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I was raised Catholic and Catholic schools teach evolution and try not to contradict science, however many evangelicals still think the world is only 6,000 years old which leads to distrust of Biology and many other areas of science like climate science. Why this conflict?
The main problem is most Evangelicals think of the Bible as the literal word of God and not metaphorical. The Bible doesn't really come up with a date for creation however. The 6,000 year age of the earth comes from James Ussher, the Archbishop of Armagh, who added up all of the Begats in the Bible and came up with the date of the creation of everything at nightfall preceding Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC
My question is, why do these people believe the ignorant guess of one person back around 1640, to the accumulated knowledge of most scientists since then?
The Bible does not tell us the earth is 6,000 years old. In fact, if we go according to the Scriptures, the earth could be millions, even billions of years old.
For instance, if we go to Genesis 1 we have this:
Gen 1:1 Created by the Elohim were the heavens and the earth.
Gen 1:2 Yet the earth became (Heb. hawyaw) a chaos and vacant, and darkness was on the surface of the submerged chaos. Yet the spirit of the Elohim is vibrating over the surface of the water (Concordant Literal Old Testament).
Why did they translate verse two as "become"? It is a change from what was before. For instance there was darkness and then it became light. So there was a change:
Gen 1:3 And saying is the Elohim, "Become (Heb. hawyaw) light!" And it is becoming light.
There needed to be an atmosphere and a separation between the water below in the oceans and water in the atmosphere:
Gen 1:6 And saying is the Elohim, "Become (Heb. hawhaw) shall an atmosphere in the midst of the water, and coming is a separation between water and water.
So, to get to my point: Genesis 1:1 is when the earth was originally created and millions, possibly billions of years passed. Then the earth became chaos and vacant or sterile of all plant and animal life.
Roughly 6,000 or so years ago God made the earth habitable again and created Adam, the plants and animals and then Eve.
I bet he also believes men lived to be over 900 years of age during those days.
No need to be deprecating if you do not agree with someone.
Of course the ante-deluvians lived to be over 900 years of age during those days. Could it be back then though that the earth was traveling around the sun at a faster speed thus making a year shorter than our year? Could it be after the world-wide flood the earth slowed drastically in its orbit around the sun? If not, if the earth has maintained its current orbit around the sun then those people still lived that long. They had no pollution such as we have today. Their plants were much more robust etc.
But is this thread about how long people lived? or is it about how long the earth has been around?
I was raised Catholic and Catholic schools teach evolution and try not to contradict science, however many evangelicals still think the world is only 6,000 years old which leads to distrust of Biology and many other areas of science like climate science. Why this conflict?
The main problem is most Evangelicals think of the Bible as the literal word of God and not metaphorical. The Bible doesn't really come up with a date for creation however. The 6,000 year age of the earth comes from James Ussher, the Archbishop of Armagh, who added up all of the Begats in the Bible and came up with the date of the creation of everything at nightfall preceding Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC
My question is, why do these people believe the ignorant guess of one person back around 1640, to the accumulated knowledge of most scientists since then?
I bet he also believes men lived to be over 900 years of age during those days.
Genesis 6:3 (KJV)
3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
God is the one who limited mankinds age.
What if 2000yrs from now humans only lived to be 50 years old, they could easily say....to think people actually believe humans live to be 100yrs old back then.
The truth is the 'scientists' don't know either. Why? Because they weren't there. They can only look at the evidence and claim that if everything has always been as it is now, then this is how it was x amount of years ago. That does not and cannot take into account an all-powerful, most perfect being in existence.
Think about it this way: Let's assume that the Genesis story is accurate and God created the Earth and all the plants and the Garden of Eden, etc... Were there trees in the garden? Sure there was. Trees grow from seeds, right? Of course. Did God create a barren world full of saplings? Of course not, he wouldn't need to. He created full-grown trees.
A scientist would look at a tree in the Garden of Eden and claim that the world must be 50 years old in order to have full grown fruit trees. But that wouldn't be true, because God created the world directly in the middle of all the natural processes that make this world work. This means that it is perfectly reasonable to assume that God created the world already aged in order to be a perfect ecosystem for humanity. What else would He do?
Think of it another way: You walk into a room and there's a clock on the wall. The clock reads 12:00. What did that clock read an hour ago? 11:00 you would say. Is it possible that the clock was installed 20 minutes ago and therefore did not read 11:00? Of course.
Scientists can only make statements that most probably fit the data they have available. They cannot make statements that involve a supernatural God, because supernatural beings do not follow natural laws.
Scientists making statements about God's activities is like trying to study infra-red light using an iPhone camera.
What makes you think he didn't start from seeds? He had all the time in the world and may well have enjoyed watching them grow.
The truth is the 'scientists' don't know either. Why? Because they weren't there. They can only look at the evidence and claim that if everything has always been as it is now, then this is how it was x amount of years ago. That does not and cannot take into account an all-powerful, most perfect being in existence.
Think about it this way: Let's assume that the Genesis story is accurate and God created the Earth and all the plants and the Garden of Eden, etc... Were there trees in the garden? Sure there was. Trees grow from seeds, right? Of course. Did God create a barren world full of saplings? Of course not, he wouldn't need to. He created full-grown trees.
A scientist would look at a tree in the Garden of Eden and claim that the world must be 50 years old in order to have full grown fruit trees. But that wouldn't be true, because God created the world directly in the middle of all the natural processes that make this world work. This means that it is perfectly reasonable to assume that God created the world already aged in order to be a perfect ecosystem for humanity. What else would He do?
Think of it another way: You walk into a room and there's a clock on the wall. The clock reads 12:00. What did that clock read an hour ago? 11:00 you would say. Is it possible that the clock was installed 20 minutes ago and therefore did not read 11:00? Of course.
Scientists can only make statements that most probably fit the data they have available. They cannot make statements that involve a supernatural God, because supernatural beings do not follow natural laws.
Scientists making statements about God's activities is like trying to study infra-red light using an iPhone camera.
You've been studying at the feet of Eusebius, haven't you?
What makes you think he didn't start from seeds? He had all the time in the world and may well have enjoyed watching them grow.
While Genisis makes it clear that God did not make seed first, it does appear that He made the plants to grow not just appear and the plants and trees produced seed.
Gen 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
While Genisis makes it clear that God did not make seed first, it does appear that He made the plants to grow not just appear and the plants and trees produced seed.
Gen 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Possibly, but did he make the earth bring forth the grass, etc from seed and was just telling us that seed would now be produced by the plant, did he cause it to grow taking time, from a "seedling" to maturity or create each full grown instantly. Doesn't say but the use of "being forth" suggests a period of time.
The word in Hebrew means:
456.0 av'D' (d¹sh¹°) sprout, shoot, grow green (Joel 2:22; Gen 1:11; Jer 50:11).
Possibly, but did he make the earth bring forth the grass, etc from seed and was just telling us that seed would now be produced by the plant, did he cause it to grow taking time, from a "seedling" to maturity or create each full grown instantly. Doesn't say but the use of "being forth" suggests a period of time.
The word in Hebrew means:
456.0 av'D' (d¹sh¹°) sprout, shoot, grow green (Joel 2:22; Gen 1:11; Jer 50:11).
Which indicates a small thing growing.
I do not know exactly how God did it. He did it within a timeframe He wanted men to understand as an evening and a morning equaling a day.
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