In Conclusion to all Scientifically Based Arguments:
Old earth proofs: Most scientists accept these indicators, and many more like them, as proof of an old earth and universe. However, those scientists are forced to make a basic assumption: that naturally occurring processes and fundamental constants in the past behaved in the same way as they do today. For example:
The speed of light has remained more or less constant.
The number of cosmic rays hitting the earth has not changed much over time.
Space dust has accumulated at about the same rate over many thousands of years
The rate of growth of coral is similar in the past to what it is today.
Responses to Attempted Rebutals (The following are responses to “The New Answers Book” by Ken Ham
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Response: (The chapter pointed to the evening and morning given after each day along with the number given with each day, and finally the relation of yom to the heavenly bodies.) This proves nothing, though, as in Psalm 90:5-6 Moses says “You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.” This is in relation to grass which has a lifetime of several weeks or months and not 24 hours. Though this Psalm is using figurative language, it proves that day even with evening or morning does not mean day. Next, the Creation account is unique and the Hebrews would have had no other way to describe an age aside from yom, it is argued that they could have used olam or qedem. They could not, though, as olam means eternity, or forever and qedem means east or old, but it is never used to denote a period of time. Also the position of the days of creation being ages means percisely that, if the days were eternal, (accept for the seventh day) then we would not exist.
Claim: The genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 make it clear that the creation days happened only about 6,000 years ago. Response: First, the Hebrew word for son is ben, it does not just mean son though. The relationship between Seth and Adam or the creators of this document and Adam is ben. Likewise, the Hebrew word
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See the below rebuttal of why Romans 5:12 does not conflict with day age. In short, it opened humans to death, but in no way does it affect animals or plants. Adam was not perfect and would have died regardless of his and Eve’s choice to disobey God.
Myths about an old earth
There is a widespread misconception among Christians that big bang cosmology is some kind of "kissing cousin" to naturalism and Darwinian evolution. The reality is: teaching that the universe has a beginning—which is precisely what big bang cosmology does—is not only consistent with Scripture, it greatly limits the time window allowed for natural process evolution to operate.
Doesn't acceptance of a billions-of-years-old universe contradict a literal interpretation of the Bible?
In a word, no. The Hebrew word for "day" (yôm) has three literal definitions: 12 hours, 24 hours, or an indefinite time period.
Does plant and animal death before the fall of Adam contradict Romans 5:12?
A careful examination of Romans 5:12 shows that Adam's sin introduced death to all humans, not to all life-forms on Earth. Passages like Psalm 104 and Job 38–41 also make clear that plant and animal death in no way attributes evil or cruelty to the Creator.
Isn’t using “secular” equipment to test ages unreliable because it is not from
After his brief history, Ishmael shifts his attention to the creation. "A culture is a people enacting a story" (41), and the story of the Garden of Eden opened up new thoughts on man's transformation from dependent to independent beings. When Adam and Eve began their lives on earth, they fully depended on the gods for all their necessities. Just like all of the other animals in the garden, they followed the philosophy of "leavers" and left the question of who should live and who should die up to the gods. However, the serpent, a member of the "taker" group tempted Eve with fruit from a tree that would give them the knowledge of life and death. Eve, which means "life" (179) in turn, tempted Adam with the fruit. Although pre-warned that eating this forbidden fruit would kill man, Adam fell into temptation and his desire for life. Through this action, his eyes were partially opened to the gods' vision. However, this knowledge ultimately would lead to the fulfillment of the gods' warnings that "[the world's] doom was assured" (166). After man's realization, he placed himself in a category separate from the animals and beasts that continued to rely on the world's situation rather than themselves.
In the first chapter of the Holy Bible, Genesis, God creates the world. In this creation he creates man on the same day, yet man stands divine like at the peak of the creatures. Rousseau, in the Second Discourse, recalls that when he was a beast he ate mainly fruits and nuts. Eventually, he rose to his human status and began to eat meat. One must face the idea that animal meat, not fruits and nuts, is "the human food." Kass later on discusses how vegetarians seem to alter the balance of nature and fails to distinguish between man and animal by only eating vegetables, fruits and nuts. According to Genesis, the early ancestors were originally strict frugivores (fruit pickers), but when God restarts the human race again with Noah, he then shows the hierarchy of humans and animals. He then brings humans to the point that they are to eat animal flesh in order to balance the nature of the world. Human beings, although being praised for being superior, are animals both in their nature and in their origins. According to Aristotle, the soul, though thought by humans to be the only creatures to obtain it, is more that consciousness and is acquired in all animals even plants. Even in Genesis, God thought that animals and humans should be similar in this fact in order to be his companions. Though Genesis discusses creation of the "humanity" of the human being, Leviticus brings forth the dietary laws in which humans must obey when looking for divinity.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” is the very beginning of the Bible and the world, written in Genesis 1:1. There has been, is currently, and always will be constant debate over where we came from: created by a higher power or slowly adapted over billions of years. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, evolution is defined as “a theory that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modifications in successive generations.” In summary, this means that all things today came from something simpler and, due to natural selection, have become more complex over long periods of time. Macroevolution, which will be the focus of the following argument along with Biblical creationism, is the narrowed believe of evolution in the change at the species level while microevolution is change in order to adapt or mutate. Creationism, as defined by the same dictionary, as “the belief that God created all things out of nothing as described in the Bible and that therefore the theory of evolution is incorrect.” This most clearly means that God, as told in the Bible, created everything. Both theories seem miraculous and ridiculous at the same time. The debate is never ending because there never seems to be enough evidence to convince those on one side of the argument to agree with the other. However, if you look at the evidence objectively, there is an abundance of confirmation that points straight toward a God who created everything out of nothing but himself. Due to immense amount of evidence in support, creationism should be the foundation of the scientific community rather than evolution.
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.
In the Garden of Eden during the dispensation of Innocence, God dealt with man according to their innocence. They had all they needed and all they could desire. Life was perfect and they knew no sickness or pain. They did as they pleased and lived in paradise. They had only one test and only one rule, “do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. This may...
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." In verse fifteen God tells Adam to take care of
In reading the article “The Origin of Old-Earth Geology and its Ramifications for Life in the 21st Century by Dr. Terry Mortenson, I discovered the different points debated by Christian and non-Christian scientists about how the universe was created. Dr. Mortenson says” Almost everyone living today takes for granted that the universe and earth are billions of years old” (Mortenson, 2003). I will discusses the author’s strengths and weakness in the article that affected my views on the theory.
According to the Bible, on the first day, God created light and separated it from the darkness, calling light "day," and darkness "night." On the second day, God created a spread to separate the waters and called it “sky.” On the third day, God created the dry ground and assembled the waters, calling the dry ground "land," and the assembled waters "seas." God as well created vegetation on the third day (plants and trees). On the fourth day, God created the sun, moon, and the stars to give light to the earth and to oversee and distinguish the day and the night. On the fifth day, God created each living creature of the seas and every winged bird, dedicating them to reproduce and fill the waters and the sky with life. On the sixth day, God created the animals to fill the earth. God also created man and woman, Adam and Eve, in his own image to communicate with him. He dedicated them and gave them every creature and the entire earth to rule over, care for, and develop. On the seventh day, God completed his work of creation, so he rested on the seventh day, blessing it and making it holy. (chrisianity.about.com) The Bible says that God shaped man of dust from the ground, and exhaled into his nostrils the breath of life, and man then became a living being
In the beginning, God created a perfect world without sin, pain, or agony. God created this world so some of His creation would have a home and a place to serve him. However, this model of a flawless utopia became corrupted very quickly. God’s prized creation, humans, disobeyed the only command that their Father had set in place: not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam and
From the beginning of the book of Genesis in the Holy Bible, it is evident that the identity of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the West hails from Biblical narratives. Genesis and its two accounts of creation are an essential starting point for Jewish, Christian, and Islamic beliefs. It provides a foundation for devotees of these religions to worship their God as the ultimate creator of the heavens and earth, day and night, sun and moon, all the animals and vegetation that inhabits the world, and human beings. For Jews and Christians, God created the world in six days, taking rest on the seventh day.
In Genesis there is a much more acceptable reason for God to eliminate mankind. The humans are so wicked and evil that "It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart" (Gen. 6:6). He says: "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. . . " (Gen.
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”
These so-called “creation-scientists” have disputed the evidence in support of a young earth. They have added their own measurements and observations, as well as interpreted other scientists’ data, in an attempt to convince others of the possibility and ultimately, the “truth” of a young earth, one that is no more than 6,000 to 10,000 years old.
In the beginning the Word created everything. After creation, humans were holy, and in harmony with God. One action, Original Sin, ended that holiness, and harmony harmony and God created many consequences.Of these consequences, death was the most prominent consequence. We do “not just die only, but remain in the state of death and of corruption.”(Athanasius 3). As we continued to sin we became less and less like the image of God, in which we were created in.
God had made man responsible for the land that we live in and the animals that reside on it. This was if not the first one of the first responsibilities given to man. Animals are to be treated with respect and not cruelty. (Proverbs 12:10 NIV) We have to be considerate of the life of the animals because all living things on this Earth were created by God. We have to have respect for the creation of our creator. This is true also for the land because from the land we eat. (Genesis 2:15 NIV) (Bilingual Bible New Edition