The age of the planet earth is sometimes a controversial topic, most believers, usually Christians, believe that due to what the bible has provided, the earth is somewhere near 6,000-12,000 years old. That’s only how far back the bible goes as for stories. An argument about it is that the bible only implies that humans have been around for 6,000+ years and not necessarily the earth itself, but with the beliefs of Adam and Eve, a lot of Christians think that. The common belief about the first humans was that God created them and put them on earth the last day he created the universe. The duration of the day to God, or what is in the bible may be drastically different than the 24hours we believe and live through today, so the opinion is not the most popular. Though many Christians believe that the days were, in fact, 24 hours apart, this theory claims …show more content…
The big bang theory suggests that 13.7 billion years ago the whole universe was a type of gas, and an explosion happened, and the universe was created as the result of it. However, that is not the most popular way people age earth. Scientist usually use the radioactive decay of some rocks to measure how old they date back. The oldest rock ever found till now are 4.0-4.2 billion years old, which is why most people believe it is somewhere around that age, because we have actual physical evidence to support it. As well as dating some meteorites that landed on earth previously, dating back to 4.56 billion years back. It’s almost unbelievable how different the opinions may be, the one people find more realistic is usually always based on their beliefs or what they’ve been taught and raised by. Some Christians do not deny or question anything from the bible making it hard for them to be more open to other suggestions, like the theory of the earth being 4.5 billion years
There is much debate over how old the earth truly is. If the creation story is taken literally, the earth could be as young as twenty-five thousand years old. If creation is taken metaphorically, the earth could be four to fifteen billion years old. However, it is not essential which theory one believes, what matters is that God created all of it. This informs Christians that God created the universe; this is the most basic affirmation of Genesis. There is no room given for any other creative power. Through God’s spoken word, the universe was created. Our Christian worldview emphasizes that God is in full control and the origin story clearly shows this. God as creator shows that he has sovereign control. Whether aspects of evolution exist or not, we accept that God is in full control because of what is included in Genesis 1. The objective of Genesis 1 and the story of the origin of the universe is not meant to satisfy our curiosity about science, it is meant to reveal to us the true nature of God. Science attempts to inform the secular worldview while Scripture is able to inform the Christian
Gregory Boyd and Paul Eddy lay out four possible ideas as to what the creation story in Genesis of the Bible means and how we should interpret it in terms of the age of the earth. The first interpretation they propose is the Young Earth View, which suggests the Earth was created in the recent past and is the most commonly accepted reasoning for the timing by most Christians. It states that each day is a twenty-four hour period because of the use of the Hebrew word “yom” which is used solely to refer to a twenty-four hour period. The second option they offer is the Day Age view which paints the Earth as being created throughout different ages of time and each “day” of creation being within a different age until it got to the 6th day where God created man and thus began the story of Adam and Eve and the progression of the Bible from there. The third possibility they consider is the Restoration View which touches on God restoring a fallen creation and Adam and Eve being the second creation after a time of darkness. This fallen creation is said to be the time described in the Old Testament as the battle between God and Satan, and the eventual fall of Satan into the darkness of the void. The last viewpoint and the one in which this paper will lend its focus, The Literary Framework View, which says that the timing of the events in Genesis do not need explanation or a literal interpretation of the chronology, but rather are there to show the power of a single God in bringing order from nothing and setting up the story for which the Bible is based upon. The Literal Framework model makes the most sense for three reasons, the fall of Satan is not chronologically placed within the creation s...
Scientific truth is also shown in myths. When the Bible says the world was created in seven days, we are able to read through the scientific “error” and find the religious truth the writer was trying to get across. There was no need for God to reveal a more accurate understanding of science to his people. Limitation of Literalists Writers of myths never intended that their stories are to be taken as historical literal truth, stories that tell of historic events. Where many Christians would look at this story and see the meaning behind it, literalists would see this story as true.
Mark Driscoll, the Pastor at Mars Hill, discusses six different views in his article, “What are the Various Views on Creation?” They are Historic and Young-Earth Creationism, the Gap Theory, the Literary Framework View, the Day-Age View and the Theistic Evolution. In each of these views, Driscoll discusses the age of the earth and the amount of time it took God to create the earth. I believe the Historic Creationism is more scriptural. Genesis 1:1 is self-explanatory when it states, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”. There was no time frame listed.
The arguments that many Young Earth Creationists make for their belief and against evolution are that fossils were created through the great Flood, the literal belief in Genesis, and that radiocarbon dating used in Evolution is too imprecise to prove that the Earth is older than 10,000 years.
""Don't Call Us Young-earth Creationists . . ."" Answers in Genesis. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2014.
The Bible has been at the center of many highly controversially issues over the last 2000 years. Believers and non-believers alike have been debating whether it is the true word of God, or just a collection of stories and myths. At the forefront of this debate is the issue of creation. Many Christians believe that God created the world in 7 literal, 24-hour days. Using this theory, they would say the earth is roughly 6000 years old, but there is also a minority who believe in an old earth and that the creation story in Genesis 1 should be taken figuratively. Those who believe that the creation story is written in figurative language hold a variety of different beliefs on the issue, but at the center of their argument is the statement that: “Genesis 1 should not be taken literally, and that there is no way the earth is only 6000 years old”. In order to understand both sides, the true meaning of the Biblical text must be understood.
...d many to reject the accuracy of the scriptures. In conclusion, if you can believe Genesis 1:1, then the rest of the scripture is easy. All the miracles and signs or even the resurrection does not come close to the significant power and miracle of all of creation being formed just by God’s word from nothing.
Young Earth creationists believe that Earth and everything on it was created by God between 5700 and 10000 years ago (Numbers, 2006). They believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible in terms of the age of the earth. They differ from old earth creationists who interpret Genesis metaphorically and believe that the Earth is 13.798 +- 0.037 old (Scott, 2000). Young earth creationists also interpret the passages in the bible of the flat Earth literally. They reject modern astronomy, physics, the big bang theory, the age of Earth and chemistry. They also reject biological modifications that happened throughout history. Young Earth creationists believe that God created every genetic variation in all living creatures on earth. Henry Morris was one of the biggest influences of young Earth creationism in the second half of the 20th century (Scott, 2000).
The Paleolithic Age was the earliest period of man. This time period dates back to 15,000 BCE. There are many artifacts from the Paleolithic Age including Lucy (female hominid), Otzi (ice man), and cave art.
Chapters of Genesis have been interpreted in non-literal ways since around 1820; discoveries in geology before the arrival of Darwin’s theory have shown that the Earth is much older than Archbishop Ussher’s proposal that the world began in 4004 BCE (Ferguson 2012: 84). St Augustine himself suggested that the early books of the Bible were metaphorical and were written so the Bible would be accessible to those who were uneducated (Stewart-Williams 2010: 58). Many Christians today do not take the literal view of Genesis but still view God as the Creator despite Darwin’s theory surfacing over a century ago. Numerous believers maintain that discoveries in science that explain the process of creation just register the power of a Creator to ordain those laws (Ferguson 2012: 85). An explanation for this may be that many people who hold the belief that God is the Creator held this belief before encountering the theory of evolution (Stewart-Williams 2010: 51). They simply do not stop believing just because of this. A creator God may be an internalization that they have more than likely grown up with. Still, this could be a cultural factor as Christianity is embedded in so many societies
Due to the compromised worldview, the interpretation of Genesis 1 can greatly vary among Christians. Some people literally interpret Genesis 1, while other people have slightly different opinion toward it. First interviewee was a Japanese seminary student who is in the same organization with me. When I asked her about the length of a day in Genesis 1, she said that it is 6 days because she literally believes Genesis 1. Also, she thinks that the Earth should be about 6000 years according to her prior knowledge. Then she said that there is no common ancestor because she believes that God created apes and human separately. Consequently, she believes that Adam and Eve were real people. Second interviewee was my dad who is a pastor with a strong belief and firm criteria towards every thing related to Bible. My father’s answer was basically same. He believes that Adam and Eve actually existed, and man and apes are separate beings according to the Bible. However, He showed a slightly different perspective toward the age of Earth. He doubted the young earth theory because Moses’ reference of Genesis 1 should be an indir...
All in all, every culture and religion has their personal beliefs on human civilization and how the earth was produced. The most frequent belief modern day of the first humans, is the story of Adam and Eve. There is a plethora of theories, but none that are one hundred percent accurate. If you ask me, scientist will never know how earth came about and they will never identify who the first humans were. Every “story of creation” is a myth.
The Bible and the written laws of nature are like two different books. These books are written and read in completely different languages. The Bible was written in the view of people of that time; whereas, science laws are constantly written and changed for modern world. Therefore, there always will be some controversy between two thoughts. There are still many unknown things in the world that science is yet to find out. Christianity on the other hand accepts extraordinary occurrences and prevents science from explaining things that it cannot. Christianity is needed to explain unbelievable phenomena that are part of our daily life.
Global Warming One of the most substantial problems in the world today is global warming. This gradual warming of the earth is in occurrence at an extremely slow rate but it is happening. Many scientists believe that as human’s work and release greenhouse gases into the earth’s atmosphere, it can become dangerous for the long lasting life of humans and our environment. “Unless we take immediate action, the impacts of global warming will continue to intensify, grow ever more costly and damaging, and increasingly affect the entire planet - including you, your community, and your family” (“Global Warming Impacts”).