Okay…
St. Augustine: “Let us, then, omit the conjectures of men who know not what they say, when they speak of the nature and origin of the human race. For some hold the same opinion regarding men that they hold regarding the world itself, that they have always been… But they say what they think, not what they know. They are deceived, too, by those highly mendacious documents which profess to give the history of many thousand years, though, reckoning by the sacred writings, we find that not 6000 years have yet passed.” (The City of God, 12, 10)
Origen: “After these statements, Celsus, from a secret desire to cast discredit upon the Mosaic account of the creation, which teaches that the world is not yet ten thousand years old, but very much under that…” (Against Celsus, 1, 19)
i was referring particularly to the creation accounts of Gen 1 & 2
later in
Contra Celsus: “And with regard to the creation of the light upon the first day, and of the firmament upon the second, and of the gathering together of the waters that are under the heaven into their several reservoirs on the third (the earth thus causing to sprout forth those (fruits) which are under the control of nature alone, and of the (great) lights and stars upon the fourth, and of aquatic animals upon the fifth, and of land animals and man upon the sixth, we have treated to the best of our ability in our notes upon Genesis, as well as in the foregoing pages, when we found fault with those who, taking the words in their apparent signification, said that the time of six days was occupied in the creation of the world.”
also from Origen: “For who that has understanding will sup
pose that the first, and second, and third day, and the evening and the morning, existed without a sun, and moon, and stars? And that the first day was, as it were, also without a sky? And who is so foolish as to suppose that God, after the manner of a husbandman, planted a paradise in Eden, towards the east, and placed in it a tree of life, visible and palpable, so that one tasting of the fruit by the bodily teeth obtained life? And again, that one was a partaker of good and evil by masticating what was taken from the tree? And if God is said to walk in the paradise in the evening, and Adam to hide himself under a tree, I do not suppose that anyone doubts that these things figuratively indi*cate certain mysteries, the history having taken place in appearance, and not literally.”
Augustine likewise argued against (and for, though much less persuasively) a literalist interpretation of the Creation accounts. I offer these statements only to show (1) A literal, face-value reading of the Genesis text demands neither a young earth, nor an old earth conclusion (2) A literal, face-value reading of the Genesis Creation accounts text provides extremely little support of a 144 hour creation (3) An allegorical reading of Genesis is as old as the Christian Church, and enjoyed wide subscription.
Additionally, Robert Sungenis has demonstrated the untenability of Ussher’s 6,000 genealogy (you can google his name/Ussher/etc. to find the article). Sungenis himself argues for a 10,000 year old earth, which i disagree with, but he aptly demonstrates some of the defects in literalist exegesis.
Finally, with respect to your vague reference to the second law of thermodynamics, that rule applies only to closed thermodynamic systems in equilibrium. The earth, and all its living organisms, is not a closed thermodynamic system in equilibrium. It receives a constant (name removed by moderator)ut of high-intensity energy from the sun. Thus, even as the universe itself tends towards entropy, it is possible for parts of the universe to tend towards greater order and complexity. Therefore, current models of evolution do NOT violate the laws of thermodynamics. I highly recommend that if you engage non-literalists in discussion regarding evolution, you abandon this line of argument.
), love delusions and seek after false gods. We can know the truth because we have the Word of the only One who was there - God! God bless.