Philosophy

Young [1] Earth [2] Creationism [3] is the theory that Earth and the Universe are 6,000-15,000 years old. Young Earth Creationism correctly teaches that the Noachian flood was global. I do not personally believe in YEC, and am leaning more toward OEC but I am keeping an open mind, despite that many ridicule YEC a priori; the possibility of a young universe should be taken seriously [4]. Most people have reached a conclusion of either an old earth or a young earth, and I have been researching this issue for almost a year, but more investigation is required. See this page on radiometric dating. [5]

[1] http://www.nwcreation.net/young.html
[2] http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=1842
[3] http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/young.asp?aigHomeCountry=United+States&aigEvents=United+States&aigBookstore=United+States
[4] http://www.cs.unc.edu/~plaisted/ce/universe.html
[5]http://www.cs.unc.edu/~plaisted/ce/dating.html

The important think to note is that God, as the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent Creator of the universe, certainly could have created Earth in six successive 24-hour days; this belief is a necessity for all Christians.

Talk.Origins and EvoWiki have a huge list of creationist claims and rebuttals to them, but there are many instances of straw men and other logical fallacies used by Talk.Origins on very key claims. Many examples are provided in the CreationWiki. Sometimes Talk.Origins is correct, but usually in refuting outdated arguments. The tone of the site is generally unjustly anti-Christian.

I don't yet know for sure if the following arguments are true. They deal strictly with the age of the Earth and not biology, etc. If they are true, then YEC is tenable. The key issue is the validity of uniformitarianism. If uniformitarianism is false, then the the old Earth theory falls apart. If the arguments below are false, YEC must be rejected once and for all in favor of OEC.
From CreationWiki:
CC360: Taphonomy
CC360. No new fossils are being formed.
CC361. Fossils can form quickly.
CC361.1. Coal and oil can form quickly.
CC361.2. Mammoths have been found quickly frozen.
CC363. Fossilization requires sudden burial.
CC371. Evidence of blood in a Tyrannosaurus bone indicates recent burial.
CD0: Geochronology
(see also CD241: Varves can form quickly.)
CD000: Radiometric dating makes false assumptions
CD001. Radiometric dating falsely assumes rocks are closed systems.
CD002. Radiometric dating falsely assumes initial conditions are known.
CD004. Cosmic rays and free neutrinos affect U and Ar decay rates.
(see also CF200: Radiometric dating)
CD010. Radiometric dating gives unreliable results.
CD011. Carbon dating gives inaccurate results.
CD011.1. Variable C14/C12 ratio invalidates C14 dating.
CD011.2. Vollosovitch and Dima mammoths yielded inconsistent C14 dates.
CD011.3. Living snails were C14 dated at 2,300 and 27,000 years old.
CD011.4. A freshly killed seal was C14 dated at 1300 years old.
CD011.5. Triassic wood from Australia was dated at 33K years old.
CD011.6. Ancient coal and oil are C14 dated as only 50,000 years old.
CD012. U-Th dating gives inaccurate results for modern volcanic rocks.
CD013. K-Ar dating gives inaccurate results for modern volcanic rocks.
CD013.1. K-Ar dates of 1986 dacite from Mount St. Helens are very old.
CD014. Isochron dating gives unreliable results.
CD014.1. Isochron date of young Grand Canyon lava is excessively old.
CD015. Zircons retain too much helium for an old earth.
CD020. Consistency of radiometric dating comes from selective reporting.
CD031. KBS Tuff shows the flaws of radiometric dating.
CD200: Sedimentation
(see also CH540: Flood effects)
CD200. Uniformitarian assumption is untenable.
CD211. Mississippi delta could have formed in 5000 years.
CD220. Not enough sediments in the ocean for an old earth.
CD220.1. Much more sediment is deposited than removed by subduction.
CD221. Oceans haven't enough dissolved minerals for an old earth.
CD221.1. Amount of dissolved sodium in oceans
CD222. Juvenile water is added to oceans too fast for an old earth.
CD230. Natural gas escapes too fast to allow for long ages.
CD231. High pressures in oil fields would have bled off if earth were old.
CD232. Oil seepage would have drained offshore reservoirs in 20,000 years.
CD240. Experiments show that strata can violate principles of superposition.
CD241. Varves can form in less than a year.
CD250. Stalactites can grow very rapidly.
CD400: Glaciation
CD410. WWII airplanes are now beneath thousands of "annual" ice layers.
CD700: Geophysics & Plate tectonics
CD701. Earth's magnetic field is decaying, indicating a young earth.
CD701.1. Cowling's theorem disproves dynamo theory of earth's magnetic field.
CE100: Moon
CE110. Moon is receding at a rate too fast for an old universe.
CF200: Radiometric Decay
(see also CD000: Radiometric dating)
CF201. Polonium haloes indicate a young earth.
CF210. Radiometric dating falsely assumes rates are constant.
(see also CE410: Physical constants only assumed constant.)
CF220. Short-lived isotopes Th-230 and U-236 exist on the moon.
CG000: History
CG010. The oldest living thing is younger than 4900 years.
CH200-CH799: Young Earth Creationism
CH200: Age of the Universe
CH200. The universe is 6000-10000 years old.
CH210. The earth is 6000-10000 years old.
CH220. The universe was created with apparent age.
CH700: Miscellaneous Young Earth Creationism
CH710. Man and dinosaurs coexisted.
(see also CC100: Human fossils out of place)
(see also CB930.3: Dinosaurs may be in the Congo.)
CH710.1. Ica stones show humans and dinosaurs coexisted.
CH710.2. Dinosaur figurines from Acambaro show human/dino association.
CH711. Behemoth, from the book of Job, was a dinosaur.
CH711.1. Leviathan, from the book of Job, was a dinosaur.
CH712. Dragons were dinosaurs.
CH712.1. Some dinosaurs breathed fire.

The scriptural arguments for a young Earth are:

1. Scripture says the earth is young; so an old earth is contrary to God's Word.
1a. Everywhere else in scripture day means either 24 hours or else a short period of time (Day of the Lord). Making day an "age" here is not its plain meaning.
1b. 2 Pet 3:8, though it may mean a day is as 1,000 years, only pushes back creation 6,000 years more.
1c. Speaking of 2 Peter, 2 Peter 3:3-7 seems to be a clear statement of scoffers' belief in uniformitarianism. Most who hold to an old age of the earth are uniformitarians.
1d. Psalm 90:4 does not necessarily refer to creation.
1e. The years in the genealogies from Adam to Abraham, added up, give Adam's time as ~4000 B.C. Even allowing that the Bible has occasional gaps in genealogy, it is unreasonable to say there are 10,000's of years between each name. This would be against the words' plain meaning.
1f. 1 Timothy 1:4 does not explicitly refer to creation, and while we are commanded not devote ourselves to genealogies, certainly none of the Bible can be ignored.
2. Interpreting scripture says that the earth is young.
2a. If plants were created on the third day, and the sun was created on the fourth day, the plants would have all died if the days were ages.
2b. By parallelism, Job 38:4-7 refers to "Sons of God." Morning stars may not necessarily refer to inanimate stars.
2c. If the sun, moon, and stars were not made on the fourth day, that contradicts the plain sense of Gen 1:14-18.
2d. Adam could have named all the animals in less than 24 hours if he had good intelligence and memory. He did not necessarily name every species, but perhaps every genus.
2e. If the winged creatures including insects were created on the fifth day, and insects are essential for pollination of many species of plants, those plants could not reproduce if days were ages.
2f. When Adam first saw Eve, perhaps he said "at last" because he was through trying to find a helper among the animals.
2g. Romans 5:12-14 and 8:19-22 say that death came through sin and creation was corrupted too. Thus all carnivores ate meat after the fall.
2h. Genesis certainly refers to the founding of the generations of all life, so the use of Toledah is appropriate.
3. Applying Scripture Indicates the Earth is Young.
3a. If man was not on the earth for 99.98% of its history, God must not think very much of man.
3b. If God had to take a long time to make everything, what does that say about God's power?
3c. If many have read the Bible and always thought God took a short time, what does that say about God's guidance and possibly God's integrity?

[Source: http://www.Biblequery.org/science.htm]

The scriptural arguments for an Old Earth are as follows:
In the Old Testament, the word "day" with a number by it only occurs in Leviticus, and the context has nothing to do with creation.
A "day" in Hebrew does not always mean 24 hours.
Genesis 2:4 says "in the day (singular) that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens" (NKJV). The Bible Knowledge Commentary : Old Testament p.30 says the Hebrew here is "(beyom, lit., 'in the day,' and idiom for 'when')".
The Day of the Lord (Isaiah 2:12-21; 13:6,9; Obadiah 15; Amos 5:18-20, etc.) has to be more than 24 hours because it includes the Second Coming and final judgment according to The New International Dictionary of the Bible p.258. The Day [singular] of the Lord here included the period of the Tribulation and the millennial kingdom according to the Wycliffe Bible Dictionary p.430.
The Day of salvation in Isaiah 49:8.
A Day of judgment for the proud and lofty in Isaiah 2:12. In possibly other places the Hebrew word for day can mean more than 24 hours in other places too Examples are Genesis 35:3, 1 Samuel 8:8, 1 Chronicles 17:5, 2 Chronicles 6:5; Psalm 8:18; Jeremiah 17:18; Amos 3:14; Obadiah 11-14; Micah 2:5; 7:12; Zephaniah 1, etc..
1. Scripture says the earth is greater than 10,000 old and allows a great age.
1a. Can God's day be a long time? If not, then we have to cut 2 Pet 3:8 out of our Bibles.
1a. In Isaiah's and Hosea's, "day" could mean period of time
as well as 24 hours.
Hugh Ross The Fingerprint of God Promise Publishing Orange Ca. 92667 1989 p.146-154.
1b. Since God obviously had 2 Peter 3:8 written for us to read and believe, and the context is creation, then saying one creation day is 24 hours contradicts 2 Peter 3:8. Should we disbelieve God? Since a day is like (not equal to) 1000 years, then that means a day of God can be an age.
1c. While 2 Peter 3:3-7 does probably refer to modern uniformitarians, Christians should base their beliefs on truth and not just react to unbelievers. When believers deny truthful things, Satan can use that to harden the unbelief of non-Christians.
1d. Psalm 90:4 is a second warning that a Day of God in scripture is not to be taken as 24 hours. Since this refers to God's days in general, it certainly also applies to creation. Since 1,000 years is compared to both a day and a watch in the night for God, that also emphasizes like, not equal.
1e. While all scripture is accurate and true, scripture many times has imprecision. See Matt 28:1, Mark 16:1, Luke 24:1 and John 20:1 for an example. 1 Tim 1:4 may be telling us that more precision should not be assumed for the genealogies than is really there. The names may be thought of as founders of dynasties and cultures rather than just sons.
1f. 1 Tim 1:4 indicates that less attention should be paid to genealogies than other parts of scripture. Other genealogies have gaps Cainan in Luke 3:33 is mentioned in Genesis in Septuagint but not in Hebrew, and Matt 1:2-13 omits Ahaziah, good king Joash, Amaziah, and Pedaiah. Since son can mean descendent in Hebrew, there is not a problem.
2. Interpreting Scripture Indicates the Earth May be Old
2a. If one of God's days must be only 24 hours, then 2 Peter 3:8 is wrong. If a day was 1,000 years, then recent creationists have the same difficulty. The answer to this dilemma is that the sun was not needed for plants, since light had already been created.
2b. Job 38:4-7 indicates stars (and Sons of God) were already created when the earth was being formed. Therefore the fourth day is not when they were first created. More likely, it is the day they first appeared in the expanse from the earth's viewpoint. Since this is so for the stars, it is probably the same for the moon and sun too.
2c. While this is not the plain sense of Gen 1:14-18, Gen 1:14-18 allows this, and the plain sense goes against the plain sense of Job 38:4-7.
2d. Adam must have had a computer to within 24 hours name all the 18,800 current species of birds and land animals. Perhaps that is how the forbidden fruit got confused with an Apple!
2e. The first plants probably did not need insects, and plants that did need insects came about later by speciation.
2f. When Adam first saw Eve, said "at last" or "finally" (Heb happa'am). A long time must have passed since Adam started looking for a mate.
2g. Romans 5:12-14 and 8:19-22 refer to man's spiritual death and expulsion from Eden. Fossils of many carnivores lived long before man.
2h. Gen 2:4 uses the Hebrew word Toledah "generations" to describe the creation. Toledah never means a short period.
3. Applying Scripture Allows the Earth to be Old
3a. If God took so long to prepare the earth for man before He was made, God must really value man.
3b. If instead of acting quickly God took his time (4.6 billion years) to create the earth, then surely time means nothing to God.
3c. If God (or Satan) gave so many false clues showing the earth is old, what does that say about God's integrity?

[Source: http://www.Biblequery.org/science.htm]

See the Bible Query from Genesis by the Christian Debater @ http://www.Christian-faith.com/bible-answers/gen.htm.