Let's make a deal with the Young-Earth Creationists!

Edit: Thanks to everyone for their input! And on the off-chance that anyone ever reads this again, let me clarify that I was in my youth a devout YEC (though we didn't call it that), and I made this deal with myself then so I could work alongside people with whom I completely disagreed. And look how that turned out.

I never expected this idea to turn the world around overnight, or ever. But it had a hand in turning my world around, and the world of more than a handful of others since then. Take that for what it's worth.

Here's the deal I propose that we offer any YEC's willing to discuss it:

• We accept and admit that the Universe could be far younger than it appears, had a sufficiently powerful entity (one running a universe simulator for example) chosen to make it so.
• You accept and admit that while the Young-Earth Creation story is convincing to you, it might not be so for everyone, and that honest, reasonable people might sincerely disbelieve it.
• We BOTH accept and admit that according to overwhelming evidence, the Universe currently operates according to testable principles, and that these principles are most effectively studied, modeled and understood using the scientific method.

I believe this agreement would allow both camps to live and work together effectively until one or the other inevitably succumbs to attrition.

Worst-case example: You're a brilliant scientist, your brilliant and beautiful wife is an otherwise rational Last Thursdayist, and you both accept this agreement.

Since the Universe since last Thursday has functioned the same as if it were 2 6 10-25 12-20 13.7 13.8 billion years old, you can both examine the evidence and come to the same conclusions about things like AdS/CFT correspondence, perhaps disagreeing on theory but never on dogma. And of course, the sex can still be great.