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MugaSofer comments on Open Thread, December 1-15, 2012 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Someone smart recently argued that there's no empirical evidence young earth creationists are wrong because all the evidence we have of the Earth's age is consistent either hypothesis that God created the earth 4000 years ago but designed it to look like it was much older. Is there a good one-page explanation of the core LessWrong idea that your beliefs need to be shifted by evidence even when the evidence isn't dispositive as versus the standard scientific notion of devastating proof? Right now the idea seems smeared across the Sequences.
Personally, I always argue that if God created the world recently, he specifically designed it to look old; he included light from distant stars, fossils implying evolution, and even created radioactive elements pre-aged. Thus, while technically the Earth may be young, evolution etc. predict what God did with remarkable accuracy, and thus we should use them to make predictions. Furthermore, if God is so determined to deceive us, shouldn't we do as he wants? :P