Examined how? Scientific method? Scripture? Tea leaves?
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Age of Earth
- Thread starter elijoe_15
- Start date
Not in mine. We have a creation myth, but it's just that: a myth passed down by the ancestors to explain something they didn't understand. It is very colorful but we don't take it seriously. I accept the current scientific model.
I read that the flashbulbs burnt them to a crisp. They were very sensitive to it. Kind of like how in the Martian Chronicles, a very reliable source, the indigenous Martians were burnt to a crisp by the chicken pox virus Terrans brought to Mars.
Oh there's my medication!
elijoe_15
Member
However you want lol it's your beliefs.
jonathan180iq
Well-Known Member
Oh yeah, well I just wanted to make the comparison between the validity of academic mathematics versus whatever your local clergy would teach.
The point I'm making is that the witch doctor would have a vested interest in teaching you about witch doctor-y things, not math. You wouldn't go to a witch doctor for questions about Calculus - you would go to a math teacher.
As far as the Sacred Geometry stuff is concerned, it's one of the things that held Kepler back as far as I'm concerned..that and other cultural and political pressures I'm sure. (I knew about the concept, apparently. I just didn't know that's what it was called.)
But it's a very confining concept.
What do you think?
elijoe_15
Member
I'd like to believe that the earth is around 6,000 years old simply because that is more followed by people of the Christian faith.However that's not a solid reason and since I don't see it as a salvational issue and I don't know enough about the scientific determination of time I generally just don't care how old it is.
jonathan180iq
Well-Known Member
That's a wonderful answer.
I'd challenge you to read about things you feel like you don't know enough about. Crack open a few science books - learn some geology - learn some biology - learn some archaeology. Heck, learn about other religions from their perspectives. Doing so will only ever help you grow.
I come from the same background as you, from what I can tell, and it's very restraining to skepticism and knowledge. You'll have to teach yourself mostly, but you can handle it.
Learning should never be hindered - even by our faiths.
Thanks for the response.
That age was arrived at by Archbishop James Ussher, the Primate of Ireland, calculating the ages of the descendants of Adam. It's bogus because their ages are simply numbers indicating long life. The Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church, which number almost 1 billion members, do not accept that as the age of the Earth.
elijoe_15
Member
Like I said man I haven't researched it enough to know what's bogus and not so I can't fully take a stance on any time period.
There are multiple stories that can be told about that, each with its own value. What should be considered about the stories we tell is the meaningfulness they bring to our lives. In other words, we can ask "how does this story affect how I see my relationship with the earth?" And what does it really mean to ask how old something is?
One thing I find intriguing about the Biblical mythos that puts an approximately 6,000 year stamp on the planet is that in many respects, that time stamp reflects the beginnings of human civilization as we know it. Though we know the planet has been around for far longer than that, our lovely blue-green marble has only 'existed' in our human, cultural consciousness for a much shorter period of time. To us, the planet isn't very old, because that is how our history has experienced it. That is when things began for our species, our tellings of history and song. We could even place the beginning even sooner. We could say the earth is as old as the anthropocene, which we can generally say started during the Industrial Revolution, as the nature of the planet has been so dramatically transformed within the past two or three centuries. From that certain point of view, the earth is only a few centuries old. Or, we could take the view from ourselves alone. The earth is as old to our eyes as our seasons of age. To my own experiences, the earth is as old as I am, for I have known no other planet or state. But I could also see it as being as old as yesterday, or as eternally young as all the tomorrows combined. What does the manner in which we tell the story say about how relationship with the earth?
What stories do I tell about how old the earth is? Mostly whichever story I find inspiring at the given moment. They are all interesting. Why limit yourself to telling just one story? That is so boring!
More followed by people of the Christian faith? I dare to say that only a minority of Christians believe that the earth is a few thousands years old.
Ciao
- viole
elijoe_15
Member
I don't know for sure what the majority believes I just know that the majority of what I have heard from people of the Christian faith is that the earth is only a few thousand years old.
Well, it depends where you are from. My esquimo friend also thinks that most people live in igloos.
Ciao
- viole
It's dismaying and disconcerting that so many people buy into the Earth-is-6,000-years-old silliness, because Archbishop Ussher never claimed to be divinely inspired. He took it upon himself to do the calculations. No credible theologian endorses it. This tells me that people can easily be sold a bill of goods, and that is exactly what he did, intentional or not. I suspect it was unintentional, but it's a bill of goods nevertheless.
Ussher chronology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ussher chronology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marisa
Well-Known Member
Perhaps you should explore outside your bubble of reality. I've been an atheist all my life, and it's only within recent decades I've made friends that also don't believe. I'm 48 and I was born and raised in Texas, so trust that when I say I know a few christians it could easily be as many as you do despite my lifelong lack of belief. Lacking that belief does not make me ignorant of that belief and I've spent my fair share of time in various churches. As a child and young woman in Texas, I knew zero christians who thought the earth was only 6,000 - 10,000 years old. I knew many who believed in god directed evolution, but none who believed we were created in our present form more recently than the pyramids of Egypt. Heck, I just recently learned of an anthropologist who is contesting that the first Native Americans arrived 10,000 years ago, he claims to have archaeological evidence of settlements predating that time period. The point is that when we choose to live in an echo chamber, we often find life leaves us behind a bit.
outhouse
Atheistically
There is the scientific view which is in agreement 100% and not disputed in academia or any other educated circles.
Then there are those who favor a mythological explanation.
The choice is yours.
outhouse
Atheistically
Im not sure you can substantiate that claim.
Most Christians if im not mistaken do not believe in a YEC mythology.
You do know Christians have many scientist that back the true age of the earth, and teach and promote evolution, and constantly adding to and furthering the study in these sciences.
Many of us here want to know the truth, and don't want to live in so much mythology.