the BIBLE states that the world is about 6000 years old? so why do so many people date it at 3.2 million years

Answer 1

Because the Bible is wrong, often

Answer 2

You're sort of comparing apples to oranges. First off, no where in the Bible does it state that the world is 6000 years old. You're adding the time line of Genesis 1 with the time line of Adam & Eve and the rest of humanity. Genesis 1 is not a literal one week of creation. "One day" of creation to God could be a million, ten million, or a hundred million or more years to us. Such numbers would have little meaning to the Jews to who the book was originally written for. The Big Bang Theory, which is a physical impossibility if it weren't for a creator God, only proves His existence (as does the rest of life on Earth). Within that initial "first week", only God knows what went on (from dinosaurs to Cro-Magnon man). Oh, by the way, there IS archeological evidence for both the Flood and the Ark, not to mention the rest of the Old Testament "stories".

Answer 3

Where in the Bible does it say 6000 years? Creation happened in seven non-earth days (earth wasn't created until the 4th day), which could have easily have been million of years by itself. We don't know how long Adam and Eve stayed in the garden before getting evicted. And you cant count the generations by a random generic number. Some of these guys lived to be well over a hundred and still fertile. I'm not saying the Bible is wrong, I'm saying that people interpret it in their own understanding of the universe.

Answer 4

Actually the Bible never dates the Earth. The whole 6000-8000 yr old thing came from some priest who tried to date every event in the Bible back a century ago. He published this version with the dates in the margins. He used the ancestory accounts in books like Numbers and Leviticus and others. however, these books skip several geneartions. The point is no one knows how old the earth really is. Only God himself. Check out "Hell? Yes!" by Robert Jeffress. He explains it all.

Answer 5

The bible does not give an age for the earth. the 6k figure was ginned up by a theologian who claimed to have used arithmetic to have determined the number from 'the ages of the patriarchs'.

If you examine the Bible you'll find that the numbers required for the calculation aren't there. There's a long list of genealogies after genesis wherein that ages of the descendants of Adam are stated and an incomplete genealogy is put forth.

To calculate the age of the earth using such information would require the ages of all the patriarchs when their next named descendant in the list was born. The ages in the book are, with only a few exceptions, are the ages at death, hence not useful for figuring the age of the earth.

The age of the earth is based on the ratios of long lived radioisotopes in the earth's crust, the moons surface and meteoritic material.

Answer 6

I would suggest you start by researching Sir Charles Lyell and the concept of Uniformitarianism. The forces that act on the Earth have been the same throughout time. Given this, there is no other rationale, observable and measurable explanation for the geologic features we observe today than that these forces have worked over an extended period of time.

Next I would suggest you review the energy balance equation as it relates to convection and the cooling of the Earth's surface.

Then there is the red shift from astronomy, paleomagnetism, fossil records, the earth's rotation (slowing of), the amount of H remaining in the Sun, Nicolaus Steno and the Law of Superposition, the presence of limestone in Continental interiors, discontinuities shared between Greenland and North America, etc. etc.

Finally, I would strongly encourage you to not get any information from the Maranatha Christian Church.

Answer 7

because in the time when the bible was written people thought it was around 6,000 years old. Dont forget that the bible is only a form of literature that people use to express their religion. You can still be a christian withought taking the bible word for word. Remember, Emperor Constantine was the person who originaly chose what to put in the bible, and threw away over 83 volumes, only keeping an original 3. So how can u trust a work that man put together?

Answer 8

The Bible does not state the age of the world. Certain religions do, but the Bible makes no mention of the age of the planet. Beyond that, who dates it at 3.2 million years? Informed Geologists certainly don't. Where are you getting your information?

Answer 9

The bible never said that the world was 6000 years old. If you read it the bible goes back further before Adam and Eve. I can back this up. Take what you want with this answer, and run with it.

Answer 10

People do not date the world at 3.2 million years. The Earth is about 4.55 billion years old. Scientists have dated it by a combination of radiometric dating of zircons (a type of very old mineral found on Earth) and determinations of the age of the entire Solar System by radiometric dating of meteorites and lunar samples. Since the Earth is part of the Solar System and formed with it they are the same age.

Radiometric dating works by looking at the ratio of a particular mineral isotope and its nuclear decay product. When a radioactive isotope decays the result is always a particular different element. Uranium for instance decays to lead. That ratio is related to the rate of decay of the isotope and the amount of time since the mineral first formed.

It is very accurate because the decay product is a different element. In the case of uranium and lead, when the uranium mineral first forms it will have no lead in it because lead minerals and uranium minerals form in different ways so we know that any lead we measure will be the result of uranium nuclear decay.

The rate of decay is constant and completely unaffected by the environment such as temperature etcetera because nuclear decay is a nuclear reaction. Nuclear reactions involve levels of energy far greater than energy levels of heat and other environmental effects.

It is very easy to determine the rate of decay by measuring the level of radioactivity of the isotope. The radio activity comes from the decay process so high levels of radio activity mean high rates of decay and vice versa. The technique is really quite simple and straight forward, which is why scientists have lots of confidence in it's accuracy.

Answer 11

The Bible does not state this. That is what theologins that want you to believe that the Bible is an exact historical record of the world want you to believe. I believe that the Bible is a record of one familial line in a specific geographical area of the world and not an account of all time.