How old is the earth

Discussion about scientific issues as they relate to God and Christianity including archaeology, origins of life, the universe, intelligent design, evolution, etc.
User avatar
BGoodForGoodSake
Ultimate Member
Posts: 2127
Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2005 9:44 am
Christian: No
Location: Washington D.C.

Post by BGoodForGoodSake »

narek33 wrote:Dear BGoodForGoodSake and whoever may read this,

Talking about the evolution and what it really implies can not be applied to individual things. Such as your example of a cockroach does not prove anything about evolution because in order for evolution to take place many parameter which are out of our reach have to coincide. However, looking at the world as a whole evolution is not an idea but a fact. A fact that some of you refuse to understand but that is all up to you. The definition of evolution says that it "usually" changes to more complex and better form. There is exception to mostly everything.
I'm not disagreeing with you that evolution has indeed occurred. Only clarifying that evolution tending towards improvement and complexity is not necessarily true.

As environmental factors increase then I suppose complexity will simply arise from the various permutations. However sudden changes or restrictive factors will tend towards reduction.

QED Evolution - life changes through time.
It is not length of life, but depth of life. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
caine
Acquainted Member
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue May 16, 2006 2:37 am

Re: How old is the earth

Post by caine »

Jay_7 wrote:How old is the earth?
About 4.5 billion years.
User avatar
BGoodForGoodSake
Ultimate Member
Posts: 2127
Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2005 9:44 am
Christian: No
Location: Washington D.C.

Re: How old is the earth

Post by BGoodForGoodSake »

caine wrote:
Jay_7 wrote:How old is the earth?
About 4.5 billion years.
And how did you reach this conclusion?
It is not length of life, but depth of life. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
caine
Acquainted Member
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue May 16, 2006 2:37 am

Re: How old is the earth

Post by caine »

BGoodForGoodSake wrote:
caine wrote:
Jay_7 wrote:How old is the earth?
About 4.5 billion years.
And how did you reach this conclusion?
I didn't. Scientists did.
User avatar
August
Old School
Posts: 2402
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2004 7:22 pm
Christian: Yes
Sex: Male
Creation Position: Day-Age
Location: Texas
Contact:

Re: How old is the earth

Post by August »

caine wrote:
BGoodForGoodSake wrote:
caine wrote:
Jay_7 wrote:How old is the earth?
About 4.5 billion years.
And how did you reach this conclusion?
I didn't. Scientists did.
So you have blind faith in scientists?
Acts 17:24-25 (NIV)
"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. [25] And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else."

//www.omnipotentgrace.org
//christianskepticism.blogspot.com
User avatar
angel
Established Member
Posts: 119
Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2006 5:18 am
Christian: No
Location: EU

Post by angel »

Scientists did and they provide their motivations, their data and they publish the analysis.

I don't have faith in scientists. Less than ever "blind faith".
I check their arguments and agree with them.

Don't you? ;)
User avatar
BGoodForGoodSake
Ultimate Member
Posts: 2127
Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2005 9:44 am
Christian: No
Location: Washington D.C.

Post by BGoodForGoodSake »

angel wrote:Scientists did and they provide their motivations, their data and they publish the analysis.

I don't have faith in scientists. Less than ever "blind faith".
I check their arguments and agree with them.

Don't you? ;)
Good answer,

However lets be fair to the scientists who give the age of the Earth a range.
4.1 to 4.6 billion years old. As you can see this is a range of 500 million years.
It is not length of life, but depth of life. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
User avatar
Canuckster1127
Old School
Posts: 5310
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:31 am
Christian: Yes
Sex: Male
Creation Position: Theistic Evolution
Location: Ottawa, ON Canada

Post by Canuckster1127 »

BGoodForGoodSake wrote:
angel wrote:Scientists did and they provide their motivations, their data and they publish the analysis.

I don't have faith in scientists. Less than ever "blind faith".
I check their arguments and agree with them.

Don't you? ;)
Good answer,

However lets be fair to the scientists who give the age of the Earth a range.
4.1 to 4.6 billion years old. As you can see this is a range of 500 million years.
What's 500 million years between friends? ;)
Dogmatism is the comfortable intellectual framework of self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is more decadent than the worst sexual sin. ~ Dan Allender
User avatar
angel
Established Member
Posts: 119
Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2006 5:18 am
Christian: No
Location: EU

Post by angel »

What's 500 million years between friends?
I would call it "an error of less than 6%". ;)
caine
Acquainted Member
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue May 16, 2006 2:37 am

Re: How old is the earth

Post by caine »

August wrote:
caine wrote:
BGoodForGoodSake wrote:
caine wrote:
Jay_7 wrote:How old is the earth?
About 4.5 billion years.
And how did you reach this conclusion?
I didn't. Scientists did.
So you have blind faith in scientists?
I have faith in the methods they use to determine the age of Earth. I don't believe something because a single scientist tells me that it is correct. I believe in something when nearly all scientists on this planet agree on something, and back it with some evidence.
User avatar
August
Old School
Posts: 2402
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2004 7:22 pm
Christian: Yes
Sex: Male
Creation Position: Day-Age
Location: Texas
Contact:

Re: How old is the earth

Post by August »

caine wrote:
August wrote:
caine wrote:
BGoodForGoodSake wrote:
caine wrote:
About 4.5 billion years.
And how did you reach this conclusion?
I didn't. Scientists did.
So you have blind faith in scientists?
I have faith in the methods they use to determine the age of Earth. I don't believe something because a single scientist tells me that it is correct. I believe in something when nearly all scientists on this planet agree on something, and back it with some evidence.
Faith in the methods? How can you have faith in the methods and not in the scientists? So the truth is determined by majority vote?
Acts 17:24-25 (NIV)
"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. [25] And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else."

//www.omnipotentgrace.org
//christianskepticism.blogspot.com
User avatar
bizzt
Prestigious Senior Member
Posts: 1654
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2005 12:11 pm
Christian: No
Location: Calgary

Post by bizzt »

Who Created those Methods?
User avatar
BGoodForGoodSake
Ultimate Member
Posts: 2127
Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2005 9:44 am
Christian: No
Location: Washington D.C.

Post by BGoodForGoodSake »

bizzt wrote:Who Created those Methods?
They were devised by the greeks and then improved during the renaissance according to history books.
Scroll down near the end of the page
It is not length of life, but depth of life. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
User avatar
bizzt
Prestigious Senior Member
Posts: 1654
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2005 12:11 pm
Christian: No
Location: Calgary

Post by bizzt »

Thanks much obliged.
Ashley
Recognized Member
Posts: 97
Joined: Fri Sep 08, 2006 8:01 am
Christian: Yes
Sex: Male
Creation Position: Undecided
Location: Japan

it is wonderful exegesis

Post by Ashley »

Kurieuo wrote:
VicToR wrote:I dont know if anyone has pointed this out..

Exodus 20:9
Six days you shall labour and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.

11For in six days the LORD made the heavens and earth, but he rested on the seventh day.

I'm confused about the theory of creation taking thousands or even millions of years..

For example, Leviticus 25 talks of the Sabbath in years: "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the LORD." The Sabbath comes from the creation, yet does this mean the days of creation took years? No. It is just a pattern being followed.

Now to throw a spanner in the works for YECs, Scripture supports God's seventh day as continuing to this very day. So if God's sabbath day was not the same length as Israel's sabbath day, then there is no reason why God's six days of creation should be the same length as Israel's six days of work. Nowhere does Scripture say the seventh day has ended, yet for all other days in God's creation a definite end is given.

Futher to this, in Psalms 95:7-11 we read a message from God to Israel:
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did.
For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways."
So I declared on oath in my anger, "They shall never enter my rest."
Question: How was it possible for Israel to enter God's rest if it had ended?

And even further we have Hebrews 4:1-11. Here are some relevant verses (4:1,3-6,9-11):
1 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.
3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, "AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST," although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: "AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS";
5 and again in this passage, "THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST."
6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience,
9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.
11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
Several notes of significance. In verse 1, we see talk of entering God's rest. In verses 3 and 4, God's rest is associated to the same one at the end of God's creation. In verse 6, it is then pointed out that some remain to enter that rest. This means God's seventh day of rest has lasted at least 6000+ years! And if this is true, then YECs appear to be focusing too much on one passage (i.e., Exodus 20:8-12) while neglecting other passages in Scripture.

Kurieuo
Hebrew 4:1-11 is great passages that clearly shows that God has His own interpretation of "day" than Irasel's "day". The context is self-explanatory and difficult to refute.

While biblical passages should be consistent in meaning, Hebrew 4:1-11 should coincide with Genesis 1 7-day creations. Flicking through the Genesis 1:1-31 and Genesis 2:1-3, I think that, considering the verses: "God said.." and "God called..", the word "day" is the meaning as reserved for God to interpret, not the calendar that we now a day live by. In 2 Peter 3:8, the bible passage does say: God looks at a day like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day. In other words, in God's eyes, the creations went in 7 days; in human eyes, it has lasted for, say, millions or billions of years. It is not impossible an interpretation.

Putting aside the complicated scholarly exegetical technicality, with common sense, why isn't it more than usual God was just exclaiming about His creation with a sigh? in His eyes it is likened to d only one day, 24-hour interval? Colloquially, we conversate now and then certain "experience is a nightmare" to me !! in fact, often we do not mean "a nightmare" inferring that experience happening just one over-night time. That experience may span some period of time longer than a day. But we may exclaim: it was so dreadful like a nightmare!! I find no reason why God won't exclaim the same way.

It occurs to me, as causally sharing with you all here, that Hebrew 4:1-11 suggests that God's timeframe is entirely different with human beings' timeframe. Interestingly, these 2 timeflame intersect with some point, sharing an overlapping area that we are struggling; if we repent and follow Jesus's Way, we are put right with God and back to the Resting day - the seventh day (this is God's day, not human being's calendar's); on the other hands, if we are disobedient, we would be lost from the "Resting day" and fallen to hell. There are two aspects inferent herewith:

(1) God's creation days were actually finished. God rested on the 7th day. This verse is expressed in term of human's calendar. "we are looking at Gods 7th day from the relative viewpoint of human calendar"

(2) In God's calendar, God "resting on the seventh day" hasn't finished, awaiting our return to Him - redemption. This is a reverse side of relative timeframe: "God is looking at human beings' living days from His relative viewpoint of God's calendar".

The paradox has emerged ever since Adam and Eve's fall in Eden. Before their fall, God's and human calendars were the same. (sure I said this in term of human calendar)

To God, the 7th day hasn't been over; To human beings, it has been over.

Any thoughts?
Last edited by Ashley on Sat Sep 16, 2006 8:44 am, edited 2 times in total.
Post Reply