Please can you correct me?

Question

Ok, To start with I am not religious and do not believe in God. However I am not against religion, I just feel it is a bit too mysterious for me to make a decision on.

My question - My fiancé is a Jehovah’s Witness - I was looking in one of her books with her the other day, and they had a timeline of relatives from Jesus, back to Adam. There were 76 generations - Assuming each generation lives to 50, and has their child at 35, this is a span of 2660 years. This added to our current year is 4667 years. Man was created on the 7th day, which means that Supposedly Earth was created 4667 years ago. Now I know this has some massive estimates in it's workings, and I don't believe this is in any way accurate - but even doubled, trebled, etc, How does it account for dinosaurs, the suns age. I can't believe that the earth is so young? how can this be?

ok - yes i assumed that a day was 24 hours - but i also assumed that humans wrote the bible - knowing what a day was, they must have been very confused to have misenterpreted a day for 1 million years

Answer 1

You fiancé should know the answer to this. Even if you strictly follow the English translation of scripture, the earth is about 6000 years old. But that's not what Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) believe.

JWs teach that we are still in the "6th day" (or that it has only recently ended). They consider these "days of creation" symbolic, not 24-hour days. This is obvious if you consider that the sun was created on the 4th day. A *literal* "day" is based on the rotation of the earth with respect to the sun. If the sun was created on the 4th day, what were the previous 3 days mentioned in Genesis? Certainly, there is no reason to believe that they were 24-hour days. Exploration of the Hebrew word behind the translation "day" supports this, as this word was used to represent time periods other than 24-hours (much like in English, when we say "in their day").

So, why do the translations say "day"? Because that is usually the most accurate translation of that word. If it were translated "period of time, maybe a day, maybe something more vague", it would be difficult reading - especially if done throughout scripture.

Also useful: if you review the order of creation in Genesis, it agrees quite well with the theory of evolution. Indeed, the only "problem" is the word translated as "birds", but this is better translated "flying creatures", as this same word was used to describe flying insects as well. Again, "birds" is the usual translation, and is an accurate translation for that word - but not the only accurate translation.

Once you have realized that the 7 days of creation are not 24-hour days, there is still the genealogy thing, which dates humanity to about 6,000 years. It does not matter that this is contrary to radio-isotope dating, as that technology is uncertain for many reasons. However, clearly human *history* pre-dates 4000 B.C. The problem here is that the word translated "son of" can be equally-accurately translated "descendent of". Likewise, "father of" can be accurately translated "ancestor of", and "fathered" likewise can be an indication of an ancestor of the male line. In other words, not every generation may have been mentioned (nor is there a claim that every generation *is* mentioned).

This *seeming* paradox can be seen *very* clearly in Matthew, who claims 42 generations from Abraham to David. He leaves quite a few generations out that are noted in scripture. This does not mean that there were not 42 generations - this statement is absolutely true. However, there were *more* than 42 generations, not *just* 42 generations.

Conclusion: the age of the earth as determined by scientists is purely theoretical. There is evidence supporting the (many) theorized ages given to life on our planet, but there is no certain method of determining even a ballpark age. On the other hand, the bible is also quite uncertain, unless the *English* translation is taken *literally* in a very strict fashion.

In other words, neither science nor the bible give us a good estimate of the age of the earth or of human life on it.

However, I would advise that, in the future, explore why scientific theories are still just theories before putting faith in them.

Jim, B.S. in Physics, http://www.life-after-harry-potter.com

Answer 2

Well, if one believes that God created the Earth, is it really that much of a leap for them to also believe that God could have created the Sun as it is, or even dinosaur fossils in the ground as they are? Would it make sense, for instance, for the Sun to be made at its earliest life cycle when it probably could not support life within the solar system, or when it has settled down and can support life?

Further, carbon dating of things operates under the assumption that at one time the fossils were at a stage where they had not yet deteriorated at all. Its like seeing a stop watch ticking away at 1:30 and assuming that it started at 0:00. But if God can create everything, couldn't he create the stop watch already displaying 1:00, in which case it was only 30 seconds old, or couldn't he create fossils that had already deteriorated?

When operating under the assumption that there is a God who can do anything, its not really that unbelievable. You say you are not religious yourself, so I doubt this will necessarily hold weight with you, other than showing how some people do see the issue, which I think is what you were after.

Answer 3

You are looking in the wrong place when you look at Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) books. That "religion" was started by Charles Russell in the 19th century , a man who didn't believe in hell, and who started new teachings denying the deity of Jesus and the existance of the Trinity. Actually, it's not really a religion, it's a cult that uses the New World Translation instead of a bible. The New World Translation used by the JWs is not a translation at all, its a revision of real bibles which was changed to support the wierd teachings of the JWs. All references to hell have been cut out and a lot of things were mistranslated. Look into the origin of the JWs and you'll probably be shocked to think that people would actually believe in their teachings. The people who were supposed to do the translating were not capable of doing so. In fact, except for one, none had any experience in translating anything.
As for the timing of creation, it's possible that the "days" of creation may not be 24 hour days, but the JWs claim that their organization had existed since the time Adam was alive is just nonsense. There is absolutely no support for this claim in any of the real bibles. Note that all their prophesies concerning the end of time have been wrong. This fact alone should convince you that they're not prophets and the Watchtower organization has them running scared. They're constantly pushed to be counted among the few who will go to heaven. They would be better off if they placed their faith in Jesus rather than an organization.

Answer 4

Your calculations are a bit off. For instance Adam lived 930 years,it is possible that Abel may have been as much as 100 years old at the time of his martyrdom.During the pre-Flood period, the life span approached a thousand years. (Ge 5:5-29) The people closer to man’s original perfection enjoyed greater longevity than those farther removed from it. The longest life on record is that of Methuselah, who lived 969 years. After the Flood, the human life span dropped rapidly.
LENGTHS OF LIFE OF THE PATRIARCHS

Name Length of Life

Adam 930yrs

Seth 912yrs

Enosh 905yrs

Kenan 910yrs

Mahalalel 895yrs

Jared 962yrs

Enoch 365yrs

Methuselah 969yrs

Lamech 777yrs

Noah 950yrs

Shem 600yrs

Arpachshad 438yrs

Shelah 433yrs

Eber 464yrs

Peleg 239yrs

Reu 239yrs

Serug 230yrs

Nahor 148yrs

Terah 205yrs

Abraham 175yrs

Isaac 180yrs

Jacob 147yrs

Answer 5

Your calculations are a bit off. When humans were closer to perfection, they lived a lot longer.

I would recommend your read Study Number 3 "Measuring Events in the Stream of Time" in the "All Scripture Is Inspired of God and Beneficial"Book. It will help you count back to Adam's Creation.

Also, nowhere in the Bible does it give us how long one of the creative days were. Genesis 2:4 speaks of "the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven." This one day encompasses all six of the creative days of Genesis chapter 1. According to Bible usage, a day is a measured period of time and can be a thousand years or many thousands of years. The Bible's creative days allow for thousands of years of time each. Further, the earth was already in existence before the creative days began. (Genesis 1:1)
For a more detailed explanation you might want to read the following article: http://www.watchtower.org/e/20020608/article_01.htm

Answer 6

A day in Gods time does not necessarily mean a day of 24 hours. We do not know for sure how long a day is in that time, but it does not specify in the bible that it is 24 hours.
So the earth could be millions of years old. Animals were on the earth before humans. There is no evidence that humans were around when dinosaurs were.

Additional Comment: The Bible was inspired by God. He used men to write it but it was God's thoughts.

Answer 7

The earth is conservatively estimated at 3.8 billion years old, but at the moment there is just no exact way of knowing. If the most ingenious and scientific minds the world has ever produced, in all the time we have been walking upright, still cannot date the earth, then how the bloody hell can anyone believe a 19th century American evangelist who started a religion with a bible study group in the 1870's? Who predicted the return of Christ at least 3 times and on each occasion when he inevitably failed to show ( he's done this quite a lot I believe) the date for His return was simply put forward to another random date.

The JW's are a poisonous and utterly detestable religous cult; I was in exactly the same situation as you, and the answer from Nea VT is exactly right. Your fiancee will almost certainly be pressurized and blackmailed into dumping you because you are not "in the faith", or she will be pressurized to convert you to their twisted way of thinking.

I wish you much luck with this, I fear you are going to need it

Answer 8

Dinosaurs are mentioned in the Bible. Also, God tells us that his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. Many dispute how long one of God's days is. Some take the 7 day creation literally, while others think one day could have been thousands of years. Keep looking - you might find that much of what makes you doubt actually has an answer.

I know you don't believe, but God bless.

Answer 9

Among your many assumption is the one that the seven "days" of creation were 24 hours each. On what day was the light divided from the darkness? Perhaps the word "day" was metaphorical to describe an unspecific period of time.

Answer 10

The link below will give you some insight into the young earth creationist views. Most young earth estimates are around 6000 years. Good luck.