Once again, I was woolgathering while riding. Out Folly Road, past Stinking Lake (not as bad as it sounds), and I decided to head on back. Of a sudden, I noticed a horse under a tree. Heading closer, I saw Lisa Myworries, the Winkie Guards supervisor at the Darwin Ranch sitting there.
She beckoned me over and said she needed to talk. Although the Darwin Ranch up yonder by Deception Pass is infested with atheists, she believed in God. Recent creation in six days bothered her. Lisa wondered why biblical creationists have a problem with long ages.
The idea of the early chapters of Genesis actually being allegorical or symbolizing long ages is understandable when coming from new Christians, sincerely-questioning unbelievers, and people who have not really thought about the ramifications before. When professing Christians who claim to believe the Bible try to force millions of years into Scripture and compromise with secular concepts, that's a very different matter.
Lisa and I had a nice talk until sunset. I mentioned Exodus 20:11, which is problematic for people who claim to believe the Bible but compromise on the creation narrative. You see, compromising on the first eleven chapters of Genesis is like a domino effect because it is important through the entire Bible and impacts the gospel message itself.
The problem with mixing long ages and the Bible stems from how someone interprets Genesis 1 and 2. If these chapters are read as symbolic and/or poetic (not as a literal, historical account of how God created the universe), the question then becomes: How should the rest of Genesis—and the Bible—be interpreted? The answer is a subjective determination. As it turns out, exegeting—analyzing a passage to discover its intended meaning—Genesis, a Hebrew narrative (i.e., not Hebrew poetry), demonstrates the inerrancy of the creation account and, thus, a young earth.
You would do well to finish reading over at "Long Ages and the Bible—What’s the Problem?"