How the 165 million year old spider proves young earth creationism.

Yah read that tile twice, I had too...

This argument has been used on me twice now.

Because the ancient spider looks just like modern spiders, evolution is completely debunked, and God did it all.

This claim was backed up with, "I'm not a scientist or anything, but..."

Well, firstly, let me point out that you don't need to be a scientist to do simple math.

One of the fundamental claims of Young Earth Creationism is that the earth itself is not more than 6,000 years old. They've come by this number by counting all the 'begots' and 'begats' from the bible and adding their lifespans together, all the way back to Adam and Eve. So, If your telling me that the earth is only 6,000 years old, and then as evidence use the 165 million year old spider, my first issue is the math.

We can both agree that the ancient spider looks very similar to modern spiders, one could even say they are identical in some ways. One can't claim that the age of the spider proves a young earth. One also can't claim that "God did it", since one has no prove of that either (but that's an entirely different argument).

Another individual wanted to use the T.Rex soft tissue that was found and written about in 2005 by Dr. Mary Higby Schweitzer, et. al. Dr. Schweitzer and her team discovered a T.Rex long bone that still contained soft tissue resembling bone marrow. This was a huge discovery because until this discovery, it was thought that marrow wouldn't survive past a million years. With this new discovery, Dr. Schweitzer and her team began re-examining other older fossils to find out if soft tissue survived in them as well. I encourage you to read the paper she produced and look at the evidence found, but I'll break it down for you. In her study she found, three other fossils that were as old, which still contained soft tissue. That's not counting the other fossils that were older and younger, and the experiments the team did to explain the preservation of soft tissue.

Anyway, back to the argument...

The claim was, that since the T. Rex bone was found with soft tissue, and since science at the time said that soft tissue wouldn't survive past one million years, the Dinosaurs lived at the same time as humans.

Again, math is the obvious flaw here. With a planet that is only supposed to be 6,000 years old, how would anything over that age support that claim?

I'm just using basic math here, I'm not even pointing out the obvious flaws in these arguments. It boggles my mind how someone can sit across from me and argue that these two multi-million year old fossils prove A) Young earth creationism and B) that God did it.

But, I'm new at this, and I haven't heard all the arguments just yet. I'm sure I'll get told something else that will simply blow my mind eventually. When that time comes, I will fall back on what has always gotten me through, Facts.