Here is the problem. When you seek the truth, you must recognize that there is overwhelming evidence not only for a 4.5-billion-year-old Earth but also for evolution, including human evolution. This contradicts the literal reading of the book of Genesis. Lying about the evidence and creating baseless conspiracy theories about the scientists who have found this evidence does no good service to the Christian cause. It can undermine the very process of epistemology.

Answer # 4.
Theory of Double Truth. The Islamic philosopher, Averroës (Ibn Rushd), a student of both Aristotle and his Islamic faith, came to the conclusion that two contradictory truths (religious and philosophical/scientific) can exist at the same time. This is in contrast to Thomas Aquinas, who wrote that if there is a contradiction between the two books of God, the canonical scriptures and nature (rational science), that contradiction must be resolved by reinterpreting the one most susceptible to reinterpretation.

As a side note, Aquinas was born in Italy in 1225, just 27 years after Averroës died in Spain. More interestingly, Aquinas was heavily influenced by Averroës but disagreed on this point.

An example of this kind of mental gymnastics was exhibited in an interview I watched with a Hindu particle physicist, in which they discussed how they reconcile their work (if I remember correctly) at the Hadron Collider. In Hinduism, reality is understood as an illusion called Maya. She answered that there are two truths. In particle physics, there is a material world that is worthy of study. In her religious world, there is no material world, and she keeps those two truths separate.

We are living at the end of the philosophical movement known as postmodernism. The primary claim of this movement is that there are no truths. You create your own truths through life’s experience. This mindset has helped make the Theory of Double Truths more palpable and has had a significant influence on twenty-first-century Christianity and political society. An example of this was a Christian at my church, a very good person, who explained that they doubted that Jesus ever lived (even most atheists believe Jesus was a real historical figure). Still, it doesn’t matter because they find spirituality in Christianity.

So, with this answer, to deflate a point of tension, these Christians would say, in one rational realm, evolution is true. In their spiritual realm, there is no evolution, but God created Adam and Eve as historical figures with no prior evolutionary ancestors.

My view is that the Theory of Double Truths is absurd and violates the very basis of reason, which I believe is God’s gift for finding truth.

Answer #5. The natural-atheistic view. In remarkable candor, I will quickly admit that an atheistic, naturalistic viewpoint fits with the evidence of an old Earth and human evolution much better than the Christian narrative.

I wrote some time ago about what I call the Grand Enigma. This is what I have found in my own journey. The point is, there are absurdities in all answers to the big questions in life. As I tried on atheism for a while, and to my surprise, I found that it had the same level of absurdities as the religious answers. While atheism fits better with this question about human evolution, in other areas, such as the prime mover, abiogenesis, meaning, consciousness, cosmic fine-tuning, problem of evil, mathematics, beauty, and morals (to name a few), Christianity supplies a better answer. But only one can be true.

Respectfully, Mike