Why do creationists think the earth is only 6000 years old?

Question

Aside from literally deriving a timeline from the bible.

The only thing that the creationist have proven to me is that the history of the Israeli people go back 6000 years.

Answer 1

How is the age of the Earth computed from the Bible?

Young Earth Creationists comprise mainly Orthodox Jews and Christians who interpret the creation account of Genesis as historically accurate, factually correct, and in most cases, strictly inerrant. Analogously, those Muslims who might be described as Young Earth Creationists regard the account of creation in the Qur'an in the same way.

The text of Genesis relates that God created the Earth in six days and rested on the seventh. God also planted the Garden of Eden for the habitation of Adam and Eve. As a result of the subsequent Fall of Man (Eating the Apple from the Tree of Knowledge), Genesis reports that humanity was forced to work hard to provide food, childbirth became painful, and physical death entered the world.

The Genealogies of Genesis record the line of descent from Adam to Noah to Abraham, with the ages at which they had the next in line and the ages at which they died. According to the account, God sent a global flood 1656 years after Adam. Young Earth Creationists assert that the Flood was a combination of radical geological activity (the opening of the "fountains of the great deep") and extreme rainfall (from "windows in the firmament of heaven"). They claim that the land before the flood lay much lower than it does now, but that extreme geological action during the Flood raised mountains to new heights and dropped the sea-bed, so that the water that had covered the land flowed into the sea. Young Earth Creationists sometimes refer to a loosely codified idea called "Flood geology" to argue that the vast majority of present-day geological features are the result of the Great Flood. Young Earth Creationists further argue that anthropological evidence has shown that every culture studied has, in its history, a story similar to that of Noah in two aspects: the existence of a catastrophic flood and human and animal life saved by a man who built a large boat and placed all life on it for the duration of the flood.

After the flood, Genesis reports increasingly short lifespans dropping quickly from an average of 900 years at the time of Noah to an average of 100 by the time of Abraham. Young Earth Creationists have suggested that this is due to effects associated with inbreeding that took place after the flood, as only eight people remained. Young Earth Creationists also assert that all modern species of land vertebrates are descended from those original animals on the ark. Most Young Earth Creationists believe that the Ark kinds diversified as they subsequently adapted to their environments by the process of variation and natural selection. Many Young Earth Creationists assert that the process of variation and natural selection resulted in a net loss of genetic information.

Subsequent genealogies in the text identify individuals named Egypt, Gomer, Sheba, Canaan, and Sidon, who are said to have founded the cities and civilizations that were later to bear their names.

There is a further complexity introduced by the creation story in Genesis itself. Even if one were to accept the biblical genealogies as truth, this only traces the creation of Adam back to perhaps 4000 to 8000 BCE. But the time interval from the creation of the universe to the creation of Adam is a matter of intense debate among bible-believing creationists. That is because of the ambiguity associated with the Hebrew word "yom" which appears frequently in the Genesis creation stories. It is translated as "day" in all of the English versions of the Bible of which we are aware. But it can also mean an indeterminate interval of time.

Most young earth creationists believe that "yom" means a day of 24 hours. In the specific context of Genesis 1, since the days are both numbered and are referred to as "evening and morning", this can mean only normal-length days. This puts the date of creation of the universe according to a literal interpretation of the Bible at 4000 to 8000 BCE. However, old earth creationists suggest that each of the six "days" of creation might have taken many hundreds of millions of years. Further, there might have been one or more long intervals of time between some of the "days." This is argued by mentioning the Day of the Sabbath as commanded by God, in favor of "yom" being a single 24-hour period

Answer 2

Interesting discussion. The earth's rotational period is irregular, sometimes speeding up, and sometimes slowing down. Averaged out, the rate is gradually slowing, and leap seconds must periodically be inserted to keep earth in sync with cesium clocks that are more accurate keepers of time. In a spiritual context, we routinely accept the notion that time might flow at different rates according to locale. Hence the underpinning of 2 Peter 3:8: "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." I can't begin to explain how it is that time passes more slowly with the Lord than here. Care should be exercised in performing young-earth-type math based on this scripture, however, because the verse doesn't actually state how long the Lord's day actually is. It can't be literally determined from the verse since any length of time would still satisfy the notion. Regardless if the Lord's day were millions or billions of years long, a thousand years might pass here. Anyway, I think the scripture's intent is to suggest that the interval between events is longer there compared with here. I say interval between events because I think time has no value in an eternal realm. The comedian Woody Allen kind of expressed this humorously when stated that "Eternity is a very long time—especially towards the end."

Answer 3

The bible does not say that the plant earth is 6000 years old. From dates and calculations, man has been on the earth for 6000 years.

The planet earth was already here before God started to make it inhabitable on the first creative day. Man was not created until the sixth day. We do not know how long the creative days are. We are in the seventh rest day now and it has lasted over 6000 years.

Answer 4

Not all believe that the earth is only 6000 years old.

Those who do pretty much use the bible as their basis. They "back that up" by attacking the methods used to date the earth. They will say that carbon dating is innacurate, even though carbon dating is not used to determine how old the earth is. It is funny, they will claim that carbon dating is accurate when they are using it to validate some historical find that works with the bible.

Answer 5

Have a look at godsgirl's answer.
IT shows exactly how creationists think. They tend to be narrow minded bigots who will grab any unsubstantiated morsel of 'evidence' no matter how tenacious and treat it as 'gospel truth'. as long as it supports their argument.
And they keep referring to the bible, a discredited compilation of essays, rooted in superstition, copied and translated so often that they bear little resemblance to the original texts.
We have living things on Earth older than the planet is if we believe the creationist theories,
I will not even refer to the well known Bristlecone pines, sequoias and yew trees.
Here are a few lesser known examples of things that were and are still alive before the creationists say the earth was created.

( Creationists will say that God made them this age when he created them, how can you argue against such blind ignorance?)
October, 1999; 250-million-year-old bacteria were found in ancient sea salt beneath Carlsbad, New Mexico. The microscopic organisms were revived in a laboratory after being in 'suspended animation', encased in a hard-shelled spore, for an estimated 250 million years.


May, 1995; 40-million-year-old bacteria (Bacillus sphaericus) were found in the stomach of a bee encased in amber. These bacteria were also found in a state of suspended animation and were re-animated in a laboratory.

1997; King's Holly (Lomatia tasmanica) - found in the rainforests of Tasmania. Scientists estimated the age of the plant using a nearby fossil of an identical plant. It was found to be over 43,000 years old!

August, 1999; Box Huckleberry (Gaylussacia brachycera) - researchers in Pennsylvania have discovered a living plant that is a remnant of the last Ice Age. Using the known rate of growth if this self-sterile plant, they estimated that this 1/4-acre colony is over 13,000 years old. Researchers are still trying to verify the growth rate to determine is that age is an accurate measure.

March, 2004; Eucalyptus recurva. Also known as "Mongarlowe Mallee" or "Ice Age Gum" it is the rarest Eucalypt in Australia or the world, and is known from only 5 individual specimens. Scientists in Australia are undertaking analyses to determine the exact age of one specimen that is estimated to be 13,000 years old. This aging method also relies on determining the plant's growth rate. Scientists are stilly verifying the growth and performing genetic analyses of neighboring specimens to determine if they are from the same organism.

April, 1980; Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata). Scientists discovered a giant, and very ancient clone of the creosote bush in the Mojave Desert in California they estimated to be between 11,000 and 12,000 years old.

Answer 6

Because the layering of the Earth's strata is not due to eons upon eons of dirt being laid down, but from hydrologic sorting due to a worldwide Flood. There are no erosion marks between the layers, which prove that they cannot be "millions of years" old. There are thousands of other facts I could share with you, but they won't fit here. I would recommend reading "The Evolution Cruncher" by Vance Ferrell.

Answer 7

Well there is some scientific evidence, though VERY bias and selective that could suggest a young earth.

Yet the problem with young earth creationist is that they approach all scientific evidence with a bias in mind. Instead of maintaining an open mind. So much of the supposed science is actually pretty weak.

Answer 8

Aside from a Biblically generated timeline?

For us, that's enough because the Bible is God's Word.
And it supports good science, not the science promoted by National Geographic..

Answer 9

Because on the whatever day God created man, so they think history starts there. Amazing thing is that Noah didn't have any t-rex's on his big boat.

Answer 10

Well, I think the bible is actually where they get their timeline. Not sure of anything else.