Do evangelicals really believe that humans are only 6000 years old?

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Eric_Hyom said:
The first sentence in the Bible states; that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth, this is not open for negotiation. I am also happy, that God created man in his own image, and man did not evolve from any lower life form.
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Excellent:thumbsup:

Bible also says creation was good. How is there death and decay before the fall of man?
Creation.com is a good site to check out.
God bless
 
Pope John Paul II, address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, October 22, 1996:
  1. Taking into account the state of scientific research at the time as well as of the requirements of theology, the encyclical Humani Generis considered the doctrine of “evolutionism” a serious hypothesis, worthy of investigation and in-depth study equal to that of the opposing hypothesis. Pius XII added two methodological conditions: that this opinion should not be adopted as though it were a certain, proven doctrine and as though one could totally prescind from revelation with regard to the questions it raises. He also spelled out the condition on which this opinion would be compatible with the Christian faith, a point to which I will return.*** Today, almost half a century after the publication of the encyclical, new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis.*** It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory. (emphasis added)
    newadvent.org/library/docs_jp02tc.htm
 
We have all sorts of ideas about what happened in the beginning. Old Earth, Young Earth, and everything in between. I’ve even heard a theory that we’re living on a young Earth, but that God created everything merely with the appearance of age.

As long as you don’t go about trying to naturalize everything, I don’t think what happened exactly in the beginning matters. That is, where we came from and how we were made exactly (that is, God made us, but how) isn’t as important as wanting to know where we’re going.
 
I’m surprised that no one has pointed out the source of this debate. Genesis.

It was written to people that had no grasp of what we call science. These people were much simpler. Genesis is absolutely true, but true like poetry can be true. Genesis is explaining God’s creation simply and honestly, that is, God created everything out of nothing. Genesis was never meant to be the final scientific account of “how” God created everything, just “that” He created everything.

I heard, on an evangelical radio station, that the Earth was only 6000 years old. They explained fossils as “presents from God” because He knows how much His children like to find things. :eek: Ludicrous.

Could the 6 days of creation be 24 hours? Maybe. Could they be 25 hours? Maybe. Could they be 2000 years? Maybe. You see, I don’t believe God hung a clock up to time Creation. If we get too hung up on the details, we miss the big picture. That God, out of His infinite kindness, created everything.
 
At one time Catholics burned people at the stake for suggesting that the earth was older than 10k years. Only a minority of Evangelicals believe in a young earth. Mostly Fundamentalist types.

And if God wanted to create a young earth, he could have. So it’s silly to mock these folk’s faith.
 
eyesoftheworld said:
At one time Catholics burned people at the stake for suggesting that the earth was older than 10k years.
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Hyperbole much? 😃

I don’t imagine the Church that established the scientific method and founded the university system acting like Monty Python’s Holy Grail. 🙂
 
eyesoftheworld said:
Nope.🙂

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno 😦

here, knock yourself out sometime…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_burned_as_heretics
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Hmm…

Neither of your links support your original statement. From your first link:

The Vatican has published few official statements about Bruno’s trial and execution. In 1942, Cardinal Giovanni Mercati, who discovered a number of lost documents relating to Bruno’s trial, stated that the Church was perfectly justified in condemning him. On the 400th anniversary of Bruno’s death, in 2000, Cardinal Angelo Sodano declared Bruno’s death to be a “sad episode” but, despite his regret, he defended Bruno’s prosecutors, maintaining that the Inquisitors “had the desire to serve freedom and promote the common good and did everything possible to save his life.”

Your second link includes the Church of England, Eastern Orthodox and even a Calvinist Church burning at the stake as well. 😃 However, none of the unfortunate people on theses lists were burned “for suggesting that the earth was older than 10k years”.

The ‘Black Legend’ lives. 😦
 
campeador said:
Hmm…

Neither of your links support your original statement. From your first link:
The Vatican has published few official statements about Bruno’s trial and execution. In 1942, Cardinal Giovanni Mercati, who discovered a number of lost documents relating to Bruno’s trial, stated that the Church was perfectly justified in condemning him. On the 400th anniversary of Bruno’s death, in 2000, Cardinal Angelo Sodano declared Bruno’s death to be a “sad episode” but, despite his regret, he defended Bruno’s prosecutors, maintaining that the Inquisitors "had the desire to serve freedom and promote the common good and did everything possible to save his life."Your second link includes the Church of England, Eastern Orthodox and even a Calvinist Church burning at the stake as well. 😃 However, none of the unfortunate people on theses lists were burned “for suggesting that the earth was older than 10k years”.

The ‘Black Legend’ lives. 😦
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It does. Read the list of charges against that poor dominican friar. Suggesting that the worlds “existed in eternity” medieval speak for millions of years. Pope John Paul apologized on behalf of the church for his being burned at the stake.

Read the other list. Catholics burned thousands at the stake during those dark times.
 
Giordano Bruno (Latin: Iordanus Brunus Nolanus; Italian: [dʒorˈdano ˈbruno]; 1548 – February 17, 1600), born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet and astronomer.[2] His cosmological theories went beyond the Copernican model: while supporting its heliocentrism, he also correctly proposed that the Sun was just another star moving in space, and claimed as well that the universe contained an infinite number of inhabited worlds populated by other intelligent beings.[3] The Roman Inquisition found him guilty of heresy, and he was burned at the stake.[4]
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In Rome, Bruno’s trial lasted seven years during which time he was imprisoned, lastly in the Tower of Nona. Some important documents about the trial are lost, but others have been preserved, among them a summary of the proceedings that was rediscovered in 1940.[20] The numerous charges against Bruno, based on some of his books as well as on witness accounts, included blasphemy, immoral conduct, and heresy in matters of dogmatic theology, and involved some of the basic doctrines of his philosophy and cosmology. Luigi Firpo lists these charges made against Bruno by the Roman Inquisition:[21]
  • holding opinions contrary to the Catholic faith and speaking against it and its ministers;
  • claiming the existence of a plurality of worlds and their eternity;
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upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Relief_Bruno_Campo_dei_Fiori_n1.jpg/330px-Relief_Bruno_Campo_dei_Fiori_n1.jpg bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.23wmf14/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png
The trial of Giordano Bruno by the Roman Inquisition. Bronze relief by Ettore Ferrari, Campo de’ Fiori, Rome.

Bruno continued his Venetian defensive strategy, which consisted in bowing to the Church’s dogmatic teachings, while trying to preserve the basis of his philosophy. In particular Bruno held firm to his belief in the plurality of worlds, although he was admonished to abandon it. His trial was overseen by the Inquisitor Cardinal Bellarmine, who demanded a full recantation, which Bruno eventually refused. On January 20, 1600, Pope Clement VIII declared Bruno a heretic and the Inquisition issued a sentence of death. According to the correspondence of Gaspar Schopp of Breslau, he is said to have made a threatening gesture towards his judges and to have replied:
“Maiori forsan cum timore sententiam in me fertis quam ego accipiam (Perhaps you pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it).”[22] He was turned over to the secular authorities and, on February 17, 1600 in the Campo de’ Fiori, a central Roman market square, “his tongue imprisoned because of his wicked words” he was burned at the stake.[23]
The Vatican has published few official statements about Bruno’s trial and execution. In 1942, Cardinal Giovanni Mercati, who discovered a number of lost documents relating to Bruno’s trial, stated that the Church was perfectly justified in condemning him. On the 400th anniversary of Bruno’s death, in 2000, Cardinal Angelo Sodano declared Bruno’s death to be a “sad episode” but, despite his regret, he defended Bruno’s prosecutors, maintaining that the Inquisitors “had the desire to serve freedom and promote the common good and did everything possible to save his life.”[31]** In the same year, Pope John Paul II did make a general apology for the deaths of prominent philosophers and scientists due to the Inquisition.[32]**
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interesting you ommited that last line. Reminds me of holocaust deniers.
 
eyesoftheworld said:
It does. Read the list of charges against that poor dominican friar. Suggesting that the worlds “existed in eternity” medieval speak for millions of years. Pope John Paul apologized on behalf of the church for his being burned at the stake.
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Eyes,

I’m really not following you. If you’re trying to prove that some people do bad things in the name of Religion, I think I can agree with that. But painting all Catholics with a broad, mythical brush isn’t very charitable.

I’m personally sorry that Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake, but that act doesn’t represent Catholicism as a whole.
eyesoftheworld said:
Read the other list. Catholics burned thousands at the stake during those dark times.
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Sorry, my friend but you’ve been duped. Did you read the link I provided? Here it is again:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Legend_of_the_Spanish_Inquisition
 
eyesoftheworld said:
interesting you ommited that last line. Reminds me of holocaust deniers.
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Now you are being uncharitable. The Inquisition happened and so did the Holocaust. Catholics killed heretics as did the Orthodox and the Protestants.

Glass houses my friend.
 
PaulDupre1 said:
Archaeologists have discovered cities that are 14,000 years old. Recently in England they discovered human footprints that are 80,000 years old. Previously, scientists thought that any human beings before 50,000 years ago only existed in Africa. The scientific landscape is changing very quickly as new scientific tools are developed and new discoveries are made using those tools.

Fun stuff. None of this changes the truth that God created everything. He is just slowly and gently revealing to us exactly how and when He did it.

Paul (happily Catholic)
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How are they dating them?
 
Microfrog said:
We have all sorts of ideas about what happened in the beginning. Old Earth, Young Earth, and everything in between. I’ve even heard a theory that we’re living on a young Earth, but that God created everything merely with the appearance of age.

As long as you don’t go about trying to naturalize everything, I don’t think what happened exactly in the beginning matters. That is, where we came from and how we were made exactly (that is, God made us, but how) isn’t as important as wanting to know where we’re going.
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Were Adam and Eve created mature?
 
buffalo said:
Were Adam and Eve created mature?
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Is it ok if I give you the nickname Buffalo Bill when I see you on here? Cause you always show up on these topics in the forums with great knowledge from the other perspective.
 
adawgj said:
Is it ok if I give you the nickname Buffalo Bill when I see you on here? Cause you always show up on these topics in the forums with great knowledge from the other perspective.
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I am OK with it! 😃
 
campeador said:
Now you are being uncharitable. The Inquisition happened and so did the Holocaust. Catholics killed heretics as did the Orthodox and the Protestants.

Glass houses my friend.
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I apologize.😊

For a moment I thought you were being a smart *** but now I see that you agree that the church at one point in time did some pretty horrible things that JPII apologized for. If you read that Friar’s full bio, you’ll see that most of the charges against him were trumped up by a kangaroo court because he had the gall to suggest the earth revolves around the sun and the sun was millions of years old. *** Heresy***, they said, why the sun could be no older than 5-6 thousand years old! In fact the date of creation was 4004 B.C. *** Burn him at the stake!
I was just pointing out that if we think people are so stupid for thinking the world is less than 10k years old, they should be informed that prior to the 20th century our Church believed that too. We also pretty much believed that everything in the Bible was literally true as well. Now we are much more ***evolved ***than that.:cool:.

And God could have created a young earth if he wanted to…which is why these so called dummy’s believe this.

Again sorry for misjudging.
 
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