Why do some Christians believe a very young Earth? AFAIK, some Young Earth Creationists (YEC) believe that Earth was created less than 10000 years ago; that is a relatively small interval before the creation of human beings.

However, I also perceive that most creationists do not have a problem with a "huge" (i.e. light-years) Universe since this is in sync with God's attribute of infinity. 

I am wondering how can YEC's deal with a very "big" God and space, but restrict the time dimension so much. Intuitively, an infinite God is somehow in contradiction with such small time spans (thousands of years).

Question: Why do some Christians believe in a very young Earth?
Prior to the birth of Christ, most Jewish scholars assumed the genealogies in the Bible were accurate and complete and the account of creation was literal history, hence attributed an age to the earth in the thousands of years.
Jesus, speaking with the authority of God, endorsed the accuracy and divine authority of the Bible. Mark 10:6 says: “But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.”
The early church adopted such views, with a few dissenters.
Many Reformation leaders taught that the earth's age could be inferred from Scripture and also taught that its age was in the thousands of years.
The advent of modern science challenged the religious beliefs of millions. Some accepted theories born of this science and rejected the idea of a young earth. 
Other people place a higher credence in the words of scripture and reject attempts to import ideas not apparent in the original text based solely on human scientific theories.
As this deepening fissure widened both outside and inside the church, four tendencies arose:

a) Change Biblical hermeneutics to permit an older age for the earth and make the creation story allegorical.

b) Seek scientific evidence that contradicts the Big Bang, evolution, radioactive dating, and related ideas and techniques, as well as explore phenomena indicative of a younger age for the earth.

c) Accept the Bible on faith because of the powerful evidence of its divine nature demonstrated to them by the indwelling Holy Spirit and the miraculous events that He produces in their lives, without making a significant attempt to investigate the scientific ideas and how they are seemingly in conflict with the Biblical account.

d) Reject the Bible and Christianity altogether.


The people who have taken path 7b (the subject of your question) are in the minority. They have credible answers to many of the objections of the scientific community, but the problem posed by our ability to see distant starlight has proven to be the most difficult to answer. Russell Humprehys has a white-hole cosmology, while another has offered the effects of adopting an Anisotropic Synchrony Convention when interpreting General Relativity as a possible answer.