Replies

"The team found that the Neanderthal sequence was the same as modern humans."
Even the same to 75,000 years ago ??? So what else wouldn't we (the ignorant masses of unwashed humanity) have already guessed??? Interestingly, the general concensus (prior to Darwin's theory) as to the age of the earth was around 6,000 years based primarily on average population growth of societies and the number of generation from Adam. Not exactly brain surgery or quantum physics, but what would a bunch of ignorant 1800's/1900's unwashed bible reading bumkins know anyway.....

> Interestingly, the general concensus (prior to Darwin's theory) as to the age of the earth was around 6,000 years ...

Not in the scientific community. Well before Darwin, geologists were beginning to recognize that the Earth was a *lot* older than they had been told. See: "The Map That Changed The World" for a nicely readable history of William Smith's 1815 geological map of Britain, where geologist/surveyor Smith began to piece together the geological history of Britain. Extreme age was apparent even then. It doesn't take a genius to recognize that the Earth is a hell of a lot older than 6,000 years, doesn't even take an evolutionist... just takes someone with an observant and reasonably intelligent mind.

Interestingly, the general concensus (prior to Darwin's theory) as to the age of the earth was around 6,000 years based primarily on average population growth of societies and the number of generation from Adam.

Beep! Circle takes the square. By the end of the 18th century (note, that is about 50 years before the ToE), geologists knew the world was at least several hundred million years old. The whole "6,000 year old Earth" thingy can be traced to Bishop James Ussher and his 1650 chronology (Wikipedia, 2005). Of course, we have records from civilizations extending further back than October 23, 4004 B.C., rendering even conjecture on this point moot.

If I'm not mistaken, Sir Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology in 1833 had argued that the earth's current geological forms had taken shape over many millions of years (he may have said hundreds of millions). So Darwin in 1859 was not the first to question the 6,000-year timeframe implied by the genealogies in the book of Genesis.

Interestingly, the general concensus (prior to Darwin's theory) as to the age of the earth was around 6,000 years...

Prior to Darwin, the consensus among scientists was that the age earth was in the 10's of million of years. Geologists were working with these time frames before Darwin was born.

["The team found that the Neanderthal sequence was the same as modern humans."]
Even the same to 75,000 years ago ???

Yes. So?

So what else wouldn't we (the ignorant masses of unwashed humanity) have already guessed???

The list is endless.

Others have already beaten me to the punch when it comes to pointing out what a false and ignorant statement this is. Even during the 1700's (*well* "prior to Darwin") the Earth was recognized (due to multiple indepedent lines of evidence) as being at least millions of years old.

Not exactly brain surgery or quantum physics, but what would a bunch of ignorant 1800's/1900's unwashed bible reading bumkins know anyway.....

Apparently they knew more than some modern people -- such as yourself for example.

Interestingly, the general consensus (prior to Darwin's theory) as to the age of the earth was around 6,000 years based primarily on average population growth of societies and the number of generation from Adam.

My consensus has always been that to GOD a minute could be a million years to us earth bound Bible reading bumpkins. (grin) The six days it took him to create the heavens and the earth would then translate into a slightly longer period of time than 6,000 years.

I frequently got into trouble while in school because I never could swallow that 6,000 year time line.

According to all the email questionnaires I have taken I can qualify to be older than dirt so I can make these assumptions.