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Where does the 6000 year old earth idea come from?

Logicman said:
You have to understand the meaning of the Hebrew word for day (yom). It can mean an indefinite period of time, even eons.

Genesis 2:4 literally reads, "in the day (yom) of the Lord God making (made) the earth and heavens."

The author of Genesis, who also wrote of the 'days' of creation, describes those 'days' as one day, or one time period. It's the same Hebrew word. The implication is clear - Moses' “day” (yom) in Genesis 2:4 refers not to a 24-hour day but, rather, to a much longer period of time—in this case, the entire span of creation events.

So you can't automatically assume the Hebrew "day" (yom) is a 24 hour period.
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It's amazing the frequency with which the inerrant word, guided by God, suddenly become subject to translation errors whenever that "word" is obvious nonsense.
The word "Yom" appears 1400 times in scripture and in every single instance, it means "a day" The term for eons is invariably the plural, not the singular. There are Hebrew words to say "a long time", "many days/years", which could have been used, but weren't.
We are being asked to suspend disbelief when it's averred that the only time the word "yom" DOESN'T mean "24 hour day" is in Genesis.
 
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Manc Skipper said:
It's amazing the frequency with which the inerrant word, guided by God, suddenly become subject to translation errors whenever that "word" is obvious nonsense.
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I don't see any translation errors in my quote from your post #51, so I'm not sure if that's what you are alluding to.

I'm also not aware of any significant translation issues that would invalidate any of the major "truths" of the life of Christ, or that would invalidate any major doctrine of Christianity.
 
Manc Skipper said:
It's amazing the frequency with which the inerrant word, guided by God, suddenly become subject to translation errors whenever that "word" is obvious nonsense.
The word "Yom" appears 1400 times in scripture and in every single instance, it means "a day".
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That's not true. You have to look at these in context. And the context in Genesis 2:4 is that the "day" (yom) there encompasses the entire span of creation events.

In addition, there's the following article with examples where a day (yom) is not likely to be a 24 hour period.

Genesis Clearly Teaches that the Days Were NOT 24 Hours
 
It's all too clear from the context what it meant. That and the desperation to reinterpret a tiny fact to mean that days were different lengths back in the (whatever unit of measurement helps avoid the point) day/century/eon.... There's a reason why they call it apologetics.
 
Manc Skipper said:
It's amazing the frequency with which the inerrant word, guided by God, suddenly become subject to translation errors whenever that "word" is obvious nonsense.
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Just more proof that everyone, no matter what religion they follow, chooses to pick what they want to believe literally, figuratively or not at all.
 
The 6000 year old Earth concept comes from deranged Christians who never studied any science.
 
Deuce said:
I'm curious as to how this whole anti-evolution belief arises. Some people see evolution as conflicting with the bible, and therefore evolution must be wrong. But where does the idea of this conflict arise? Particularly Young Earth Creationism. I'm no biblical scholar, but I don't recall there being a date for "let there be light."

So what verse or verses gives people the idea that the Earth can't possibly be much, much older? How did that interpretation come about?
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Some idiot in the 1600s (I think) went through the begats in the OT and calculated it. Its an idiotic idea

**** it. I prefer carbon dating and other more verifiable means. Having faith does not mean suspending reason.
 
ethanUNC said:
The 6000 year old Earth concept comes from deranged Christians who never studied any science.
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I don't know about the latter, but it's apparent from the context of Genesis that there's no 6,000 year old earth being taught.
 
Captain America said:
I have come to learn that when there is a choice between fact and faith, the religious types choose faith everytime.

That makes me wonder. Does it really matter what is fact and what is not? At the end of the day, we all turn to dust, so to speak. No matter what we believe and that's a fact.
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You haven't paid attention at all then. Not all Christians are Young Earth Creationists. Not even most.
 
Logicman said:
I don't know about the latter, but it's apparent from the context of Genesis that there's no 6,000 year old earth being taught.
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No, it's not apparent. It is open to interpretation. Bishop Ussher calculated that number in the 1600s.
 
The thing I find intriguing about the 6,000-10,000 year range that is given by YEC studies is that as an allegory of human evolution it's a pretty neat fit.

When you look at currently verified human history, civilization started about 6,000-10,000 years ago as the end stage of the Neolithic Revelution. Genesis is about Man gaining knowledge that forever separated him from the rest of nature. Before gaining their knowledge Adam and Eve lived in a fashion not so different from the other animals. Upon gaining knowledge life got hard, they began clothing themselves and had to work the land for their survival. Eden, in fact, is believed to be the representation of the lush lands of the Mesopotamian basin, the "cradle of civilization".

So, in a round about way, Adam and Eve function very well as caricatures of the earliest modern humans at the dawn of civilization.

It is really cool and humbling in a way to read these stories and know that they very well could be the stories we told ourselves many thousands of years ago to understand why we were so very different than all other living things around us and they date back almost precisely to the time that this major change in humanity was occurring. More poignantly, when you look at the story of Genesis in this light, you see that the earliest civilizations yearned to return to a way of life of their not so distant ancestors while accepting with full knowledge that there was no going back to a pre-civilized life.
 
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it comes from the pure invention of man and is proven wrong by science and i say that as a christian.
Faith is the most important thing it guides the rest but its not an excuses to ignore reality and facts
 
Deuce said:
I'm curious as to how this whole anti-evolution belief arises. Some people see evolution as conflicting with the bible, and therefore evolution must be wrong. But where does the idea of this conflict arise? Particularly Young Earth Creationism. I'm no biblical scholar, but I don't recall there being a date for "let there be light."

So what verse or verses gives people the idea that the Earth can't possibly be much, much older? How did that interpretation come about?
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Tracing back Genealogies in the Bible. 6,000-14,000 is the general window.
 
davidtaylorjr said:
Tracing back Genealogies in the Bible. 6,000-14,000 is the general window.
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Bible scholars theorize there are 'gaps' in the genealogies (perhaps Genesis chapter 5).

But apart from that, how much time elapsed between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2?
 
American said:
The problem with trying to calculate things is that you sometimes don't always know what a term really means. In the Creation story in Genesis, how long is each day? Now with the story of Jesus' second coming, it is suppose to happen around 6000 years, and then he will reign a thousand years in peace (like the seventh day of rest); and then Satan will be let loose again.


Many try to predict the second coming, based on Scripture and what is happening around the world. But it says that no one knows the day except God.
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Agreed. One of the earliest written records we have, the Sumerian King List - attributes reigns of 36,000 and 28,000 years to two of the earliest kings. We have no idea
what time scales were really used back then.
 
jmotivator said:
The thing I find intriguing about the 6,000-10,000 year range that is given by YEC studies is that as an allegory of human evolution it's a pretty neat fit.

When you look at currently verified human history, civilization started about 6,000-10,000 years ago as the end stage of the Neolithic Revelution. Genesis is about Man gaining knowledge that forever separated him from the rest of nature. Before gaining their knowledge Adam and Eve lived in a fashion not so different from the other animals. Upon gaining knowledge life got hard, they began clothing themselves and had to work the land for their survival. Eden, in fact, is believed to be the representation of the lush lands of the Mesopotamian basin, the "cradle of civilization".

So, in a round about way, Adam and Eve function very well as caricatures of the earliest modern humans at the dawn of civilization.

It is really cool and humbling in a way to read these stories and know that they very well could be the stories we told ourselves many thousands of years ago to understand why we were so very different than all other living things around us and they date back almost precisely to the time that this major change in humanity was occurring. More poignantly, when you look at the story of Genesis in this light, you see that the earliest civilizations yearned to return to a way of life of their not so distant ancestors while accepting with full knowledge that there was no going back to a pre-civilized life.
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Nice. i was just thinking that 6000BC accords pretty well with the beginning of written history and was wondering if that had something to do with YEC age claim but your idea that Adam and Eve are a metaphor for the recently uncivilized past of the ancients works even better.
 
It doesn't matter what you think. Half of America interprets it that way.
 
Logicman said:
I say it could have been eons, since the Hebrew word for "day," isn't in the text. So we really don't know.
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Gen 1:1 isn't a specific event in the line of creation events, it is the introduction to what is to follow. The creation process starts in verse 3. In verse 5 the first part of creation is completed. And the Evening and the Morning were the first Day.

Hebrew Lexicon :: H3117 (KJV)

It is no question that it is a 24 hour period.
 
davidtaylorjr said:
Gen 1:1 isn't a specific event in the line of creation events, it is the introduction to what is to follow. The creation process starts in verse 3. In verse 5 the first part of creation is completed. And the Evening and the Morning were the first Day.

Hebrew Lexicon :: H3117 (KJV)

It is no question that it is a 24 hour period.
Click to expand...

The earth already existed (was created) before the creation 'days' events. But for how long had it existed?

As for 24 hour days, the context of what happened during some of those days doesn't support a 24 hour period, but a much longer period of time. For instance, on the third "day," God formed the land out of the seas. There is no time frame given for the formation of the land and seas. Some time after the land was formed, God created the plants:

Then God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with seed in them, on the earth"; and it was so. (Genesis 1:11)

And the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:12)

The text clearly states that the earth "sprouted" the plants (the Hebrew word deshe, Strong's #H1877, usually refers to grasses). The Hebrew word dasha, (Strong's #H1876) indicates that the plants grew from either seeds or small seedlings in order to have "sprouted." In addition, these plants produced seeds. The Hebrew word here is zera (Strong's #H2233), which is most often translated "descendants." This makes matters very difficult for the 24-hour interpretation. Not only do the plants sprout and grow to maturity, but produce seed or descendants. There are no plants capable of doing this within a 24-hour period of time. Things actually get worse for this interpretation. Genesis 1:12 clearly states that God allowed the earth to bring forth trees that bore fruit. The process by which the earth brings forth trees to the point of bearing fruit takes several years, at minimum. God did not create the trees already bearing fruit. The text states clearly that He allowed the earth to accomplish the process of fruit bearing through natural means. Because the process of the third day requires a minimum period of time of more than 24 hours, the Genesis text for the third day clearly falsifies the interpretation that the days of Genesis one are 24-hour periods of time. Genesis Clearly Teaches that the Days Were NOT 24 Hours
 
You have to love it when evangelical types are forced to treat Genesis as a science textbook and ignore it as a religious document. It's invaluable as the latter, and worthless as the former, and they focus on the former. Matthew 7:6.
 
davidtaylorjr said:
It is no question that it is a 24 hour period.
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Okay.

Why do we have no geological record of such massive changes to the Earth's crust from making land and sea in one day?

Why do we have no evidence of stars being formed in a single day?

Why do we have no evidence of light coming from nowhere? After all, light was created before stars. As we can measure the speed of light, we should have light coming from stars that are four days less than the day of creation of light sources away from us. 6000 years and 96 hours. We have no such evidence for this.

Why do we have no evidence of the massive separation of water? After all, God on day 2 separated water. Releasing that much water from whatever state it was in would have left huge geological impacts. No evidence for this exists.

How do salt intolerant plants suddenly take root in a land once covered by salt water in a single day?

What were these plants using to respirate when there was no source of oxygen? After all, vegetation moved on to land after sea vegetation pumped trillions of cubic feet of O2 into the atmosphere. In your interpretation of a single 24 hour period per day, there's no chance to produce the levels of oxygen plants need to survive. Therefore, how do your plants even live for 24 hours when there is no O2?

"Watery, formless" This itself makes no sense. If a planet is formless, it's not a planet. Planets are irregular spheres, which is obvious a form. Right off the bat Genesis doesn't make sense. Second, Earth's geological record shows that water came after planetary accretion. Therefore, the Earth could not have been "watery." And let's not forget that early Earth, like all early planets as a fiery ball of death. How could water have survived in a liquid form on a planet well above the vaporization temperature of water?

I can keep going on about how a 24 hour day period makes absolutely no sense.

But I don't think you're even going to try to deal with these problems. You believe in YEC because you want to believe. Not because there is any evidence whatsoever for it.
 
davidtaylorjr said:
Gen 1:1 isn't a specific event in the line of creation events, it is the introduction to what is to follow. The creation process starts in verse 3. In verse 5 the first part of creation is completed. And the Evening and the Morning were the first Day.

Hebrew Lexicon :: H3117 (KJV)

It is no question that it is a 24 hour period.
Click to expand...

There is also no question we are all going to hell for eating shrimp.
 
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