If the year was 360 days long...

[Mike Elphick]

We read in Genesis that God placed 'lights' in the firmament of heaven for signs, seasons, days and years.

Genesis 1:14-15 (KJV)
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

If God saw this was good, why has man had such a struggle interpreting them? Why have so many different calendars been developed by different civilisations over the millennia?

A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar (such as years and months) are usually, though not necessarily, synchronized with the cycle of the sun or the moon. Many civilizations and societies have devised a calendar, usually derived from other calendars on which they model their systems, suited to their particular needs.
Calendar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The year, at approximately 365.25 days, is certainly not 'good' for equating seasons, years and days, or even the seven-day week. Now, if it were exactly 360 days, man would not have had to struggle making sense of the 'lights'. This lovely number (look at a compass) has factors of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180 and 360, so God could have made the lunar month exactly 30 days and the whole thing would have perfectly met his design intent.

Maybe it used to be 360 days, but because God has withdrawn his sustaining power due to the Fall, it has shifted. If that were the case, however, the week would originally have been 6 or 8 days long, not 7, and that would not fit with God's rest day.

I suggest that the solar system did NOT come into existence as described by Genesis, but formed form an accretion of gas and dust. After billions of years, as man began to observe the world he found himself in, he realised the movement of the sun and moon were very useful (though irritatingly complex) for dividing the year up into days, months etc. He therefore incorporated the handy movement of these lights into his religion, despite their inaccuracy.

 

[dad]

We read in Genesis that God placed 'lights' in the firmament of heaven for signs, seasons, days and years.



If God saw this was good, why has man had such a struggle interpreting them? Why have so many different calendars been developed by different civilisations over the millennia?

Because our present lights need not be the ones Adam saw.

The year, at approximately 365.25 days, is certainly not 'good' for equating seasons, years and days, or even the seven-day week. Now, if it were exactly 360 days, man would not have had to struggle making sense of the 'lights'. This lovely number (look at your watch) has factors of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180 and 360, so God could have made the lunar month exactly 30 days and the whole thing would have perfectly met his design intent.

Maybe it used to be 360 days, but because God has withdrawn his sustaining power due to the Fall, it has shifted. If that were the case, however, the week would originally have been 6 or 8 days long, not 7, and that would not fit with God's rest day.

Maybe. I think the moon month makes sense. But a seven day week would still be 7 days. Just shorter, no?

I suggest that the solar system did NOT come into existence as described by Genesis, but formed form an accretion of gas and dust. After billions of years, as man began to observe the world he found himself in, he realised the movement of the sun and moon were very useful (though irritatingly complex) for dividing the year up into days, months etc. He therefore incorporated the handy movement of these lights into his religion, despite their inaccuracy.

So? Others suggest the tooth fairy popped it out of her skirt.

 

[AV1611VET]

If God saw this was good, why has man had such a struggle interpreting them?

Because the Fall threw everything out of whack.

All perfection, including time, was affected.

Synchronization took a big hit.

Why have so many different calendars been developed by different civilisations over the millennia?

Because man thinks he can do it so much better than God, so God lets us try.

Study what kicked off the French Revolution from the perspective of time (specifically the number of hours in a day), and you'll be ... enlightened.

 

[Split Rock]

Because the Fall threw everything out of whack.

All perfection, including time, was affected.

Synchronization took a big hit.

What specific mechanism threw synchronization out of whack?

 

[AV1611VET]

What specific mechanism threw synchronization out of whack?

Erosion?

 

[Split Rock]

Erosion?

Is that an answer, or a question? Erosion of what?

 

[AV1611VET]

Erosion of what?

Synchronization.

 

[Merlin]

We read in Genesis that God placed 'lights' in the firmament of heaven for signs, seasons, days and years.



If God saw this was good, why has man had such a struggle interpreting them? Why have so many different calendars been developed by different civilisations over the millennia?



The year, at approximately 365.25 days, is certainly not 'good' for equating seasons, years and days, or even the seven-day week. Now, if it were exactly 360 days, man would not have had to struggle making sense of the 'lights'. This lovely number (look at a compass) has factors of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180 and 360, so God could have made the lunar month exactly 30 days and the whole thing would have perfectly met his design intent.

Maybe it used to be 360 days, but because God has withdrawn his sustaining power due to the Fall, it has shifted. If that were the case, however, the week would originally have been 6 or 8 days long, not 7, and that would not fit with God's rest day.

I suggest that the solar system did NOT come into existence as described by Genesis, but formed form an accretion of gas and dust. After billions of years, as man began to observe the world he found himself in, he realised the movement of the sun and moon were very useful (though irritatingly complex) for dividing the year up into days, months etc. He therefore incorporated the handy movement of these lights into his religion, despite their inaccuracy.

what do you mean by year time to orbit the sun time for axis tilt time for holiday count etc.

 

[MoonLancer]

Synchronization.

thank you for being so vague.

 

[Split Rock]

Because the Fall threw everything out of whack.

All perfection, including time, was affected.

Synchronization took a big hit.

What specific mechanism threw synchronization out of whack?

Erosion?

Is that an answer, or a question? Erosion of what?

Synchronization.

This is what happens when you ask specifics from a creationist after he makes up an answer to a question he really doesn't know the answer to. And of course, it is all based on "The Inerrant Word of Almighty God."

 

[AV1611VET]

thank you for being so vague.

Synchronization -- what more can I say?

If a year was exactly 360 days long, a lunar month exactly 30 days long, and a day exactly 24.000 hours long -- (which they very-well could have been) -- then what jimmied up our orbits?

Nothing is in sync -- that's why we have the solar year, tropical year, sideral year, anomalistic year, draconic year, vague year, heliacal year, sothic year, gaussian year and besselian year.

The Babel Effect seems to be universal, does it not?

 

[SithDoughnut]

The days are getting longer because we have seas.

 

[AV1611VET]

This is what happens when you ask specifics from a creationist after he makes up an answer to a question he really doesn't know the answer to.

QV my last post -- care to reconsider?

I post that before I even read your ad hom.

 

[juvenissun]

We read in Genesis that God placed 'lights' in the firmament of heaven for signs, seasons, days and years.



If God saw this was good, why has man had such a struggle interpreting them? Why have so many different calendars been developed by different civilisations over the millennia?



The year, at approximately 365.25 days, is certainly not 'good' for equating seasons, years and days, or even the seven-day week. Now, if it were exactly 360 days, man would not have had to struggle making sense of the 'lights'. This lovely number (look at a compass) has factors of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180 and 360, so God could have made the lunar month exactly 30 days and the whole thing would have perfectly met his design intent.

Maybe it used to be 360 days, but because God has withdrawn his sustaining power due to the Fall, it has shifted. If that were the case, however, the week would originally have been 6 or 8 days long, not 7, and that would not fit with God's rest day.

I suggest that the solar system did NOT come into existence as described by Genesis, but formed form an accretion of gas and dust. After billions of years, as man began to observe the world he found himself in, he realised the movement of the sun and moon were very useful (though irritatingly complex) for dividing the year up into days, months etc. He therefore incorporated the handy movement of these lights into his religion, despite their inaccuracy.

God did not specify how many days etc. Provided that the length of day, year, changes with time.

God says: this is GOOD.
Scientists said: this is really beautiful.

 

[dewaddict84]

Synchronization.

It's got electrolytes!

 

[Mike Elphick]

what do you mean by year time to orbit the sun time for axis tilt time for holiday count etc.

You need to add some punctuation to this, otherwise it is unintelligible. See Eats shoots and leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation: Amazon.co.uk: Lynne Truss: Books

 

[Mike Elphick]

The days are getting longer because we have seas.

True, or more correctly because we have tides. For a period equal to the YECists' 6000 year old Earth, the year today would be a few milliseconds longer.

However, there are techniques that allow us to estimate the number of days there were in the year hundreds of millions of years ago. The following is study of the growth patterns in ancient stromatolite columns from the 850 Ma Bitter Springs Formation in Australia.

Abstract
Inclination of stromatolite columns, caused by nonvertical direction of averaged incident solar radiation, provides a signal for deducing astronomical and geophysical data at time of stromatolite formation. A sample of Anabaria juvensis (Bitter Springs Formation, central Australia) shows a sinusoidal growth pattern which, interpreted as an annual signal (obliquity of the ecliptic) with daily production of laminae, indicates 435 days per year, a result consistent with other available estimates. A sample of Inzeria from the same formation also shows a sinusoidal pattern and a similar estimate for days per year. Both samples indicate growth rates of centimeters per year. Several laboratory measurement techniques offer systematic procedures for extracting data.
ScienceDirect - Precambrian Research : Stromatolites and earth—sun—moon dynamics

435 days per year fits well with the slowing of the Earth's rotation due to tides.

 

[dad]

Inclination of stromatolite columns, caused by nonvertical direction of averaged incident solar radiation,....

The question is NOT what causes inclination. The question is what caused it. You merely assume that it was always the same cause.

 

[Mike Elphick]

Inclination of stromatolite columns, caused by nonvertical direction of averaged incident solar radiation,....

The question is NOT what causes inclination. The question is what caused it. You merely assume that it was always the same cause.

There are not my words, but if I had written them I might have substituted 'resulting from' for 'caused by'.

As the Earth rotates and orbits the sun, the angle of the sun's rays change. Stromalites are large colonies of mainly blue-green algae. Because their growth depend on the sun, you get more growth on the side where the sun is shining so the algae grow and multiply on that side and consequently the colony bends away from the sun — in other words the inclination of the colony changes This is called heliotropic growth and can be used to estimate the obliquity of the ecliptic (Earth's axial tilt) and also the number of days in the year.

In summary, the sun caused it. Of course there may have been a different sun or the algae might have grown in moonlight, but I don't think so.

 

[dad]

There are not my words, but if I had written them I might have substituted 'resulting from' for 'caused by'.

So, then, to result from something, such as what happens now in the present, we need the same thing in the past. You have no idea if the present state existed or not then.

As the Earth rotates and orbits the sun, the angle of the sun's rays change. Stromalites are large colonies of mainly blue-green algae. Because their growth depend on the sun, you get more growth on the side where the sun is shining so the algae grow and multiply on that side and consequently the colony bends away from the sun

Who says that they used to depend on the sun? All you are saying is that they now depend on the sun.

— in other words the inclination of the colony changes This is called heliotropic growth and can be used to estimate the obliquity of the ecliptic (Earth's axial tilt) and also the number of days in the year.

Complete unfounded speculation unless this present state was in effect. That...science does not know, and can not prove.

In summary, the sun caused it. Of course there may have been a different sun or the algae might have grown in moonlight, but I don't think so.

Who cares what you think?? We care what you know. The sun was the same, however light likely was not. Neither was photosynthesis, which uses light. Not if the bible is right--and science can't say either way. So please, present your speculation as such.