How are people convinced that the earth is only a few thousand years old? Christians honestly believe this?

Answer 1

Hindus believe that earth is at least 5 billion years of more. hindus are not afraid to face the truth. hindu god is a master who teaches hindus the mystery of cosmos. he want every hindu to search, be a witness, be aware of the truth. he want each one of them to reach him and melt into him through ones own karma, sheer dedication and effort. for hindu science is religion. its a part of thier scriptures.

as per genesis creation is around the year approx. 3670 BCE. so for christians around 6000 years is thier approximation. so thier god is just about 6000 years old. happy birth day god.

prophetic religions do not believe in facts, truth or reason. if god said this is truth, they just follow it like sacrificial lambs. if men like copernicus, galelio were not around chuch would have fooled all christians. none of the invention would have taken place. we would have been still going around in horse drawn carriages, with no means for fighting poverty, diseases and praying to god for mercy.

i think all christians will be frowning up on me for having said earth is more than 5 billion years. Well, we hindus encourage scientists to carry out more work in this field and unravel the mystery and shed more light on the evolution so that we can be prepared for the next quantum leap.

Answer 2

I keep seeing some posts saying that not all Christians believe this, only Creationists....firstly, if a person doesn't believe in the Creation by God, they aren't Christians. I don't see how one could claim to be a Christian and not believe that God created the earth...though I'd be interested in hearing the reasoning behind this if one says that's exactly what describes them.... Second, it may not be quite right to say Christians believe the earth is only a "few" thousand years old (that would only put us at ca. 1,000 B.C., and it is fact the earth is older than that. Biblical Archaeology already proves the earth to be at least 6 thousand years old, and some Christians will go as far as to say it is more like 10,000 years old (based on field work and reading of Biblical geneology). It is a necessary reminder, though, that science is made up of a whole lot of theories (whether it is pro or con science or religion). If someone says that this or that fossil is 500,000 years old, that is based on a system of dating....but who were the first people to begin dating items, and by what criteria did they decide that this or that is this many years old? What made them right? We should question them in the same way that early Christians and the Catholic rule was eventually put into question. I've heard all the theories, but then again, they are only theories, and not proven. We give a lot of weight to science, but what do we really know? Perhaps--using a more flexible view of Creation--maybe the earth is actually billions of years old, but Adam and Eve were the first humans--that is, homosapiens, using the science lingo--and were the first of the royal line that leads to those who call themselves Christians...perhaps? But then again, this is a theory too (not mine, by the way). We can never answer these questions, and trying to state any of the theories as absolute truth is bold.

Answer 3

I have given this theory as an answer to similar questions before on this board. Astromers postulate the universe as a circular body that is rotating. We are on a small planet somewhere toward the outer end, as our evidence places the age of our planet at 8-10 billion years old. So we are further out on the wheel. The age of the universe is not being measured by us time-bound finite carbon life forms, but by the Creator at the center of the universe, where the wheel is necessarily spinning much slower. The age of 6,000 years or so could be right at the center and 8 billion could be right at our point in the spinning mass of galaxies. Just a theory, but a sincere if imperfect attempt to reconcile faith with science without denying either.

Answer 4

If you believe and except everything in the bible as fact or history, then you have some serious issues to deal with. The folks that bought you the bible were the same ones insisted that the earth was the center of the universe. The bible was compiled by some of the most corrupt and evil people in the history of mankind. Believe in God and his massage of love and peace, and use common sense when reading the bible. It is a guide and not a history book.

Answer 5

Not all christians do.
I think the great dinosaurs (such as the t-rex) were here perhaps millions of years before man came on the scene. The Bible supplies no proof of this, but there are ways of understanding the creation narrative that permit this view. Here's one of them:

The original creation is described in Gen. 1:1. The six days described in subsequent verses may have taken place millions or even billions of years after the original creation. In other words, God made the universe billions of years ago. He put all kinds of creatures, including dinosaurs, on this planet. The earth, at that time and for millennia to follow, was "without form and void"---i.e., not fit to serve as a habitat for mankind. So, at some point, perhaps millions of years after a comet hit the earth, destroying the dinosaurs and filling the atmosphere with debris and causing unparalleled catastrophic events such as massive tsunamis and earthquakes and flooding of huge land masses, God began clearing away the debris from the atmosphere allowing sunlight to pass through---"Let there be light." He caused further atmospheric changes---"Thus God made the firmament." He caused the submerged land to rise up out of the waters, thus forming the oceans and the great land masses---"Let the waters...be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And on it goes. On the sixth day, He made man in His image and after His likeness and gave him dominion over all the earth and its many creatures.

Answer 6

Christians that accept the age of the universe and earth at about 6 to 7 thousand years old are often called "young earth" creationists of which I am one. This belief is based on the geneologies stated in the Bible in several places which records the ages of men from Adam (the first man) to Jesus which is about 4,000 yrs and we add another 2,000 yrs to get from Jesus's time to now which is about 6,000 yrs.

Outside of the Bible we see that carbon dating is only used to get dates up to about 10,000 yrs of age. Some radiometric dating give ages from hundreds of millions to a billion years of age. It is hardly known that a 8 yr research project that had its results published about 18 months ago provided support for the following: No one had ever really tested the radiometric decay rate for helium ( the most abundant element in the world) and it was tested and the awesome result is that hundreds of millions of years worth of radiometric decay of uranium ( the usual choice for this kind of testing) are shown to take place in about 6,000 years (the amount of time it takes for the helium to decay). So here we have two different elements giving us two very different decay time frames, one in hundreds of millions of years and another in thousands.

Besides these findings consider this also; that same study group found traces of carbon in coal and in diamonds which shows that less than 10,000 years of time occured for the coal and diamonds to be formed not the millions or more that people think it takes for coal and diamonds to form.

There are other scientific methods that also give a young earth view support. The only other factor to really consider is the distance in light years that we see in space which infers that millions of years are needed for light to travel various distances in our galaxy. Young earth creationists can believe that God made the sun and stars instantly and their light was also instantly beaming from those sources to earth without millions of years involved. There are a couple of other explanation also but the bottom line is this. Christians can believe in a young earth creation and also in observable science and not have a conflict about it. Some Christians accept the universe happened in billions of years such as in the big bang theory but very few accept any darwinism type of evolution when it comes to man's existance. Hope I didn't bore you with all of this.

Answer 7

2nd Peter 3 : 7 - 8 .. But when the heavens and the earth , which are now , by the same word are kept in store , reserved unto fire against the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men .. But , beloved , be not ignorant of one thing , that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years , and a thousand years as one day .............All your questions are answered at the web site christiananswers.net

Answer 8

some do, yes.

Some Christians feel the earth is 7000 years old. It is well within Satans power to age a bunch of bones nad other things to make it seem older.

Other Christians agree more with the popular belief, that it is millions of years old.

All I will say is that Christians believe that the word of God (Bible) is true, and anything contrary to the word is false.

The bible never gets into how old earth is, so a CHristian is open to believe either theory.

I hope this helps, this is just my interpretaion of the viewpoints on this matter.

Thanks for the question, enjoy your evening!

Answer 9

Christians believe so. Yes. Other religions believe so too. But the argument between church and evolutionists has found a middle territory. The thousand years that christians believe to give to earth are actaully in terms of God years. Not human years. In other words the time when the earth was created does not matter so much as other things do.

Answer 10

they are convinced because a primitive storyteller, in ancient Sumeria, made a story about the creation of the world, and about 2000 years later this story, after some modifications, was introduced into the book of Genesis.
so a good story goes a long way, especially if you find a good publisher.