How is the figure of how old the earth is arrived at - do you really believe that the earth is 6000 years old? Do you believe the universe is also 6000 years old? There are a lot of people who cite evidence of geological features on the earth, arceological data, physical evidence from digs that say the earth is much older.
I know I havn't posted anything specific but I am giving you a chance to lay out your belief clearly without any prejudice from me - tell me what you know? Knowledge is interesting and I would like a little more knowledge of this subject thank you.
However although I understand it will be necessary to quote the bible to back yourself up please refrain from cutting and pasting long passages - tell me how what you write relates to what you believe as I could interpret it in the wrong way or fail to understand completly otherwise.
2007-02-16 02:32:39 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
If you do the Geneologies.... Adam was x years old when He begat Seth....etc. you come up with a number approximating 6000. Most of the timelines that attempt to "prove" that the earth is much older rest on untestable hypotheses. (Regarding carbon dating,for example, they assume that the percentage of carbon that is carbon 14 has always been the same, and that it has always had the currently observed half life) If a hypothesis is not testable, it is not science. Scripture is given to this earth. It does not tells us anything about the creation of the universe.
2007-02-16 02:41:20 · answer #1 · answered by hasse_john 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The date 4004 bc written in many Bibles is not a part of the inspired text and was the miscalculations of a man only about 800 years ago. Its the equivalent of an editor's comment.
The world was surely created a lot earlier than that. The reason for the miscalculation was the false assumption that the Bible listed every generation in the geneologies. But this is extremely unlikely. The Bible is not an exhaustive history, it is an inspired history. In other words, it doesn't tell everything that happened, but it tells everything God wanted us to know.
I am basically a creationist. God must be the ultimate cause of everything. Whether he did so by evolution or in the blink of an eye is up to him. However, the case for evolution is still weak and seems to be to be getting weaker.
I personally think that God created an "old earth." In other words He made it from nothing, but put it down in the middle of all the applicable life cycles. Basically this means that on the day plants were made, some where young, some were old, some were only seeds, and some were already dead providing nutrients for the younger ones. Some were probably even fossalized.
This is consistent in my mind with the reason that God doesn't drop a sign out of heaven saying, "Hey world, shape up." I better explain that some. God is capable of making it absolutely clear to the whole world that He exists. But He doesn't because to do so would be equivalent of taking away our choice to believe. If it was proven we would not have a choice and therefore we would not be free in that regard. But notice love freely given is much better. Love that is coerces is almost meaningless. So if everything pointed back to a certain date when everything popped into existance, it would be a way of forcing belief.
2007-02-16 10:49:51 · answer #2 · answered by Wind Chime 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I can't speak for every Christian. But I believe since the Bible is about the beginning of the fall of man, and not about how this earth was created that more emphesis was aimed at man than at the creation of the earth.
I believe Adam and Eve was created after the dinosaurs became extinct. The bible tells us that a thousand years to God is as one day to us, and one day to God can be as a thousand years to us.
2007-02-16 10:42:42 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
They use genealogy that is listed in the bible and get a rough estimate, as a creationist though I don't know if the Earth is young or old though I tend to think that it is several billion years old, but I wasn't there so i can't say.
2007-02-16 10:43:11 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
One can be a creationist ("In the beginning God created...") and not believe in a young universe.
2007-02-16 10:36:26 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I know its older than 6000 because of the chili revelation.
2007-02-16 10:38:15 · answer #6 · answered by Serpent 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
not a creationist but i'll answer for one:
(et al) this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
2007-02-16 10:37:19 · answer #7 · answered by Jillary von Hämsterviel™ 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
oh i cant wait to read this!!
2007-02-16 10:35:26 · answer #8 · answered by mickey g 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋