I’m 65 and have been a practicing Catholic all my life. I admit that I am no biblical scholar. My brother-in-law was visiting with us for ten days earlier this month. He is a strict fundamentalist and is a total bible scholar. He is convinced that the universe is only 6,000 years old. I asked him what he thought of all the carbon dating, and of scientists saying that the earth was 4.5 billion years old (I got that from a geology course in college). He said that’s now how the bible counts time. His mother was in my living room while I was showing her some photos from a DVD on my TV. She asked me about one picture of Victoria Falls and I said that it had been doing that for millions of years. My B-i-L interjected, and said that no, it’s only been there for 6,000 years. Can anyone here shed some light on where he comes up with that number?
There are several schools to Young Earth Creatinism, they added the generations of all the people named in the Bible in the geneologies, add 2000 years and you get a number.
It’s based upon a reading, a myopic reading in my opinion, of Genesis 5 and 11. If you add up all the generations and carry them forward until modernity, 6,000 is a close approximation.
I’m not sure of what was in your brother-in-law’s mind.
I’ve heard some say the entire universe was created in six 24 hour days and calculating back through Bible chronology and time periods they arrive at 6,000 years or so to the creation of Adam.
The belief is that the “days” of creation of Genesis can only mean days of 24 hours.
James Usshershalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai