Is the bible the only reason to conclude the earth is 6,000 years old?

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Joshua0

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Is there any reason to conclude that the earth is only 6,000 years old, other than the bible?
There is a lot of Scientific Evidence to show that the civilized world began 6,000 years ago. Before that people did not live in Cities and they were mostly hunter-gathers. They went from the Stone Age to the use of metals around this time. You will find some of the oldest tin mines in England going back around 6,000 years.
 
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FrenchyBearpaw

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There is a lot of Scientific Evidence to show that the civilized world began 6,000 years ago. Before that people did not live in Cities and they were mostly hunter-gathers. They went from the Stone Age to the use of metals around this time. You will find some of the oldest tin mines in England going back around 6,000 years.

Right. And everybody knows the earth is as old as civilization.
 
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Joshua0

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Right. And everybody knows the earth is as old as civilization.
Other then the first Chapter, the Bible is a history of the last 6,000 years. Whatever happened before that point in time is not covered in the Bible. It is also not talked about in the good Bishops book. He only give a history of the last 6,000 years. What is your point anyways? I do not understand what point it is that you are trying to make.
 
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Loudmouth

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Other then the first Chapter, the Bible is a history of the last 6,000 years. Whatever happened before that point in time is not covered in the Bible. It is also not talked about in the good Bishops book. He only give a history of the last 6,000 years.

So you can find no reason that the Earth is 6,000 years old, correct?
 
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DaveISBG

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Is there any reason to conclude that the earth is only 6,000 years old, other than the bible? I've often said here that no one has ever examined the earth and concluded from that examination that the earth is so young.
The Bible does not explicitly SAY the earth is 6000 years old, but people have used the scriptural genealogies to figure out about how old the earth is. Not all Bible believers except this method. I have studied the gap theory and believe the earth is much older.
 
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SkyWriting

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The Bible does not explicitly SAY the earth is 6000 years old, but people have used the scriptural genealogies to figure out about how old the earth is. Not all Bible believers except this method. I have studied the gap theory and believe the earth is much older.

I think the genealogies are not intended as a measuring stick for time and to use them for
that purpose is a sin against God. The results speak to the crime of creating distraction in
the church. Young earthers are perpetuating a crime. As are many secular origins groups.
 
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Bungle_Bear

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There is a lot of Scientific Evidence to show that the civilized world began 6,000 years ago. Before that people did not live in Cities and they were mostly hunter-gathers. They went from the Stone Age to the use of metals around this time. You will find some of the oldest tin mines in England going back around 6,000 years.
There is even more "Scientific Evidence" (why capitalised?) to show that you are mistaken. The settlement at Tell Qaramel dates to around 10,700 BCE. The city of Jericho dates back to at least 9,000 BCE meaning "the civillized world" as you define it is at least 11,000 years old and maybe closer to 13,000.
 
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juvenissun

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Is there any reason to conclude that the earth is only 6,000 years old, other than the bible? I've often said here that no one has ever examined the earth and concluded from that examination that the earth is so young.

The Bible does not even says that.
It is the "scientific" idea of that Bishop. He really screwed things up.
 
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juvenissun

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Is there any reason to conclude that the earth is only 6,000 years old, other than the bible? I've often said here that no one has ever examined the earth and concluded from that examination that the earth is so young.

In order to believe that the sum of all the years recorded in the Bible means the age of the earth, we need to answer at least one basic question: What does it mean for a person who lived 900 years?

To add the age of Adam to the age of Abraham is to add an apple to an orange. That is why the 6000 years "sum" is meaningless.
 
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Joshua0

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There is even more "Scientific Evidence" (why capitalised?) to show that you are mistaken. The settlement at Tell Qaramel dates to around 10,700 BCE. The city of Jericho dates back to at least 9,000 BCE meaning "the civillized world" as you define it is at least 11,000 years old and maybe closer to 13,000.
That is very consistent with the GAP understanding of the Bible. We believe a day is 1,000 years and this age or era began after the Holocene Extinction around 12,900 years ago. There were public buildings at Gobekli Tepe going back that far. But people were not actually living there. They were still hunter gathers and the structure that we would consider to be civilized had not been instituted yet. We can find grain bins and even grinding wheels going back 20,000 years. But all the grains were still wild. They had not been cultivated yet. Also they were not permanent settlements. Often they were located in out of the way places where people would not stumble across them and find them. At least that is what we find here in American at some of the storage bins for food that go back to ancient times. Before they had farming and before they had any sort of a civilized structure in place.
 
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steve_bakr

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So you can find no reason that the Earth is 6,000 years old, correct?

The "days" used in the creation narrative in the Bible are symbolic of long periods of geological time, so that the Bible does not say that the Earth is 6,000 years old, either.

So, the answer is that there is probably no strong evidence to support a young Earth. (Although, I am no expert on this subject.)
 
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Joshua0

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To add the age of Adam to the age of Abraham is to add an apple to an orange. That is why the 6000 years "sum" is meaningless.
The Bible clearly says that God created Adam to be a farmer, to till the land. "there was not a man to till the ground." Gen 2:5b

Unless you want to present physical evidence for a stone age plow, then I think we can assume that plowing did not begin until the bronze age. So we really do not have farming until 6,000 years ago. Starting in the Middle East, in Mesopotamia. What they now call the Euphrates River valley. Although 2,000 years ago, they still called this Mesopotamia. From there farming spread to Europe. There has been a lot of research on this subject. Science has looked long and hard at the beginning of farming and the beginning of the first cities. For example one of the first mega cities: Rome required a lot of fresh water. Without the water you do not have anything. Some of their ancient water system are still in use today after over 2500 years. Egypt was really the first to have irrigation. So they could produce more food, and keep a lot more people alive.

People maybe surprised how many people use to die even 50 years ago from starvation. They could produce the food with the new farming tractors and equipment. But they had not solved the distribution problem to get the food to the people all over the world. Today they are beginning to resolve more and more of those issues. I am amazed that my wife can buy a big tropical pineapple for $3 considering how far it has to go to get here and the cost of the fuel involved in that transportation. Actually I have been to third world nations where the transportation of people is secondary. They real objective is to transport produce to the market place.

40,000 years ago you do not find an artifact more then 300 miles from where it was produced or manufactured. Then at the time of the Silk Road where the East was connected with the west that expanded to maybe 3,000 miles. Today you find a distribution system that covers the whole world. We do not consider the old trade routes much today. We have been connected with China through shipping and Hong Kong for well over 100 years now.
 
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Split Rock

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OK, so far even the creationists who have replied say there is no reason to conclude the earth is only 6,000 years old. So far, however it is the Gap/Old earth creationists who have responded. I know there are YECs out there...for you guys, is there any reason other than the bible to conclude the earth is only 6,000 years old?
 
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Joshua0

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I know there are YECs out there...
You may be able to show that there are people that do not understand the Bible. You can not show the Bible is not accurate and true. In fact Science again and again can verify how accurate and true the Bible is. Sometimes this is a driving force for Science. To better understand our Bible and the message that the Bible has for us today.
 
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Split Rock

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You may be able to show that there are people that do not understand the Bible. You can not show the Bible is not accurate and true. In fact Science again and again can verify how accurate and true the Bible is. Sometimes this is a driving force for Science. To better understand our Bible and the message that the Bible has for us today.

So, YECs do not understand the bible.. is that correct?
 
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Lucy Stulz

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You may be able to show that there are people that do not understand the Bible. You can not show the Bible is not accurate and true.

Sounds like someone wants to use the "No-True-Scotsman" fallacy to make the bible unfalsifiable.

OK.

In fact Science again and again can verify how accurate and true the Bible is.

Only if one interprets the Bible correctly. Take for instance the order of creation. In the Bible we see land plants appearing before life in the sea. We see plants before the sun. We see birds before land animals.

None of that is in accordance to what we see in the earth's history.

But then reading the Bible as a science book will present problems in some cases.

Maybe it's an allegory? Does that show that science is verifying the accuracy of the Bible?

Sometimes this is a driving force for Science. To better understand our Bible and the message that the Bible has for us today.

Hmmm, not sure I agree with ya on that one. In fact since the Bible has been shown to be technically...ermmmm, "problematic" in some cases science normally isn't intent on proving the bible.

NOW, this is not to say some science isn't interestsed. Clearly archaeology is good for this sort of thing. But then it sometimes fails to support the Biblical chronology (for example cities in accounts of David that didn't actually exist until later or failure to find evidence of the Exodus etc.)

Even then if the archaeologists find something that does comport with the Bible's description of a time and place it is akin to finding evidence that Las Vegas actually exists and therefore concluding that Stephen King's "The Stand" is real.
 
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steve_bakr

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Sounds like someone wants to use the "No-True-Scotsman" fallacy to make the bible unfalsifiable.

OK.

Only if one interprets the Bible correctly. Take for instance the order of creation. In the Bible we see land plants appearing before life in the sea. We see plants before the sun. We see birds before land animals.

None of that is in accordance to what we see in the earth's history.

But then reading the Bible as a science book will present problems in some cases.

Maybe it's an allegory? Does that show that science is verifying the accuracy of the Bible?

Hmmm, not sure I agree with ya on that one. In fact since the Bible has been shown to be technically...ermmmm, "problematic" in some cases science normally isn't intent on proving the bible.

NOW, this is not to say some science isn't interestsed. Clearly archaeology is good for this sort of thing. But then it sometimes fails to support the Biblical chronology (for example cities in accounts of David that didn't actually exist until later or failure to find evidence of the Exodus etc.)

Even then if the archaeologists find something that does comport with the Bible's description of a time and place it is akin to finding evidence that Las Vegas actually exists and therefore concluding that Stephen King's "The Stand" is real.

No, the Bible isn't a science textbook nor always exact in terms of some historical events. The Bible is a revelation about the relationship between God and man. That's a different sort of investigation than the age of the Earth, involving philosophy and theology, perhaps anthropology and other disciplines.
 
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