How Old Is The Earth

trophy33 said:

It was not given to us, it was given to ancient Israelites. We have science to determine the scientific reality, we do not need to get it from a bronze age literature.


All of that denies the literal reading of Genesis 1 and 2, the global concept of the biblical flood and, indeed, a 6,000 years old creation.

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When Creation occurred is a historical question. Not a scientific one. Creation occurred approx 6000 years ago. That’s not very long ago. Next thing you’ll tell me is that it is just coincidental that it is supported by History.

Platte said:

The Earth was created approximately 6000 years ago not billions of years ago.

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Show me your evidence. Trees have layers, ice core samples have layers, geology like the grand canyon has layers. Perhaps the Grand Canyon was carved out in the last 14,000 years but it took millions of years for all of those layers to be formed. Jesus said the rocks would cry out and they cry out to me with their story of having been here on this planet for a LOT longer then 6,000 years.

Ice core samples show that the atmosphere for dinosaurs is a lot different than the atmosphere for us today. Every science book that was ever written show an old earth. What do young earth people have to support their claim? Nothing. They are doing good to put together five words to defend themselves against every book ever written. There is nothing to back up the young earth claim.

They claim they have the Bible but the Bible does not support their claim either. One of the fathers of geology was a Catholic Saint. Old age geology is firmly based on the Bible and Christianity. Catholic school teach Theistic Evolution.

Diamond7 said:

Show me your evidence. Trees have layers, ice core samples have layers, geology like the grand canyon has layers. Perhaps the Grand Canyon was carved out in the last 14,000 years but it took millions of years for all of those layers to be formed. Jesus said the rocks would cry out and they cry out to me with their story of having been here on this planet for a LOT longer then 6,000 years.

Ice core samples show that the atmosphere for dinosaurs is a lot different than the atmosphere for us today. Every science book that was ever written show an old earth. What do young earth people have to support their claim? Nothing. They are doing good to put together five words to defend themselves against every book ever written. There is nothing to back up the young earth claim.

They claim they have the Bible but the Bible does not support their claim either. One of the fathers of geology was a Catholic Saint. Old age geology is firmly based on the Bible and Christianity. Catholic school teach Theistic Evolution.

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Diamond7 said:

Show me your evidence. Trees have layers, ice core samples have layers, geology like the grand canyon has layers. Perhaps the Grand Canyon was carved out in the last 14,000 years but it took millions of years for all of those layers to be formed. Jesus said the rocks would cry out and they cry out to me with their story of having been here on this planet for a LOT longer then 6,000 years.

Ice core samples show that the atmosphere for dinosaurs is a lot different than the atmosphere for us today. Every science book that was ever written show an old earth. What do young earth people have to support their claim? Nothing. They are doing good to put together five words to defend themselves against every book ever written. There is nothing to back up the young earth claim.

They claim they have the Bible but the Bible does not support their claim either. One of the fathers of geology was a Catholic Saint. Old age geology is firmly based on the Bible and Christianity. Catholic school teach Theistic Evolution.

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Obviously you would deny any evidence I provide to you. What if I claimed that creation was 100 years ago. What would be the single best / strongest evidence that I was wrong?

Platte said:

Obviously you would deny any evidence I provide to you. What if I claimed that creation was 100 years ago. What would be the single best / strongest evidence that I was wrong?

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If someone were to claim that creation occurred 100 years ago, it would directly contradict scientific evidence and understanding about the age of the universe, Earth, and life on our planet. The best evidence would be tree rings. We also have ice core samples that go back hundreds of millions of years and we have geological layers that we can study. We have fossils that God has given to us to study. We have a ton of evidence that God provides for us to show us how old the Heavens and the Earth are. So as Jesus said the rocks would cry out. We have to study what the rocks are telling us.

Apple Eye said:

If a thousand years for us is but a day for God, in God's eyes this should make the earth 7 + 6 = 13 days old, am I right ?

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The word "day" and the word "a thousand" are used in many different context. So we always need to consider the surrounding passages of scripture to get the right context.
A thousand year's is not a day for God, it's "as a day", there's a big difference there. The thousand years is still a thousand years for God, but He is outside of time and He doesn't exist in time so time is nothing to Him. He sees the whole of history from the beginning of time to the end of time in the present.
He doesn't need to wait to find out how the world will end, it's already a done deal with Him.

God works in mysterious ways.

We cannot even begin to comprehend the creative ability of God. Anything is possible to Him.

Platte said:

When Creation occurred is a historical question. Not a scientific one. Creation occurred approx 6000 years ago. That’s not very long ago. Next thing you’ll tell me is that it is just coincidental that it is supported by History.

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The timeline and the process of creation is a scientific question.

The purpose of the creation and the Creator is a theological question.

The YEC is both a bad science (forcing Bible into science) and a bad theology (forcing science into Bible).

Personally I go with two possibilities. One is the gap theory that the earth existed a long time, was made void, and then God re-created it or reshaped it around 6000 years ago.

The other is that since God created Adam as a fully evolved man, rather than Adam developing from an embryo into a fully developed man, God created a fully developed earth. In other words what would have taken billions of years to develop ordinary, God developed in a few days.

So just as Adam was say 20 years old as far as his development, he was only a day old chronologically, the earth was billions of years old in its development, but only six days old chronologically.

Ceallaigh said:

Personally I go with two possibilities. One is the gap theory that the earth existed a long time, was made void, and then God re-created it or reshaped it around 6000 years ago.

The other is that since God created Adam as a fully evolved man, rather than Adam developing from an embryo into a fully developed man, God created a fully developed earth. In other words what would have taken billions of years to develop ordinary, God developed in a few days.

So just as Adam was say 20 years old as far as his development, he was only a day old chronologically, the earth was billions of years old in its development, but only six days old chronologically.

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The problem with these ideas is that no evidence points to them and basically all the evidence points to billions of years of development.

Its like saying you believe in a flat earth, its just made in a way that it appears to be a globe and yields the globe results for any measurement.

The Earth formed about 4.6 billion years ago. The "days" of creation are not meant to be taken literally; day = aeon. Saying that the Earth is a few thousand years old is denying basic scientific, observable facts. It's the same as believing the Earth is flat. 6000 years ago is about 4000 BC, beginning of the Bronze Age, invention of writing, Sumer and Egypt established / grew, agriculture spread through Europe-Asia. It's not rocket science to put together that the Earth being created ~4000 BC is absurd. People who spread this theory give us Christians a bad name and a reputation of being anti-science, which is false.

between_winds said:

The Earth formed about 4.6 billion years ago. The "days" of creation are not meant to be taken literally; day = aeon. Saying that the Earth is a few thousand years old is denying basic scientific, observable facts. It's the same as believing the Earth is flat. 6000 years ago is about 4000 BC, beginning of the Bronze Age, invention of writing, Sumer and Egypt established / grew, agriculture spread through Europe-Asia. It's not rocket science to put together that the Earth being created ~4000 BC is absurd. People who spread this theory give us Christians a bad name and a reputation of being anti-science, which is false.

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Did it take God 20 years to create Adam, or did he immediately come into existence as a fully developed grown man?

Ceallaigh said:

Did it take God 20 years to create Adam, or did he immediately come into existence as a fully developed grown man?

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Neither, Genesis 1/2 are not literal. We were neither made of dust in a day, nor in 20 years.

Ceallaigh said:

Did it take God 20 years to create Adam, or did he immediately come into existence as a fully developed grown man?

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Probably the latter, though this is irrelevant since Adam was not created on Earth, and Eden / the Kingdom of Heaven is atemporal (not following linear time). From God's perspective it could've taken "a few days" to create Earth, but God wasn't creating in the space-time axis of the universe. If you were to travel from Earth to the Andromeda Galaxy at near light speed, from your perspective only a couple of decades would go by, but from an outsider's perspective almost 3 million years would pass (effects of time dilation). In this case God = the traveler, someone from Earth = the outsider.

Apple Eye said:

There are many secrets to behold from the rocks of old

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I play with rocks all the time. They are amazing and very easy to balance even when the point of balance is very small.

between_winds said:

Probably the latter, though this is irrelevant since Adam was not created on Earth, and Eden / the Kingdom of Heaven is atemporal (not following linear time). From God's perspective it could've taken "a few days" to create Earth, but God wasn't creating in the space-time axis of the universe. If you were to travel from Earth to the Andromeda Galaxy at near light speed, from your perspective only a couple of decades would go by, but from an outsider's perspective almost 3 million years would pass (effects of time dilation). In this case God = the traveler, someone from Earth = the outsider.

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Genesis says Adam was created from the earth of the Earth. I think God simply created him and the Earth in a highly excellerated manner.

While I hate to appeal to Star Trek, I think God created the Earth in the same excellerated fashion as the "Genesis Device".

trophy33 said:

The Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, while the universe is estimated to be around 13.8 billion years old.

There are very slow processes we see in nature that do not fit into any young Earth theory.

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It is interesting to see two sets of facts being discussed. One is for a young earth, the other for billions of years. Now, the young Earthers put their faith in the genealogies and narratives of the Bible, but the other side puts their faith in science theory. Both sides have inexplicable questions that have yet to be answered.

I could not believe in God and evolution at the same time, but that's just me. It is a binary choice for me. I take this stand because if evolution is the true driving principle of creation, it is violence, death, and predation. This would result in me constructing a God and religion to accommodate this. There are two major drawbacks to this for me. One is that I am constructing my own God, and secondly, I have to admit that violence and preying upon the weaker have a place in the universe.

So, for me, the choice to believe in evolution means no God. To believe in creation means there is a God to discover. There is a small tome of the ways evolution does violence to Christianity, in fact, enough to put a dagger in its heart. Sure, I could still attend church and do religious stuff, but it would just be a weekend at Bernie's for me.

Diamond7 said:

If someone were to claim that creation occurred 100 years ago, it would directly contradict scientific evidence and understanding about the age of the universe, Earth, and life on our planet. The best evidence would be tree rings. We also have ice core samples that go back hundreds of millions of years and we have geological layers that we can study. We have fossils that God has given to us to study. We have a ton of evidence that God provides for us to show us how old the Heavens and the Earth are. So as Jesus said the rocks would cry out. We have to study what the rocks are telling us.
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I don’t see any issue with ice cores, geological layers or tree rings regarding when the Earth was created. I’m not sure what you would be expecting to see differently. Would you expect Adam to be created bald? When God created the Earth is a Historical question not a Scientific one.

Mercy Shown said:

Both sides have inexplicable questions that have yet to be answered.

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One side is scientific (builds on experiments, measurements, predictability...), the other one is based on mythological texts of the bronze age.

Its not 50:50 or similar choices.

An YEC must autistically close himself in his literal readings of mythological texts and reject other sources of information. While an evolutionary Christian does not need to reject any incoming information. He only needs to understand the Bible genres, context and styles.