Old Earth Ministries

Tenth Anniversary

First Published 24 February 2013

January 2013 marked the tenth anniversary of this website. I thought it would be appropriate to write this article addressing the history of the website, my goals for the future, and other thoughts on various issues.

History

2003-2007

In late 2002, I was still in the Air Force, and was transferred to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, to be a member of the Inspector General (IG) team. It was during this time that I created my first website, a genealogy website for my surname. I discovered that creating websites was fun and provided me with a good hobby to occupy my free time. Soon my mind turned to other ideas...websites about my other hobbies (trains, dinosaurs, etc). Due to my college degree in geology, I was drawn to some articles on the web by young earth creationists. These articles troubled me, as I could easily see how the science was twisted to fit a young earth. Since I was getting into websites at the time, the thought hit me to create a website refuting the claims made by YECs. At this time Dr. Hugh Ross of Reasons to Believe was around, and a few other OEC sites, but they all argued for OEC, and did not address the individual claims of YEC articles. I recognized a niche that I could fill, so I jumped at the opportunity. (I later discovered some others that did address YEC claims.)

From the beginning, I decided to be a resource for ALL old earth creationists. Hugh Ross promoted only progressive creationism, others were only theistic evolution, while others were gap theorists. But since you can believe in an old earth and the Bible with either of these belief systems, I decided I would write articles in support of all of them.

In January 2003 I registered the domain name answersincreation.org. I checked on other domains at the time. To my surprise, answersingenesis.com was still available! If I had taken it, I probably would have instantly had thousands of visits a day. I decided against this, as I wanted to ensure I had a name distinct from other sites. With a domain and web hosting in place, I set out to change the world of creationism. My first article was posted to the web on 17 January 2003. (You may note that is use the date format 17 January 2003, rather than January 17, 2003. This is due to my years in the military, as this is how we wrote dates. I still continue this to this day.)

The first year was very slow. The website had just over 20,000 visitors in that first year. I remember frequently checking my webstats on a daily basis, hoping for a big breakout day where I had thousands of visits. I kept cranking out articles as fast as I could in my spare time. As a member of the IG team, I travelled frequently, and I would have spare time in my hotel room, so I started travelling with two laptops, my government one and a personal one for the website. Up through early 2007, I added many articles each week.

DATE	Total # Visitors	# Page Views
2012 Total	394,993	762,160
2011 Total	376,184	725,867
2010 Total	355,920	707,861
2009 Total	323,371	688,062
2008 Total	314,629	661,338
2007 Total	250,478	587,520
2006 Total	145,444	413,431
2005 Total	93,968	238,451
2004 Total	52,483	154,715
2003 Total	20,389	56,482

2007-Present

In late 2006, I retired from the Air Force. Initially I still had time to work on articles, but I knew I would eventually have to get a job to pay the bills. In April 2007, I started working for the U.S. Postal Service as a letter carrier. I was hired as a Transitional Employee (TE), meaning that after 3-6 months, I could be hired as a full-time regular carrier. Soon after I was hired, a hiring freeze went into effect. This meant I could not be hired as a regular. It is a good paying job, and I've always had hopes of getting hired full-time, so I stuck with it. I've had no problem getting plenty of hours. Ever since 2007, I've been working six days a week. As a TE, I don't get sick days, so I've worked through it all, regardless of my health. (The last time I called in sick was 1992).

Because I walk 14 miles a day, I usually come home tired, and my website work suffered, and continues to suffer to this day. Since 2007, I've not written many articles...maybe a dozen per year (compared with a dozen or more per week before my postal job). I've recently created a new home office in the loft of my cabin, and I'm starting to get back in the habit of writing in the evenings, and on my single day off on Sunday. I must say it feels really good to be writing again. I hope that I can keep this up despite my day job.

Throughout these years, the website's number of visitors continued to grow, and during this time I started the Facebook page (March 2010). Also in 2012, the name was changed to Old Earth Ministries.

Website's Impact

Over the years I've received numerous emails and letters of support from people, and I cherish each one of them. I know that I am on the right track, helping people out, and it makes me feel good. For example, here's a few recent comments:

All my life I've felt like one of few people who believed in a mix of science and religion. I am glad to know I am not alone.

Thank you for this website. Unfortunately a lot of visits to young earth creation talks with friends, and the suggestion that I can't accept young earth creation, I can't be a Christian has put me off the Christian religion. However I am still interested in the debate and interested in showing how what the bible teaches can be reconciled with science rather than oppose it.

I just wanted to say I appreciate the vast amount of resources you and other collaborators have compiled on the website - I have made good use of them!

Of course, I've made many YEC's very upset at me, and I hear from them also. However, these negative comments do not distract me from my purpose, and they give me incentive to work even harder. A few of these negative comments have given me alarm, as they were threatening in nature. I've taken measures to make sure that I'm as protected as possible from any threats, which is why I'm such a big proponent of concealed carry laws in our country. It's a shame that I would have to take such measures for protection from fellow Christians, but when I consider that my family may also be at risk, it's an easy choice to make.

Curriculum

As a homeschooling parent, I decided it would be a good idea to add some free curriculum to the website. I started simple...the website mostly deals with geological topics, so I started in 2005 with the Geology curriculum, a twelve week course giving the basics of this science. This has by far been the most popular curriculum on the website, with hundreds of users per year, including use by entire school classes.

I later added the Earth History and Dinosaur curriculum. These have not had the same level of success, I think due to their length. Although designed for a semester, there is enough material in these to fill a 400 page textbook. The geology course, on the other hand, is short, simple, and easy to use. I may simplify these longer curriculums in the future.

There are at least three more that I would like to add. Most homeschool biology curriculums are young earth, so an old earth Christian biology course would probably be a big hit. The others are astronomy and biblical archaeology.

You may ask why I concern myself with these curriculums. Yes, they do take time away from the rebuttals I write. The reason I do them is two-fold. As a homeschooling parent, I can tell you that homeschooling can be expensive. I wanted to provide a free resource for other homeschool families. I would love to have an entire suite of curriculums on the website, providing an entire year's worth of curriculum free to homeschoolers. The second reason - it's a tool to bring in visitors to the website. They click on the curriculum from a search engine, and they may look into the main website to see who is providing this resource.

The Future - Finances

Ahh, it's all about money...it always is. The website costs about $450 per year to run. Although I don't actively seek donations through constantly pleading for funds, I do have a donations link on the page, and receive between $150 to $400 per year. I should be able to keep the website going indefinitely. Thanks to those who have helped out along the way.

I have always had a dream to work on the website full time. As you know, young earth ministries crank out dozens of web pages each week, so there is no lack of work for me. There is nothing I desire more than to work full time on this project, and this is my number one prayer request. Not a day goes by that I don't plead with God for this to become reality, and this issue gives me great pains, knowing that I am so far away from making this a reality. I second-guess my entire life, thinking about how I could have planned differently, and made this a reality. However, I also realize that if I had done things differently, I may not have taken the same road, and may never have created the website...so I gladly accept what my life is, and will do my best to make this goal a reality.

Unfortunately, I cannot see myself working on the website full time in the near future, as I have to make a living. My Air Force pension pays all my bills, but day to day living expenses, such as food, gas, etc., for a family of five is covered by my day job. I've contemplated the thought of living off donations (about $2,000/month, or 100 contributors at $20/month), but at the rate of $400 per year, I have not come close to this, nor have I pursued it by asking for monthly support.

I'm more than happy to continue working on the website, while working a day job. Whatever it takes for me to make the website a success, I'm willing to do. Once all my bills are paid (mortgage, car, loans), I can afford to quit and live off my pension. That will probably be 20 years from now, when I am in my 70's.

I am asking for your prayers for the future. I feel this website is my life's purpose, so as my life goes, so goes the website. I have some real life challenges ahead. In April, a new contract goes into effect between the letter carrier's union and the postal service. My pay will drop $5.80 per hour overnight. I found out about this the last week of January. Less than two weeks later, the postal service announced plans to go to five day a week delivery in August. As a 'permenent substitute,' this will mean I will probably be laid off. The only scenario where I still have a postal job in August is if 10-15 of our current carriers in our location opt for retirement in the next few months, which is highly unlikely. My best option would be to get a civilian job at the military base...but they just announced a hiring freeze.

These issues weigh heavily upon my heart. Please pray that God would give me wisdom, and give me direction for my life's future, which at this point is very uncertain. My future may include working on the website full time...or it may not. Whatever my future holds, I will embrace it and strive to serve the old earth creationist community to the best of my abilities.

Throughout it all, I stay encouraged by knowing that the website is helping a lot of people. I want to thank everyone in the old earth creationist community who has shown me such great support over the last ten years. I have not made this website a success...it is because of the many people who have found the website and used it over the years. THANK YOU for visiting the website, and for your kind words of support. I hope to continue to foster a great relationship with all of you, and I will do my best to continue to provide this service to the old earth creationist community.

God Bless,

Greg Neyman

To leave comments, please visit the Old Earth Ministries Facebook page.

If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while still believing in an old earth. Click here for more.

Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism? Now that we have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life? If you are a young earth creationism believer, click here.

Share This Page

To learn more about old earth creationism, see Old Earth Belief, or check out the article Can You Be A Christian and Believe in an Old Earth?

Feel free to check out more of this website. Our goal is to provide rebuttals to the bad science behind young earth creationism, and honor God by properly presenting His creation.