Off to the gym, Lord Fry, but make no mistake, I love you, even if I do not find your sarcasm and attitude very endearing here.
I will say, I can take a scoop of each. They are not in and of themselves internally inconsistent. I have said this over and over again, I am not completely sure which is the best answer.
However, both Hugh Ross and Gap Theory apologists agree the most likely answer is the Earth is billions of years old.
I don't have to "pick my poison" because they can technically both be true.
If you disagree, please offer me a detailed answer on why this is the case.
And you know what? I take God at His word as well! I am not watering down scripture; I just think it doesn't say what you think it says.
I will say, I can take a scoop of each. They are not in and of themselves internally inconsistent. I have said this over and over again, I am not completely sure which is the best answer.
However, both Hugh Ross and Gap Theory apologists agree the most likely answer is the Earth is billions of years old.
I don't have to "pick my poison" because they can technically both be true.
If you disagree, please offer me a detailed answer on why this is the case.
And you know what? I take God at His word as well! I am not watering down scripture; I just think it doesn't say what you think it says.
Consider my life as the flip side of the coin that Bret discussed. I was a scientist and engineer all of my life until age 50 when I became a true Christian because of a brilliant evangelist named Dr. Hugh Ross who spoke at my church. He pointed out to me for the first time, the many design characteristics built into the laws of physics and the initial conditions of the Big Bang that permitted this lovely world to exist. If it wouldn’t have been for him, I probably would still be a self-centered depressed individual heading toward oblivion and thinking there is nothing special about me or this planet earth. But by Divine appointment I happened to be at the right place and time when he made a guest appearance. Now I have a greatly modified perspective of how the universe works that is perfectly matched to the Bible. This was not an easy transformation to go through with all the new information that I had to process including the Bible and areas of science that I had never studied, but over the past ten years it has been well worth the investment of time and trouble. I am living proof of a person who became a Christian because of the concepts that science has taught me, not in spite of them. Why, because the intricate design of the natural world is overwhelming when it comes to convincing someone that this universe requires a designer. When I look at the complete picture of how Nature complements the Bible it strengthens my faith in the Almighty, and shows me the great intellect we are dealing with. A being so overwhelmingly intelligent that our best human minds can grasp just a few components of His design. He put together a system engineering masterpiece to create us, to grow us, and eventually have fellowship with us. I do not understand it all, but I understand enough to make a very convincing case that there must be a Father in Heaven or none of us would be here. I am passionate about teaching others what I know about science and how it supports belief in our Creator. For those that don’t know me, I should add that I have taught several courses at our church related to this general subject that cover several disciplines. I wish that you could see the universe from my perspective. To that end I would love to show you why science is your best friend and turn your attention to the real issues that undermine Christian evangelism. We need to work together for the advancement of Christianity, not to fight amongst ourselves over silly issues such as the age of the earth. What we really need to pull together on is how to get across the concept of design in the universe through any and all possible channels available to the lost masses. If we can’t reach a united front by working through this simple challenge of the age of the earth, knowing one side or the other is wrong about it, what hope is there in turning a spiritually confused world toward Christianity when they see us fighting among ourselves. I pray that God will give me the patience, wisdom, and grace to help all of you see God’s great light shining on the world through scientific investigation and growth in knowledge of His wonderful creation.
If we logically analyze this view of creating the Heavens and stretching them out in one day to the present size of at least 13.7 billion light years so that everything really is big but very young, one very important but bad thing happens in astronomy: the Heavens go dark on us and we can't see very much of the light the stars and galaxies produce. They go over the event horizon according to astronomers and cosmologists. They may be out there shining away but because of the laws of Heaven and Earth including the speed of light being fixed per God's word according to Je 33:25, it will take billions of years for some of it to get to earth so that we could observe it. In fact, we wouldn't be able to see very much of the Milky Way Galaxy that is spectacularly displayed for us each night since we could only see back in time a few thousand years if the Heavens were stretched out as you state a few thousand years ago. We would only see a few million stars but not the milky bands of stars across its central plane. 
There are lots of points of light in the Heavens that can't be measured by parallax (angular shift in position while the earth orbits the sun). These points of light are farther away since there is an immeasurable angular change with present technology. Bret is right that our scientists may not be able to measure parallax distances much farther than a few thousand light years using parallax in the near future. However, what do we make of the remainder of the Heavens the vast majority, 100s of trillion of points of light, do we just dismiss them? What do we make of the spectra they emit? They match the spectra of our sun's light but much weaker in intensity. We measure light in our labs and know that it travels at c 3x10^8 m/sec. We also know that its intensity drops as the square of the distance. Are you saying that these laws of physics are no longer valid in space? Are you saying that a point of light on the other side of our galaxy that has a similar spectra as our sun and has a magnitude many orders of ten less than our sun is not really a star like our sun? That it really didn't exist three hundred thousand years ago when the light supposedly left its surface but only has existed for 6 thousand years and the light from it was distributed throughout space-time to make it look like it has been burning for over 5 billion years? How about exploded stars then that left their nebula imprint 50 thousand light years away that we are just now seeing in our time through the Hubble telescope. Did they not exist some 100 thousand years ago nor blow up some 55 thousand years ago, and nor leave an element trace that we can examine that show us what gases and other elements that it was made of? Since the star never existed and for that matter neither did the nebula, since only 6 thousand years of history only needs be recorded, it seems by your logic only light in space needs to exist to deceive us all into believing that a very large creation is around us. If everything was made just 6 thousand years ago, then a lot of what we are seeing through the Hubble and other telescopes is a mirage and never really existed. Sorry guys but I can’t believe that you think that our Lord would permit that level of deception on his Children. He is not a deceiver!
