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Young earth

Soandso

Well-Known Member
The young earth model seems to have been exclusively taken up by scientists with certain religious backgrounds due to their religious beliefs in this day and age, but is that true?

Are there any non-religious scientists who are working on hypotheses or theories regarding a possible young earth? I can't think of any that come to mind. I know that in the past, there were plenty of tests done to varify these things, but it seems like they've long since concluded that the earth is ancient, and the scientific body has moved on to other things

Is there any non-religious reason to come to the conclusion that the earth is young? What is the best evidence we have that the earth is only thousands of years old?
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
The young earth model seems to have been exclusively taken up by scientists with certain religious backgrounds due to their religious beliefs in this day and age, but is that true?

Are there any non-religious scientists who are working on hypotheses or theories regarding a possible young earth? I can't think of any that come to mind. I know that in the past, there were plenty of tests done to varify these things, but it seems like they've long since concluded that the earth is ancient, and the scientific body has moved on to other things

Is there any non-religious reason to come to the conclusion that the earth is young? What is the best evidence we have that the earth is only thousands of years old?
There are no scientists that have taken it up, so far as I am aware. All the evidence points, very firmly, towards the Earth being old. Current estimate is ~4.5bn years old.
 

wellwisher

Well-Known Member
The young earth model seems to have been exclusively taken up by scientists with certain religious backgrounds due to their religious beliefs in this day and age, but is that true?

Are there any non-religious scientists who are working on hypotheses or theories regarding a possible young earth? I can't think of any that come to mind. I know that in the past, there were plenty of tests done to varify these things, but it seems like they've long since concluded that the earth is ancient, and the scientific body has moved on to other things

Is there any non-religious reason to come to the conclusion that the earth is young? What is the best evidence we have that the earth is only thousands of years old?

Pluto used to be a planet and was downgraded, so it is no longer a planet. Nothing has changed in physical reality. What has changed is human perception and criteria. The earth does not have to change for humans to think something new or old. We have learned the core of the earth can rotate faster that the surface, so earth science from 10 year ago was a semi-illusion since it did not predict this. Now we need to redo it.

This brings us to the human mind. Say you were born in the jungle, so all you ever knew was jungle nature. One day you are found and brought to NYC to be examined. This modern city is all new to you. There is nothing you can compare it to. As far as you can understand it just appeared when the tranquilizer wore off. How else would explain it suddenly being here, since you have no clue about such building skills? You would need to find a way to get your own bearings.

The time scale of the Bible, coordinates with formation of the first stable civilizations. This is when human start to control their environment on a large scale. What changed in the human mind to allow this change? Would that new form of perception now require you come up with new explanations for this new world you can see and now control? Genesis appear to be the first attempts by humans to explain the principles of science. Science would evolve from that beginning, with Genesis the original published paper, making it important to history; cornerstone. Maps are still flat even with the earth round since 2-D is more practical.
 

JDMS

Academic Workhorse
Pluto used to be a planet and was downgraded, so it is no longer a planet. Nothing has changed in physical reality. What has changed is human perception and criteria. The earth does not have to change for humans to think something new or old. We have learned the core of the earth can rotate faster that the surface, so earth science from 10 year ago was a semi-illusion since it did not predict this. Now we need to redo it.

This brings us to the human mind. Say you were born in the jungle, so all you ever knew was jungle nature. One day you are found and brought to NYC to be examined. This modern city is all new to you. There is nothing you can compare it to. As far as you can understand it just appeared when the tranquilizer wore off. How else would explain it suddenly being here, since you have no clue about such building skills? You would need to find a way to get your own bearings.

The time scale of the Bible, coordinates with formation of the first stable civilizations. This is when human start to control their environment on a large scale. What changed in the human mind to allow this change? Would that new form of perception now require you come up with new explanations for this new world you can see and now control? Genesis appear to be the first attempts by humans to explain the principles of science. Science would evolve from that beginning, with Genesis the original published paper, making it important to history; cornerstone. Maps are still flat even with the earth round since 2-D is more practical.

What?
 

Audie

Veteran Member
Pluto used to be a planet and was downgraded, so it is no longer a planet. Nothing has changed in physical reality. What has changed is human perception and criteria. The earth does not have to change for humans to think something new or old. We have learned the core of the earth can rotate faster that the surface, so earth science from 10 year ago was a semi-illusion since it did not predict this. Now we need to redo it.

This brings us to the human mind. Say you were born in the jungle, so all you ever knew was jungle nature. One day you are found and brought to NYC to be examined. This modern city is all new to you. There is nothing you can compare it to. As far as you can understand it just appeared when the tranquilizer wore off. How else would explain it suddenly being here, since you have no clue about such building skills? You would need to find a way to get your own bearings.

The time scale of the Bible, coordinates with formation of the first stable civilizations. This is when human start to control their environment on a large scale. What changed in the human mind to allow this change? Would that new form of perception now require you come up with new explanations for this new world you can see and now control? Genesis appear to be the first attempts by humans to explain the principles of science. Science would evolve from that beginning, with Genesis the original published paper, making it important to history; cornerstone. Maps are still flat even with the earth round since 2-D is more practical.
Um, what's your point
 

Audie

Veteran Member
The young earth model seems to have been exclusively taken up by scientists with certain religious backgrounds due to their religious beliefs in this day and age, but is that true?

Are there any non-religious scientists who are working on hypotheses or theories regarding a possible young earth? I can't think of any that come to mind. I know that in the past, there were plenty of tests done to varify these things, but it seems like they've long since concluded that the earth is ancient, and the scientific body has moved on to other things

Is there any non-religious reason to come to the conclusion that the earth is young? What is the best evidence we have that the earth is only thousands of years old?
Lucretius wrote about young earth in
Roman times.
His reasons seemed to make sense
at the time. That's been a while.

Today we have yec scientists but no
data, just religions, for their stance
 

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
There are no scientists that have taken it up, so far as I am aware. All the evidence points, very firmly, towards the Earth being old. Current estimate is ~4.5bn years old.

Well, compared to the overall age of the universe of about 13 to 14 billion years, that would make the Earth "young," relatively speaking.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
No scientists believe in young earth. It's an idea by those who interpret the Bible in one and only one way and are not open to other explanations.
 

vulcanlogician

Well-Known Member
The funny thing is, YECs accuse scientists of having an agenda to "disprove God." That explains why they postulate that the Earth and universe are so old.

Like, yeah, pushing a falsified form of science in order to promote your agenda.... the irony is so rich!
 

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
No scientists believe in young earth. It's an idea by those who interpret the Bible in one and only one way and are not open to other explanations.
I don't really care how old the earth is... but isn't your statement true the other way since there are scientists who believe in a young earth. Don't the scientists of "billions of years old" become closed to other explanations?
 

vulcanlogician

Well-Known Member
I don't really care how old the earth is... but isn't your statement true the other way since there are scientists who believe in a young earth. Don't the scientists of "billions of years old" become closed to other explanations?

Scientists are open to alternate explanation. But they prefer them to be... plausible...
 

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
Scientists are open to alternate explanation. But they prefer them to be... plausible...
but isn't "plausible" also in the eyes of the beholder? Consensus thought Einsteins position at one time were not "plausible" and even "ridiculous" and was demeaned and attacked by many - but science corrected itself.
 

vulcanlogician

Well-Known Member
but isn't "plausible" also in the eyes of the beholder? Consensus thought Einsteins position at one time were not "plausible" and even "ridiculous" and was demeaned and attacked by many - but science corrected itself.

Well, I agree with you somewhat. We should always keep an open mind about things. In Einstein's time, Newtonian physics was roughly in the form that Newton himself disclosed. And Newton was fairly-well proven at that point. There was nothing wrong with trying to poke holes in Einstein's theories. And guess what? Einstein's theories survived the kitchen sink test. People have tried launching all manner of kitchen sinks at it since, and the theory remains largely unphased.

Compare that to YEC which breaks into a thousand pieces when struck lightly with a nerf dart.

At some point science has to move on. At this point we have highly advanced telescopes and have even sent numerous probes into the outer solar system. At some point we have to stop asking the question, "Is geocentrism true?"

That's where we are with YEC.
 

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
Scientists are open to alternate explanation. But they prefer them to be... plausible...
I've never really delved deep into how they came up with "thousands of years"... I think you have prompted me to look into how those scientists came to their conclusions.
 

vulcanlogician

Well-Known Member
I've never really delved deep into how they came up with "thousands of years"... I think you have prompted me to look into how those scientists came to their conclusions.

What do you mean by "thousands of years"? The Earth is around 4-5 billion years old. The universe is approx. 13 billion, give or take... we have theories like cosmic inflation to iron out still.

According to YEC, primarily extrapolating the genealogies in the Bible, estimates range from 6 to 10 thousand years.

But if that were true, we wouldn't see many stars in the night sky that are plainly visible to us.
 
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