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How Long have Humans Lived on Earth?

The Barbarian

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Scientist. In science, 800M is 800 million. 800K is 800 thousand. You often see paleontologists write something like "65MYA" for "sixty-five million years ago."

When in science, do as the scientists do.
So, it's pettiness then.
Precision. It matters.

And for that trait, you have been roundly praised by your devoted followers.
Not sure I have "followers." When some of the guys here start talking about math and physics, I listen. When some of them talk about epistemology, I listen. If you look above, you'll notice that someone updated me on the question of Neanderthals as subspecies or separate species.
You and your gear-head friends just need to get out more often.
I don't think that word means what you think it does.
 
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o_mlly

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So we can see that the biologists won't be of much help here as they focus on the material and trivial only.

As argued earlier, humans are bodies and souls -- rational souls. So we look to archaeologists who will help us find and date evidence of behaviors that can only be attributed to rational man.
 
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AaronClaricus

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Precision. It matters.
Screenshot From 2026-02-18 09-36-46.png

From my book.
 
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The Barbarian

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As argued earlier, humans are bodies and souls -- rational souls. So we look to archaeologists who will help us find and date evidence of behaviors that can only be attributed to rational man.
Seems like that would rule out a significant proportion of the human race. Would construction of stone tools be only attributed to rational man? How about use of fire? What behaviors do you think are only attributable to rational man, and what do you think are only material and trivial?
 
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Job 33:6

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So we can see that the biologists won't be of much help here as they focus on the material and trivial only.

As argued earlier, humans are bodies and souls -- rational souls. So we look to archaeologists who will help us find and date evidence of behaviors that can only be attributed to rational man.
There is an assumption here that the creation of mankind in Genesis is a matter of rationality. Or even intellect. But of course, the Bible doesn't suggest such a thing.
 
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truthuprootsevil

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Hello Dale. I wouldn't say what you presented was 'everything we know'. Seems like vague and unverified dates given arbitrarily to fragmentary evidence. A better question could be how far do Historical Writings go back in time? God Bless You :)
It is reported that man started writing anywhere from 3 to 4,000 years ago and the ancient Sumerians for the first to initiate writing as we interpret it, but they drew or attempted to draw. From the University of Pennsylvania
The History of Writing - Title https://share.google/116j0RSWF71dgQTCX

Yet when you read Sumerian kingship list it goes back close to 100,000 years. Indicating many of their first kings lived thousands of years. And as time went on the Kings reign reduced to a few years. From the University of Oxford

The Sumerian king list: translation The Sumerian king list: translation
 
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truthuprootsevil

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Many creationists firmly believe that the earth cannot be more 6,000 years old. I am not going to discuss the age of the universe but I will discuss the development of civilization on earth.

When was fire domesticated?

“ Here we present evidence of fire-making on a 400,000-year-old buried landsurface at Barnham (UK), where heated sediments and fire-cracked flint handaxes were found alongside two fragments of iron pyrite—a mineral used in later periods to strike sparks with flint.”


ttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09855-6

Fire led very quickly to cooking. The application of fire to metalworking was much slower.

On Copper:
“Its use was known in eastern Anatolia by 6500 BCE and it soon became widespread.”
That is 8,500 years ago.


Bronze Age | Definition, History, Inventions, Tools, & Facts | Britannica

When were dogs domesticated?

“Dogs were domesticated from their wolf ancestors over 15,000 years ago.”

The Evolution of Dogs, Accidental Best Friends
This is Ohio Wesleyan University


When were cats domesticated?

“Together the transport of cats to the island and the burial of the human with a cat indicate that people had a special, intentional relationship with cats nearly 10,000 years ago in the Middle East.”


The Evolution of House Cats

When were sheep domesticated?

“Now, research at an 11,000-year-old settlement in Turkey shows that some early farmers kept wild sheep penned up in the middle of their village—thus setting the stage for the dramatic changes that led to today's domesticated animals.”


A Brief History of Goat Domestication - The Livestock Conservancy

When were cattle domesticated?

“All cattle are descended from as few as 80 animals that were domesticated from wild ox in the Near East some 10,500 years ago, according to a new genetic study.”


DNA traces cattle back to a small herd domesticated around 10,500 years ago
This is University College, London, England

When were goats domesticated?

“Judging by early signs of domestication, such as bones from the slaughter of male young [goats], this started around 10,500 years ago in Anatolia (Turkey) and the Zagros Mountains (Iran)


A Brief History of Goat Domestication - The Livestock Conservancy

When was wheat cultivated?

“Cultivated for 10,000 years, wheat is one of the world’s most important plants.”

Wheat 101 | National Associate of Wheat Growers
This is the National Association of Wheat Growers


When was barley first cultivated?

“Remains of barley (Hordeum vulgare) grains found at archaeological sites in the Fertile Crescent indicate that about 10,000 years ago the crop was domesticated there from its wild relative Hordeum spontaneum.”


https://www.researchgate.net/public...mestication_History_of_Barley_Hordeum_vulgare

When was rice cultivated?

“...the earliest archaeological evidence [for cultivation of rice] comes from central and eastern China and dates to 7,000-5,000 BCE.

That would be between 9,000 and 7,000 years ago.


Rice | Description, History, Cultivation, & Uses | Britannica


Everything we know about the history of humans on earth contradicts the claim that the earth could be only 6,000 years old. The Bible is a source of moral and spiritual truth, but it is not a history text.
No the Bible is not a history text to be taught as history but there is history in the Bible.

Just as the Bible is not a science text to be taught as science but there is science in the Bible.

The Bible is an translation of a language by people who did not know it or speak it. It can't be proven that the Jewish Rabbis who is said to have aided in the translation of Hebrews and Greek scriptures did not speak the same Jewish/Hebrew or ancient Greek language as those a few thousand years earlier.
How the Hebrew Language Evolved Through History How the Hebrew Language Evolved Through History

I am believer in Yahweh / Yeshua or Elohim, whichever name one chooses / a Christian. But I have found misunderstanding in the early translation - interpretations of what scripture seems to indicate which has been passed down through the centuries and accepted as truth.

Though you're not directly talking about 6,000-year-old Earth I believe the Hebrew word yom/yome was misunderstood and though seen as a literal 24-hour day it actually meant a span of time or a point in time _ they overlooked the fact that the 24-hour day was not created until the 4th day God's timing. God's timing: 2nd Peter 3:8 one day to him is as a thousand years and A thousand years is as a day, simply meaning not subjected to.

Since Christianity was adopted into the Roman and English providences the early churches taught and passed down through history what they felt was true.

Nowhere in Scripture does it State the age of the Earth but the translators, interpretation interpreted it to their understanding. Yes the Earth is billions of years old.

The church has taught Adam and Eve had two children after sin and being tossed out of the garden rejecting the notion that Adam and Eve had hundreds of children before they were rejected out of the garden before they sinned....... That was the early translators way of understanding scripture and passed down that teaching throughout the centuries.

Daniel 4:12 tells us that in the last days people will be going to and fro and knowledge shall increase and that has definitely occurred. Many Churches are beginning to see errors in the ways of teaching and some are identifying it and changing.

Adam and Eve had to have had children before they were cast out of the garden, hundreds if not thousands and they may have lived even to 1 to 200,000 years before they sinned........ The Tree of Life fruit as indicated in Genesis 3:22 gave form of immortality / healing. God gave them the fruit of that tree to eat, but the church denies they ate it because of it wasn't written. There are a lot of things that is not written in the Bible that the church teaches truth example: Cain married his sister, but it's not written in the Bible that Adam and Eve had any daughters.

The church can't explain or try to explain where the people come from who God told not to kill Cain. But they teach Cain and Abel were the only two born to Adam and Eve.

The church cannot explain nor do they try to explain how or why there was a land called Nod, who named it who lived there.

The church cannot explain nor do they try to explain why cane married his wife in the Land of Nod.

Science which is God given to man gives us a good idea of the time span of all life forms here on Earth.
 
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o_mlly

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What behaviors do you think are only attributable to rational man ...
See post #127.
... what do you think are only material and trivial?
Biologists for "material" and for "trivial" certain biologist who frequent this site.
There is an assumption here that the creation of mankind in Genesis is a matter of rationality. Or even intellect. But of course, the Bible doesn't suggest such a thing.
? Gen 1:26-27. The actor in these verses is the Lord. Or do you think that God is irrational? Or that His creation is unintelligible?
 
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The Barbarian

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See post #127.
Tools to make tools, um?

Humanity’s creation and mastery of fire likely came in stages. Being able to reliably kindle this source of light and heat was only one step, managing the flames was another. It was a crucial turning point in human evolution when Homo sapiens—or one of our species’ hominin relatives—first controlled fire not only as a safeguard from predators, but also for sculpting tools from stone.

Now scientists believe they have found evidence of this level of mastery. In an analysis published in Nature Human Behaviour, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, both in Israel, make the case that more than 300,000 years ago, hominins living in Qesem Cave, a small cavern in what is today Israel, succeeded in controlling fire to enhance the production of tools.

 
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Job 33:6

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See post #127.

Biologists for "material" and for "trivial" certain biologist who frequent this site.

? Gen 1:26-27. The actor in these verses is the Lord. Or do you think that God is irrational? Or that His creation is unintelligible?
What does any of this have to do with rationality? Did I ever say that God was irrational? No. The passage doesn't say "And God said "let us make mankind rational, according to our likeness" ".

Did you ever stop to investigate what the Imago Dei is or means?

Genesis 5:3
[3] Adam was 130 years old when he fathered a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.

Why would the Bible go out of its way to say that Adam gave Seth "rationality" if all people were already rational?

The answer: it's not about rationality.
 
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AaronClaricus

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It is reported that man started writing anywhere from 3 to 4,000 years ago and the ancient Sumerians for the first to initiate writing as we interpret it, but they drew or attempted to draw. From the University of Pennsylvania
The History of Writing - Title https://share.google/116j0RSWF71dgQTCX

Yet when you read Sumerian kingship list it goes back close to 100,000 years. Indicating many of their first kings lived thousands of years. And as time went on the Kings reign reduced to a few years. From the University of Oxford

The Sumerian king list: translation The Sumerian king list: translation
Oldest known accounting method: 5500 BCE

Proto writing: 3300-3100ish BCE

Writing for accounting: 3100 BCE to 2800 BCE

Writing as a broader practice: 2700 BCE (First non mythological sumerian king, construction documents for pyramids)

Writing that's comparable to literature: 2300-2100BCE

The king's list is largely propaganda. Eridu the first city in the list was founded in 5500 BCE. By the time of the king's list in 2100 BCE dates were extremely distorted. Enmebaragesi lived around 2750 BCE. Enmerkar lived in 2750 BCE as well, he's attributed with found Uruk and inventing writing but he's 1500 year later for the first and 500 late for the second. The first names in the list are probably from 2900 BCE. Unfortunately, the Iraqi government doesn't like significant tells(human made mounds) to be excavated so we will never see original tablets with these names to confirm reigns.
 
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John Bauer

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So, it's pettiness then.

And for that trait, you have been roundly praised by your devoted followers. If you took the time to read the cited article then you would not have been so confused. You and your gear-head friends just need to get out more often. Try to watch some of the Olympic events ... and think metric.

Canadian here. Yeah, "800M" is not metric, either. The closest thing in metric would be "800 m" (meters), which is lowercase.
 
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o_mlly

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Tools to make tools, um?

Humanity’s creation and mastery of fire likely came in stages. Being able to reliably kindle this source of light and heat was only one step, managing the flames was another. It was a crucial turning point in human evolution when Homo sapiens—or one of our species’ hominin relatives—first controlled fire not only as a safeguard from predators, but also for sculpting tools from stone.

Now scientists believe they have found evidence of this level of mastery. In an analysis published in Nature Human Behaviour, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, both in Israel, make the case that more than 300,000 years ago, hominins living in Qesem Cave, a small cavern in what is today Israel, succeeded in controlling fire to enhance the production of tools.

Yes, as predicted. Thanks to Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology.
Did you ever stop to investigate what the Imago Dei is or means?
Yes.

What do you think it means?
Canadian here. Yeah, "800M" is not metric, either. The closest thing in metric would be "800 m" (meters), which is lowercase.
We've moved on from pettiness. You should to.
 
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Job 33:6

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Yes.

What do you think it means?
Nothing to do with intellect or rationality. And nothing that has anything to do with archaeology.
 
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o_mlly

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Nothing to do with intellect or rationality. And nothing that has anything to do with archaeology.
I asked you what you thought made in His Image meant; not what it did not mean.

Aren't you the same poster who declined to comment on whether faith or reason was primary to their philosophy/theology?
 
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The Barbarian

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I asked you what you thought made in His Image meant
Here's what the Catholic Church says...

INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION
COMMUNION AND STEWARDSHIP:
Human Persons Created in the Image of God

.... In Thomas Aquinas, the imago Dei possesses an historical character, since it passes through three stages: the imago creationis (naturae), the imago recreationis (gratiae), and the similitudinis (gloriae) (S.Th. I q.93 a.4). For Aquinas, the imago Dei is the basis for participation in the divine life. The image of God is realized principally in an act of contemplation in the intellect (S.Th. I q.93 a.4 and 7). This conception can be distinguished from that of Bonaventure, for whom the image is realized chiefly through the will in the religious act of man (Sent. II d.16 a.2 q.3). Within a similar mystical vision, but with a greater boldness, Meister Eckhart tends to spiritualize the imago Dei by placing it at the summit of the soul and detaching it from the body (Quint. I,5,5-7;V, 6.9s).
...

While there is little consensus among scientists about how the origin of this first microscopic life is to be explained, there is general agreement among them that the first organism dwelt on this planet about 3.5-4 billion years ago. Since it has been demonstrated that all living organisms on earth are genetically related, it is virtually certain that all living organisms have descended from this first organism. Converging evidence from many studies in the physical and biological sciences furnishes mounting support for some theory of evolution to account for the development and diversification of life on earth, while controversy continues over the pace and mechanisms of evolution. While the story of human origins is complex and subject to revision, physical anthropology and molecular biology combine to make a convincing case for the origin of the human species in Africa about 150,000 years ago in a humanoid population of common genetic lineage. However it is to be explained, the decisive factor in human origins was a continually increasing brain size, culminating in that of homo sapiens. With the development of the human brain, the nature and rate of evolution were permanently altered: with the introduction of the uniquely human factors of consciousness, intentionality, freedom and creativity, biological evolution was recast as social and cultural evolution.

Sounds right to me.
 
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Job 33:6

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I asked you what you thought made in His Image meant; not what it did not mean.
And I'm pointing out in response to your post, that it's not about rationality or archaeology.

Hebrew scholars note that the Imago dei relates to representation and delegated authority. That it relates to exercising rule. On earth as it is in heaven.
 
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o_mlly

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Here's what the Catholic Church says...

INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION
COMMUNION AND STEWARDSHIP:
Human Persons Created in the Image of God
She also says in the same document ...

In order to maintain the unity of body and soul clearly taught in revelation, the Magisterium adopted the definition of the human soul as forma substantialis (cf. Council of Vienne and the Fifth Lateran Council). Here the Magisterium relied on Thomistic anthropology which, drawing upon the philosophy of Aristotle, understands body and soul as the material and spiritual principles of a single human being. It may be noted that this account is not incompatible with present-day scientific insights. Modern physics has demonstrated that matter in its most elementary particles is purely potential and possesses no tendency toward organization. But the level of organization in the universe, which contains highly organized forms of living and non-living entities, implies the presence of some "information." This line of reasoning suggests a partial analogy between the Aristotelian concept of substantial form and the modern scientific notion of "information." Thus, for example, the DNA of the chromosomes contains the information necessary for matter to be organized according to what is typical of a certain species or individual. Analogically, the substantial form provides to prime matter the information it needs to be organized in a particular way. This analogy should be taken with due caution because metaphysical and spiritual concepts cannot be simply compared with material, biological data. ...
Information in the cell ... Intelligent design! Sounds right to me.

... Created in the image of God, as we have seen, human beings are beings who share the world with other bodily beings but who are distinguished by their intellect, love and freedom and are thus ordered by their very nature to interpersonal communion.
The Church defines the uniquely human distinctions.

... Catholic understanding of divine causality, true contingency in the created order is not incompatible with a purposeful divine providence. Divine causality and created causality radically differ in kind and not only in degree .... In Catholic tradition, the doctrine of the origin of human beings articulates the revealed truth of this fundamentally relational or personalist understanding of God and of human nature. The exclusion of pantheism and emanationism in the doctrine of creation can be interpreted at root as a way of protecting this revealed truth. ...

The doctrine that emanation (Latin emanare, "to flow from") is the mode by which all things are derived from the First Reality, or Principle. ...
The doctrine of the Catholic Church is contained in the definition of the dogma of the creatio ex nihilo by the Fourth Lateran Council and, especially, the Council of the Vatican. The latter expressly condemns emanationism (I. De Deo rerum omnium creatore, can. iv), and anathematizes those "asserting that finite things, both corporeal and spiritual, or at least spiritual, have "emanated from the Divine substance.

So emanation is out. Only devolution, not evolution, from secondary causes is possible. Sounds about right to me.
 
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The Barbarian

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Information in the cell ... Intelligent design! Sounds right to me.
Bad assumption. In fact, information can be produced with no design at all.
Every new mutation in a population increases information.

The Church defines the uniquely human distinctions.

... In Catholic tradition, the doctrine of the origin of human beings articulates the revealed truth of this fundamentally relational or personalist understanding of God and of human nature. The exclusion of pantheism and emanationism in the doctrine of creation can be interpreted at root as a way of protecting this revealed truth.
And as the Church points out, this is consistent with evolutionary theory. Couldn't be any other way, really.
Only devolution, not evolution, from secondary causes is possible.
That's not what the Church teaches...

Since it has been demonstrated that all living organisms on earth are genetically related, it is virtually certain that all living organisms have descended from this first organism. Converging evidence from many studies in the physical and biological sciences furnishes mounting support for some theory of evolution to account for the development and diversification of life on earth, while controversy continues over the pace and mechanisms of evolution.

Your assumption is incorrect, according to the Church.
 
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