Do christians really belive the world is only 6000 years old?

Question

What do you have to say about ancient egyptian cultures known to have existed much longer than 6000 years. Or dinosaur fossils carbon dated to millions of years. Just to name a few. And if you say that god placed them there, I thought that god was not able to physically touch the earth, only influence it with his spirit

Answer 1

Why would you ask Christians about this?

You're talking about things in the Old Testament, which is a part of Judaism and only included in the Bible as a reference to the events leading up to the New Testament.

The New Testament contains the teachings of Jesus Christ and is therefore the foundation for Christianity.

Answer 2

No. The great majority of Christians are far more educated than that. But a few fringe fundamentalist groups try to find evidence in Scripture that the Earth is only a few thousand years old, for just one reason. If true, that would make biological evolution impossible. In reality however, there is no passage in the Bible that indicates the age of the Earth; and the fact that we KNOW with certainty that biological evolution has occurred would invalidate any such biblical interpretation anyway. Not that such interpretations need invalidation, since they have absolutely no authority behind them in the first place.

Answer 3

Alot of it is mis-understanding.

The words as we have them in the bible today read "Day" when representing how long the creation took. "And the evening and the morning were the second day." (gen somthing)... Well in the Hebrew text's the word does not mean "Day" it means "Span of time" (i don't know the hebrew word used.) So god created the earth in 6 spans of time and on the 7th span he rested.... No where does it say that these spans are of equal length, nor does it specify how long any span was.

Also, the bible never says how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden before they picked the fruit, nor does it say how long it was untill God kicked them out and death was ushered in... it could have been millions of years... could have been hours. We can only speculate.

However... I personally believe that Man has been on the earth (mortal man, meaning after Adam picked the fruit) for only about 6000 years. Because carbon dating is a Quack science. But I believe that the earth is Much Much older than that.

Answer 4

Some fundamentalist Christians think this. I am a fundamentalist Christian who believes the earth is older than that. Christians are a large and diverse group, so there are many opinions that differ both between and among denominations. You can't generalize about what "Christians" think. But I can tell you, I have met intelligent, intellectual Christians who do believe in what they call the "Young Earth Theory". They do have reasonable arguments to support this, such as evidence which pokes holes in the science behind carbon dating. (I say this having been a pretty serious science nerd myself in my younger days). So, don't dismiss them without at least doing some online research into Creation Science.

Answer 5

Yes, there are actually people who believe exactly what they are told by their church leaders and nothing else. Sad, but true. It always amuses me though that science is okay when they can turn on an electric light, drive an automobile, or take medication. But let's not go too far folks - that "earth science" stuff is just designed to throw them off the track, it's the devil's work or just made up altogether. Sorry I'm laughing but this is one of the things that I find hysterically funny about literal Creationists.

Answer 6

YES! Geologist will tell you when they are being honest that carbon dating is more of a guess than anything else. Carbon dating is like blind dating for people you never know what you will get. God does not have to physically touch the earth he just wiggles his nose the same as he taught Samantha to do. To some a year is an hour or a day or a month and to Geologist it is a second thus the million figures.

Answer 7

Nobody on either side (science or christian) has Proven anything to me yet.(and I'm Still going to Heaven)
Jesus walked the Earth and HE was GOD.
GOD can touch the Earth.
Imagine, GOD Almighty standing there, and a whole Town asked HIM to Leave.
Really. I mean that is Really Wild.

Answer 8

There's nothing in the Bible that even hints that it's 6000 years old.God's been around for all eternity,you mean he's only been busy for 6000 years?You can go back a billion yrs.,put down a stake and Jesus would still be there to meet you.

Answer 9

Some Christians do belive the world is about 6000 years old. Outside of religious circles, you will hear those who hold these beliefs referred to as Young Earth Creationists. Because this is not my particular belief, I am not familiar with what arguments they might make regarding ancient pre-Egyptian cultures (they go back ... what ... about 7,500 or 7,550 years if scientists have accurately pinpointed the timelines). Web sites address how young earth creationists explain such things as dinosaur fossils. But I suspect neither you nor I are actually interested in those explanations.

So let's focus on something else. The wonderful power and saving grace of the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I can stand shoulder to shoulder with a brother in Christ who believes the earth is only about 6000 years old. And one of might actually be wrong on that issue, but we can both be saved! Because the Lord does not require infallibility in Biblical interpretation.

Jesus died for our sins to save us. And our good works, including an ability to correctly interpret all of the Lord's words won't be enough without the grace of Jesus. (Rom. 3:10-12; Isaiah 64:6). The only way to be saved is to be saved by faith in Christ (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 5:1). If we trust in what Jesus did on the cross to forgive us of our sins and not trust anything else, not even your own sincerity or works.

So as Christians we can disagree on creationism, on evolution, on exactly how and in what manner God created the world, but as long as we believe and trust in Jesus. As long as we receive Jesus, who is God in flesh, who died and rose from the dead (1 Cor. 15:1-4) as our Lord and Savior and ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins and receive him into our hearts, we're going to be just fine. (John 1:12).

In closing, you mentioned that God can only affect the earth through his spirt, but not in physical ways. The Bible is full of direct acts taken by the Lord that very much touched and affect this Earth. So while I don't know that it matters, I must reject your proposed limitation on God's power.

God bless you for seeking knowledge of Christ,


Laura

Answer 10

just fundamentalists. catholic church doesn't think this way, for example. the pope has already stated a loooooong time ago, before the 80's, i'm not sure of the right year he did it, that religion and science are two separated things, that the evolution theory is correct, and that scientists are the right people to do research and discover things about the physical world, using their own methods. in this letter, he said the church and religion in general have to deal with spiritual and ethic matters.
for catholics, the big problems with science and religion nowadays are on the ethics field, then. (abortion, stemcells research, condoms, etc.)