Why do Christians believe in that stupid the earth is 4,000 to 6000 years old?

[Stoner710]

I’m down which Christian as far as morals and way of life they thing “God’s time isn’t or time” right hence why im agnostic I can’t believe the earth is 4000-6000 years old why do Christians believe this

[ManOnFire]

So the Christians who believe in that are the Creationists. I'm a Christian and even I don't believe in that 6,000-year theory. Ken Ham has made some good points, but still not enough to convince me that the earth is that young. I don't believe in the million-year evolution theory, but I don't believe in 6,000 years either.

They believe this for a few reasons:

1. The Jewish calendar is close to the year 6,000 (right now it's at 5783), and so they think that's an indication that we're coming close to the end.

2. They have a false idea that each of the first 7 days that God created the world in Genesis was 1,000 years. But that makes no sense for him to spend a thousand year epoch in each phase of creating earth. Not to mention that would already be 7,000 years, more than what they're originally proposing as earth being 6,000 years old.

3. They're going by the passage in the New Testament where it says to God one day is as a thousand years, as a thousand years is like a day. This doesn't translate to that literally being the case, rather it's saying that in God's own way, he does things very slowly in human minds, because time is of no consequence to him, while humans are temporary beings and the vast majority of us do not even make it to 100 years-old.

So, no. I think earth is a lot older than 6,000 years.

[DubiousIntentions]

And surely God didn't take 1,000 years to create Adam and Eve.

[ManOnFire]

@DubiousIntentions Right. Spending all that time waiting for brains, liver, and organs to fully bake wouldn't make God seem very powerful.

[Aerissa_Jade]

I know exactly what you mean, they are using earths orbits around the sun as a measurement of time.

That is a very man made concept of time, a year for one planet in the entire universe.

The measurements could just as well be the measurements of gods galaxy, if we say it is the galaxy instead.

The Milky Way zips along a galactic orbit at an average speed of about 514,000 mph (828,000 km/hr). It takes about 230 million years for our solar system to make one revolution around the galactic center.

Use that for a measurement of a day and now your looking at 1.6 billion earth years or so for 7 days.

No one knows what a day is for god, using one little planets orbit as a measurement of time is pretty silly.

What if god used evolution to create everything, and time means nothing to him?

Then again there is a theory the earth existed before and god reused it to make it how it is now.

[DubiousIntentions]

@Aerissa_Jade Good points, because God is going to remodel Earth in the end into something beautiful. It won't have any sea and be like it was in the Garden of Eden.

[ManOnFire]

@Aerissa_Jade And we as humans are temporary creatures so it's hard to even understand extreme lengths of time. Hell, the idea of living forever freaks me out.

[DubiousIntentions]

When you live forever a bad day for you could last 1,000 years.

[ManOnFire]

@DubiousIntentions Lol. Another way to look at it.

[Aerissa_Jade]

@ManOnFire That is my literal definition of hell, living forever in this world. Imagine having to get up and go to work each day for eternity?

[ManOnFire]

@Aerissa_Jade Okay now THAT would be a horrible hell.

[Paul_in_Indy]

What you are describing is not a core Christian belief. That’s not a doctrine which one needs to believe. I don’t think it’s even a common belief among modern American Christians. I don’t believe in a young Earth.

That said, I don’t See any fundamental objection to the belief. If we believe that God created the universe ex nihilo, then you may believe that he created it at any age or in any state of being that he desired. We could be living on an earth that is billions of years old which was created 6000 years ago. I don’t believe that, but I don’t see any problem with the concept.

[AngryCarl2]

That's literally an oxymoron. If the Earth was created 6000 years ago and is billions of years old you have created two states that are mutually contradictory. Therefore you disproved your own theory.

[Paul_in_Indy]

@AngryCarl2 What you describe is not a logical conundrum, at all.
If the universe was created out of nothing, it could be created in any state and at any age. No time existed before the universe. Time and space were created together. How much time and how much space? Any quantity is possible.

I am not saying you must be believe it. But belief that creation was accomplished differently in no way disproves the other.

[AngryCarl2]

If time and space were created together the Universe was aged zero when that happened.

[Paul_in_Indy]

@AngryCarl2 If the universe can be created, it can be created at any point. If you publish a book, you can hand it to me open to any page. I may have just started to read, but it is still Chapter 42, and I have begun at the part of the part of the story you chose for me. The whole story exists -you created pit- but I have begun reading just now.

That is, in fact, the experience all of us have with the universe. We have no reason to insist that it must have begun at some beginning point that we believe is logically necessary. These things are bigger than your mind.

[AngryCarl2]

But according to your analogy the book was already written before you started to read. Therefore it's an old book regardless of which page you choose to start reading on.

[Paul_in_Indy]

@AngryCarl2 I was slow to realize that you are you just messing with me. It takes me a while to pick up. …but no one is this obtuse, in reality. I will chuckle belatedly and pretend I got the joke earlier.

[AngryCarl2]

If that's what you're happy believing it's fine by me.

[jennifer_bloom]

A lot of Christians and Jews believe parts of the bible are allegorical or context sensitive. For example, day might be another word for phase, or aspect, or portion, and not a literal day, or it might be a term for segment in time which each day lasting a different number of years or centuries or millenniums. I even believe songs of Solomon is allegorical because I do not believe God would endorse a relationship based on physical beauty, when the bible is a book about personality and compassion. For example, my breasts are like fawns, might mean, my investments are like blessings. My breasts are like towers might mean, my investments were like excellent ambitions. When the bible talks about condemning Assyria, the Assyrian might be a code word for patronizing and terrifying leadership, Moab might be a code word for dominance and territorial social control, Jebusite might be a code word for vanity...

[XHopelessRomanticX]

Most Christians I know accept the Earth being millions/billions of years old, so I’m not quite sure which denominations still teach that.
The Hebrew word for “day” that is used in Genesis is “yom” which can mean either a literal 24 hour period or an unspecified amount of time— think of your grandparents saying “Back in my day…”

[Stoner710]

I know evangelicals and Nazarene believes in the short days theory. I went to these churches as a kid and why I left because I thought that was stupid.

[mstbooblover]

Yes, that's indeed a tradition in different religions refering to the Bible. My interpretation of that figure of about 5000 years is that back then something important happened, some sudden evolution (first town as Ur, agriculture, etc.), and from then on the earth is considered to have been created.

On another level one could just consider that figure as purely symbolic, exactly as God having created the universe in 6 days, the 7th the Allmighty having taken a break ;0)

Actually all this does in no way contradict the long evolution having lasted millions of years till these days.

[DubiousIntentions]

Some go by what God said. With God one day is like 1,000 years and 1,000 years is like one day. So they take the 6 days it took to create the Earth and assume it meant 6,000 years. But geology says otherwise with the fossil record. But that being said, nothing is impossible for God. After all, He wrote the rule book. So if He wanted man to appear in one day, it would be possible to throw them in anywhere along the timeline.

[lightbulb27]

People will try to forcefit their interpretation into what is demonstrated. You'll find some "loopy" Christians. I've heard Christians say that humans existed along with dinosaurs.

What's lost in this is the purpose of the book...

[Petr87]

Most Christians don't believe this though. The actual age of the Earth isn't mentioned in any of the books of the Bible, and it wasn't believed by anyone at all until the 1600's, when the Earth's age was apparently "calculated" by a certain Bishop Ussher.

Why do atheists keep repeating this slanderous lie about Christians?

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

It's counting the ages from Adam til when they started to keep track of calender years which is about 6,000 plus years old til this point.

Also, keep in mind God created a complete mature earth so that's why people think its older than it actually is.

[DubiousIntentions]

When do you think dinosaurs were on Earth? They were way before man arrived, just by looking at the fossil record. If man were alive during that time, why aren't his bones fossilized alongside the dinosaurs. This is what confuses people.

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

@DubiousIntentions: Dinosaurs were created along with all the original animals at the beginning.

[DubiousIntentions]

Then why do we never hear anything about them in the Bible and why were not two of them put on Noah's Ark?

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

@DubiousIntentions: Who told you no Dinosaurs weren't put in the Ark? They weren't there.

The Bible does mention dinosaurs by the phsyical description of a animal called Behemoth.

Job 40:15-24

“Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you; He eats grass like an ox.

See now, his strength is in his hips, And his power is in his stomach muscles.

He moves his tail like a cedar; The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit.

His bones are like beams of bronze, His ribs like bars of iron.

He is the first of the ways of God; Only He who made him can bring near His sword.

Surely the mountains yield food for him, And all the beasts of the field play there.

He lies under the lotus trees, In a covert of reeds and marsh.

The lotus trees cover him with their shade; The willows by the brook surround him.

Indeed the river may rage, Yet he is not disturbed; He is confident, though the Jordan gushes into his mouth, Though he takes it in his eyes, Or one pierces his nose with a snare.

[DubiousIntentions]

That could be a description of a dinosaur, or an elephant. Yet in all their travels, no disciple or Apostle mentioned huge beasts. Also, when they were drilling the deepest hole ever drilled into the Earth, which was 40,000 ft deep, they found fossils of sea life at like 10,000 feet down. The only thing I have ever seen that shows man and supposed dinosaurs existed together, was fossilized foot prints of a human and dinosaur together in a fossilized riverbed sand bar. But they could have also been a crocodile's foot prints.

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

@DubiousIntentions: Its not a elephant. A elephant doesn't have nor move his tail like a cedar tree nor his strength in his hips or stomach muscles.

And the context above clearly points that God put a sword near him meaning that Behemoth is now extinct.

The elephant is still here.

This dinosaur matches the physical description of what God calls Behemoth.

[DubiousIntentions]

OK, a good point. Interesting as they had an old movie called The Giant Behemoth, and it was a dinosaur like the Brontosaurus.

[Dargil]

A Catholic Bishop, Ussher, calculated it way back. He subscribed to literal days. A careful scan of Genesis 1 and 2 tempered with 2 Peter 3:8 may shed light on this. From childhood, I have never bought in to Ussher.

[purplepoppy]

It's only Christians from the American Bible belt that still cling on to that belief. I suspect it's more to do with toeing political lines than anything else

[jshm2]

They don't.

It's only the American denominations that do. The same sort of fuckwits who believe in aliens, anti-vaxx, and all that jazz.

[Anonymous]

They've been indoctrinated to believe that, the same way children are indoctrinated to believe in climate change now. You could teach them the sky is pink at a young enough age and they would unquestioningly believe it for life.

[AngryCarl2]

I think most Christians don't believe that. Disregard Evangelical Fundamentalists, they don't believe half the stuff they "believe" anyway. They just want to be "holier than thou".

[smølf]

We don't believe that, based on the bible we can say the creation days are unlikely to be 24 hours.

Some denominations do however push the theology of literally 24 hour days, but not all.

[Tomisworthless]

Because one day to the Lord is equal to 1000years therefore the planet being 4-6 thousands years old. There are 1460000 days in 4000 years therefore the planets age is 5,840,000,000 or 5.8 Billion years old in our understanding of time

[Tomisworthless]

With error for Calendar changes from the past and leap years.

[Sevenpointfive]

christians don't believe in science. they'd spend more on an exorcism

[ERB62]

Look up the videos of Ron Wyatt on YouTube who discovered Noah's Ark along with much more. That is a start

[Anonymous]

I'm christian and nobady ever had say Eart is that limitate.
Eart is having milions of yares

[Cubus]

Only Protestants believe so.

[slatyb]

Not all do.

[Gabriel-Chicanito]

False converts?