Posted on 10/22/2004 7:22:56 AM PDT by Publius Valerius
Universe's 6,000th birthday ...
Tim Radford Friday October 22, 2004 The Guardian
Britain's geologists are about to celebrate the fact that the universe is exactly 6,000 years old.
At 6pm tonight at the Geological Society of London, scientists will raise their glasses to James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh (below), who in 1650 used the chronology of the Bible to calculate the precise date and moment of creation.
Working from the book of Genesis, and risking some speculation on the Hebrew calendar, he calculated that it began at 6pm on Saturday October 22, 4004 BC.
Actually, he put the date at October 23, and then pedantically realised that time must have begun the night before, because the Bible said that "the evening and the morning were the first day."
The geologists selected the anniversary for a day-long conference on some of the fakes, frauds and hoaxes that have plagued geological and palaeontological research for centuries. "It's not that we think Archbishop Ussher's date was a fraud," said Ted Nield, the society's communications officer. "It's just that it was spectacularly wrong."
Dr Nield conceded, too, that in toasting the archbishop's calculations the geologists were committing another error. More than 6,000 years have passed since 4004 BC. The symmetry is only apparent. The date is a mere numerological reflection. The real anniversary passed unnoticed, in 1997.
Where's the date, year, and moon phase clock?
Hahaa.
Unnngh!
Festival of moratorium-imposed restraint.
Woo-Hoo!! 6,000 years old!
Funny, the Earth doesn't look a day over 2 or 3 thousand.
Excellent post. Thanks.
> can you explain to me in what ways that the TOE is more "useful" than say, Newton's Laws or Relativity?
Well... throughout the history of mankind, the knowledge of both newtonian and reletivistic physics ahve been pretty irrelevant to the lives of the vast majority of people. But on the other hand evolution and related biological phenomena have been right there in front of us.
If it means both equally and literally, then any date or time frame becomes meaningless. Ps. 90:2 says " Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God." 90:4-6 says "For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night. You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew. In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew; Toward evening it fades and withers away."
You are correct that this is an OT parallel of 2Peter 3. However it is the same concept that I outlined for 2Peter 3. We are reminded of our insignificance when placed in perspective next to God. He is infinite and is not bound by time. It means what in God's perspective what we see as a long time, i.e. 1000 years, is to him the same as we view yesterday. It is a picture of the Nature of God who is infinite, by comparing Him to something we, who are finite, can understand. As far as I know every culture uses revolution of the earth around the sun as the measure of its calender year. There are adjustments based on the division of the months or weeks because of the degredation of the orbit and rotation of the earth, but for the most part years are tracked the same way, so any culture would have limited understanding of the way God views our reality.
The reason for telling us this is both passages is to assure us that God remembers the sins of the wicked. They will be punished in His time. That is why God said "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." God is not constrained by time or space as we are, and He will be perfectly just in His judment as we cannot be.
You just did away with the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics. Please answer the question without being a smartass.
You've repeated yourself, but you have not addressed Gen.2:17 "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." But Adam lived more than 800 years after to 930. Did God lie?
Right you are. Well, maybe Ussher should have said, "6:00.01 pm., on Saturday. But I'm still confused as to how the universe could have begun 6 (or 7) days after it was started.
Cordially,
I did answer the question. However your response shows that you are not serious about wanting an answer. Vi=On
How about a Supreme Particle or Virtual Being??
8^)
If matter nor energy can not be created nor destroyed from when did it come. You may say it always was and therefore you violate the 1st law of thermodynamics. If it always existed and the 2nd law is a scientific truth (and it is) then each particle, atom ,subatomic particle would be washed out into a cosmic ocean of nothingness, approaching absolute zero. Its back to the void. The is a Buddist concept. It is not scientific (excepting Christian Science which says all is mind. If so hit one of them on the back of the head and see if they say ouch.) So once again I ask you to address my question from a scientific point not as as Kerryesque one liner. I want you to instruct me.
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