What is the age of the earth?

[Anonymous]

6000 years

6000 - 10,000 years

Way older than 10,000 years

[AviatorTom]

Biblical scholars agree that no one knows how long each "day" is in the Creation story in Genesis in the Bible. So, even if we use the 6000 years back to Adam, we don't know how much further back in time that "God created the Earth".

What this means is that the scientific age of the Earth being billions of years old does not necessarily disagree with the Bible.

[OfDeath]

No, that is an after the fact reinterpretation. Moving the goalposts.

And it is a pointless exercise, because even if we accept the the hebrew word for day was intended to mean a different temporal value than 24 hours, it would have to mean exactly a 6th of the time between the big bang and the "first" human being. If we accept that, scientific discovery of the chronology of the universe conflicts with the order of events stated in the bible.

That does necessarily disagree with the bible.

[AviatorTom]

@OfDeath I respectfully disagree. There is no requirement that the "day" must be 1/6 of the time. It could just mean an unspecified time period. Just like the Spanish word "manana", which is translated as "tomorrow", but which is usually used to mean "sometime in the future.

And we're only talking about the age of the earth here. Science has a different origin of humans that disagrees with the bible, but the age of the earth is a separate discussion.

[OfDeath]

Whether or not you divide a "6th" into unequal parts is irrelevant to the fact that the bible has the chronology of events wrong. Therefore the scripture can't be used to determine the age of the earth because we already know it is wrong.

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

6,000 to 7,000 years old if we go by the Bible and account the age of Adam when he died all the way til now.

Keep in mind God created a mature earth as everything was set from the beginning, besides there's no way scientists can determine the age of the earth using some machine especially determine is 100,000 plus years old. 🙄

[DavidRaul]

Are you for real? I can't stop laughing

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

@DavidRaul: Keep on laughing. It's not illegal. 🤷‍♂️

[FreyaRed]

4.4-4.5 billion years. Decay of uranium isotopes in cyrconite crystals doesn't lie and can be considered as reliable geologic time measurement.

[smølf]

You are presuming they know the original amount percent because without that knowledge your calculation is null and void.
So, how do you know the original uranium concentration?

[FreyaRed]

there is decay chain of U-238 to stable Pb-208. The more lead inside cyrconite the older is the crystal.

[smølf]

@freyared That's not the question, how do you know the original amount of U-238? Without that knowledge, you can't calculate the age by decay.

[FreyaRed]

@smølf en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium%E2%80%93lead_dating

[smølf]

@freyared
https://youtu.be/5la7SoO6FfY

[TroyDT2]

This to me is another Galileo situation, where "so-called" Biblical scholars insist upon an interpretation that is not required by the text and box themselves in, declaring those who disagree as "heretics.".

[OfDeath]

It is around 4.543 billion years old plus or minus 50 million years. We know this based on scientific discovery across a wide range of disciplines.

[strateguy632]

hmm probably between 6*10^3 and 4*10^9 so 4*10^6. more likely 9*10^5

[Red_Arrow]

Not sure. I was never invited to a birthday party for it.

[NamerOfStars]

About fourteen months now. People REALLY don't pay attention.

[Anonymous]

Earth is estimated to be 4.54 billion years old, plus or minus about 50 million years. Scientists have scoured the Earth searching for the oldest rocks to radiometrically date.

[jshm2]

No one really knows, and there is no real way to know.

[AndrésC64]

Earth is estimated to be 4.54 billion years old, plus or minus about 50 million years.

education.nationalgeographic.org/.../resource-library-age-earth

[smølf]

@AndrésC64 Still not something anyone knows, it's what contemporary theories say, based on our current knowledge. But the estimate of the age of the earth has changed many times over the past 100 years.

[AndrésC64]

Yes, unlike religion which is dogmatic and absolutely refuses to change, science is a process which thrives on change and new ideas. Science moves forward while religion stays stuck in ancient history.

[Avicenna]

Best current estimate is 4.5 billion years, and the universe around 13 billion years old.

[smølf]

Not even the bible say 6,7 or 10.000 years as the age of the earth.

[Alwayreckles93]

Are you Christian?

[smølf]

@Alwayreckles93 Yes, but I can read and the bible makes no such claims, even the days of creation are clearly not 24 hours days, as shown by the bible itself. Even so, humans left paradise about 7000 years ago, but the age of the earth is not mentioned at all. Could be 50.000 or 4 billion years old, the bible has no claims either way.

[Alwayreckles93]

Yes you are correct I've made my own research and everything comes up with different answers. I am finding you're topics interesting. What exactly do you mean when people left paradise. I like learning about this things and Christian teachings.

[Alwayreckles93]

What exactly do you mean by when people left paradise? I apologize forgot to insert a question mark. I have dyslexia.

[smølf]

@Alwayreckles93 You can make a calculation back to when Adam and Eve was evicted or expelled from paradise, this was about 6000-7000 years ago, by biblical estimates. You use, the chronology of who came father to whom and when. It's not a precise calculation but an aproxsimation.

The Bible does not support mankind beaing more than approx 7000 years old. But these are the numbers we do get from the Bible, the numbers we do not get, it is when the earth was created and therefore the age of the planet. We can't say anything about when animals or plants were created or the timeframe in general.

The key point is the length of the creation days. In six days God created everything on earth, but how long was a creation day and long did the earth exist before creation began? Was a day littely 24 hours? Was every day the same length?

The Bible start as so:
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and desolate, and there was darkness upon the surface of the watery deep, and God’s active force was moving about over the surface of the waters."

After this, the first creation day begins, in verse 3., saying "And God said: “Let there be light.” Then there was light. After that God saw that the light was good, and God began to divide the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, but the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day."

So how long before the first day of creation, did the heavens and the earth exists?

We simply can't know for sure, but we can know a day is not necessarily 24 hours, although we can't say it isn't.

[smølf]

@Alwayreckles93
The Bible frequently uses the term “day” to designate various periods of time. In some cases, these periods are of an unspecified length. The account of creation found in the Bible book of Genesis is one example of this.

An example of when a day was not a literal day is seen in Genesis 2:16-17 when God said
" Jehovah God also gave this command to the man: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will certainly die.”.

However, after Adam and Eve eat of the tree, they lived had children and die of old age. In Genesis 5 we read:
"This is the book of Adam’s history. In the day that God created Adam, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them. On the day they were created, he blessed them and named them Man. Adam lived for 130 years and then became father to a son in his likeness, in his image, and he named him Seth. After becoming father to Seth, Adam lived for 800 years. And he became father to sons and daughters. So all the days of Adam’s life amounted to 930 years, and then he died."

So, Adam lived no more than 130 years in paradise and lived at least 800 years after he left paradise, hence he didn't die that literal day he eat of the tree.

Days don't always mean literal days.

[Alwayreckles93]

I can tell you really take your time in reading your Bible. I mean you share a lot of good information thank you I appreciate it you Sharing this. Are you a pastor?

[smølf]

@Alwayreckles93 No, I grew up in a JW household, left in my teen years, and Covid-19 made me sort of go back, reminding me of the bible prophecies being fulfilled as we speak.

I never identifies as a Christian for all those years away, but I guess I always deepdown still believed in the Bible. I guess I just lied to myself, because I wanted to live without God and essentially had a sexually immoral lifestyle I loved. But seeing prophecies being fulfilled, sort of opened my eyes again.

[Alwayreckles93]

I know this question was about a month ago. But do you believe we're living in the end of times?

[smølf]

@Alwayreckles93 Yes, the last profeties from the bible are being fulfilled as we speak.

There is a long explanation, but in reality, a good guess would be the end will be before 2034, now it is a guess of course because nobody knows the day of the end, not even Jesus, only God. But it is a qualified guess, based on calculations (not JW's though).

The key is this, some people alive today will ever die, most will however die soon. If it's in two, ten years I can't say for sure, but it won't be one fifty or a hundred years.

Some of the signs Jesus mentioned himself.

Luke 21:7-10, New International Version
"The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times

7 “Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?”

8 He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. 9 When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”

10 Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven."

See how many wars and uprisings, earthquakes, famines, and pestilences (COVID-19) are in various places we have today compared to the past, even the recent past. Then add fearful events about global warming, newcleare incidents, plastics, economics (total debt, unemployment, income inequality), terrorist attacks and so on and on and on.

It is certainly a special time in history, not that wars are new, WWII is still the most terrible war ever, but all the things combined speak volumes.

[Alwayreckles93]

I've hear about that chip being the mark of the beast. Not sure how accurate that is. And I was watching a documentary about food shortage.

[smølf]

@Alwayreckles93 The Bible says that people receive “the mark of the beast” because they follow it “with admiration,” to the point of worshipping it.
The real question is not what is the mark of the beast, but rather what is the beast!
Clearly its a symbol, but of what, only then can we star guessing what the mark may be.

[AndrésC64]

Approximately four and a half billion years old.

[DeeDeeDeVour]

Four and a half billion years old.

[Alwayreckles93]

Only God knows the true answer.

[Lliam]

4.5 or so billion years.

[CloudMassacre]

The estimates are around 4.5 billion years old

[Anonymous]

Around 4.5 billion years old

[grega239]

4 something billion years

[MiseriaCantareAFI]

4.5 billion