Banjo Ray, The Snail, Smokey, etc.

I am trying to be clear, but somehow what I'm saying is not getting across.   Please let me try again.

First, if you will allow a little rant, let me repeat for about the fourth time: I am attempting to explain a viewpoint, not attempting to prove that the viewpoint is correct. . Pardon my capitalization but I KNOW FULL WELL THAT I HAVEN'T PROVED CREATIONISM TO BE TRUE. I'M NOT TRYING TO PROVE THAT IT IS TRUE, as I stated in the first post on this thread. Feel free to stop pointing out to me that I'm "failing" to do what I said at the outset that I would not even try to do. I have a job. I have a family. I don't have time to write the Creationist equivalent of THE ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES and, if I did have time, I wouldn't write it as a string of posts on Mudcat. Rant over.

Here is what Young Earth Creationists believe: God exists. He is uncreated, eternal, and omnipotent. He made the universe. Being omnipotent, He could have made it any way He choose and, being eternal as well, he could have made it in 767 quintillion years, or in 30 billion years, or in six days, or in 0.04 milliseconds.    He could have made it 17 octillion years ago or 7,000 years ago or this afternoon.

God knows how long He took to create the universe and He knows when He created it. He could have chosen to keep this information from us, or He could have chosen to reveal this information to us. He chose to reveal it to us. If He did not reveal it, we could never figure it out, because it is impossible, in principle, to deduce, from WITHIN a work of art, when the work began UNLESS somehow "outside" information gets in.   

Why is it impossible?   Let me answer by first asking another question:   For how long had Lady Margaret's hair been growing?

Why do I ask such a question? Well, tonight I was singing about Lady Margaret combing her long yellow hair (Child Ballad #14) and I noticed , about 6 seconds into the song, that she and Sweet William were arguing. Sweet William said (for I had revealed it to him) that the song had been going on for about six seconds. Lady Margaret said he was an irrational fool because anyone could see that it would take at least a year for a lady's long yellow hair to grow as long as hers.   Sweet William replied that the singer made her hair long to begin with. Lady Margaret said this was nonsense. Such a singer would be nothing but a liar, tricking poor innocent ladies into believing their hair to be a year old when it was really only six seconds old. Sweet William replied that there was no lie involved; that the singer had made it perfectly clear how long the song had been going on.

I hope you see the point. If the universe is God's ballad, then the only possible way we (who are inside the "ballad") can know when the ballad began is by the revelation of the Singer. It is impossible, in principle, to deduce, from WITHIN a work of art, when the work began UNLESS somehow "outside" information gets in.   

Kent