"What is the age of the earth?"

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How do we answer this? The Bible nowhere speaks about the age of the earth. The “5000 years” figure was something that was extrapolated by Christians only much later in history and was never, I don’t think, adopted in any serious way by the Church.

However, there was some basis for that extrapolation. I mean, take a look at Luke’s genealogy, which ties Jesus all the way back to Adam.

So, what is the best possible response to this question often posted by snarky skeptics?
 
A couple hundred million years (give or take) of 4 billion years old.

**“So, what is the best possible response to this question often posted by snarky skeptics?” **

I want my soul to be connected in love with the Triune God and to experience their eternity.

nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=112299

Age of our universe:

“The estimated age of the universe is 13.75 ± 0.17 billion years,[1] the time since the Big Bang.”

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_universe
 
There is no way to scientifically prove the age of the Earth. However, we do know that radio carbon dating is accurate to about 10,000 years so the earth is certainly older than that! Also, man has not had written forms of communication for the entire time of his existence, so history was passed along by word of mouth for the greater portion of our existence. Taking the higher level view of the age of the Earth or the universe, time is of little significance to God as he is the Creator of all things, including time, space, and all that exists within them. He is infinite in His wisdom and exists across all time. Man, on the other hand, seems obsessed with time, space, and all other finite entities. What is time compared to eternity?!
My guess is that the Earth is very, very, very old.

😉
 
Windfish said:
How do we answer this? The Bible nowhere speaks about the age of the earth. The “5000 years” figure was something that was extrapolated by Christians only much later in history and was never, I don’t think, adopted in any serious way by the Church.

However, there was some basis for that extrapolation. I mean, take a look at Luke’s genealogy, which ties Jesus all the way back to Adam.

So, what is the best possible response to this question often posted by snarky skeptics?
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Its around 4.5 billion years old.
 
Windfish said:
How do we answer this? The Bible nowhere speaks about the age of the earth. The “5000 years” figure was something that was extrapolated by Christians only much later in history and was never, I don’t think, adopted in any serious way by the Church.

However, there was some basis for that extrapolation. I mean, take a look at Luke’s genealogy, which ties Jesus all the way back to Adam.

So, what is the best possible response to this question often posted by snarky skeptics?
Click to expand...
I used to believe that the unverse was billions of years old but now I believe in the earth and the universe is young possibly 10,000 years young. I’ve come to believe that Carbon dating is flawed.
There are several DVD’s on the young earth theory put out by Christian groups and their explanation of how the Grand Canyon could have been formed by a world wide flood makes perfect sense. Their explanation that fossils are thousand, not millions, of years old also makes sense.

I also agree with Dr. Robert Sungensis and Dr. Robert Bennet that the earth is the center of the universe and the earth does not move. Their book *Galileo was Wrong The Church was Right *is awesome. They are holding the first Catholic Geocentrism Conference in November in the Notre Dame area.
 
thistle states,
Its around 4.5 billion years old.
Click to expand...
Where is your proof? You state this as if it is a fact, when it is actually merely a theory.

Barbkw states,
A couple hundred million years (give or take) of 4 billion years old.
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Where is your proof? You state this as if it is a fact, when it is actually merely a theory. I find it not very credible that you cite Wikipedia as your source. That is not a source I would expect others to take seriously.

I do not pretend to know definitively. I do know just from watching our planet in my own short life time that unbelievably major changes to the crust of the earth can occur in mere moments. What hurricanes, tornadoes, tidal waves, and earthquakes, can do in minutes seems to be completely ignored by those who insist that geological change can only occur over millions of years…
 
Windfish said:
How do we answer this? The Bible nowhere speaks about the age of the earth. The “5000 years” figure was something that was extrapolated by Christians only much later in history and was never, I don’t think, adopted in any serious way by the Church.

However, there was some basis for that extrapolation. I mean, take a look at Luke’s genealogy, which ties Jesus all the way back to Adam.

So, what is the best possible response to this question often posted by snarky skeptics?
Click to expand...
The Genesis creation account is usually attacked by skeptics for two reasons:

1. The use of the term “day” in the creation account.

The original Hebrew term, “yom,” means an unspecified period, not necessarily 24 hours. Elsewhere in the Bible we are told that God’s perspective on time is very different than ours.
[BIBLEDRB]Psalm 89:4[/BIBLEDRB]

2. The account of the origin of man.
[BIBLEDRB]Genesis 2:7[/BIBLEDRB]

Some people want to take “slime” or “dust” or “dirt” of the earth literally and so exclude the possibility that man’s body (not man’s soul) evolved from some common ancestor with the ape. Genesis doesn’t specify how God formed man from said slime, though. And the “breath” of life is elsewhere used in the Bible to refer to the soul or spirit.

[BIBLEDRB]Ecclesiastes 12:7[/BIBLEDRB]

So the verse refers to the ensoulment of man, not necessarily the origin of his body.

Among Catholics, as you can see, there are both young and old-earth creationists and either position may be held. (I, personally, am geriatric.) You may want to read up on theistic evolution, which is the position of those of us who hold to an old earth.
 
I am of the opinion that the Earth is young. I would say based on my thoughts and opinions that the Earth is around 10,000 years old.
 
Third_Day said:
I also agree with Dr. Robert Sungensis and Dr. Robert Bennet that the earth is the center of the universe and the earth does not move. Their book *Galileo was Wrong The Church was Right *is awesome. They are holding the first Catholic Geocentrism Conference in November in the Notre Dame area.
Click to expand...
Did you read both volumes? I am thinking about reading them also.
 
25k years is stretching it, on the outside of it all. Do some simple math along population expansion for the human race, trace it back to Noah, and you have your figure, it’s not at all difficult to reason the age of mankind based upon those numbers. Going to the age of the earth, one would have to adopt evolution to acredit it to being millions/billions of years old, the problem with that, the sun and the planet have too limited of a time frame to exist in a state being conducive to life, so you are forced to limit it back to a short brief moment in their lives to support any kind of life, life far in excess of the fossil records.

You need only observe the diversity of life that exists at present to note, too many variations of the same common themes of organs exist at once, if life and the planet happened over eons, there would be very little variations, only one common theme for it all, yet it’s not that way.
 
There is no question the earth is very old. We’ve known this well before Darwin. It was Christian and Catholic scientists who helped discover this.

philvaz.com/apologetics/AGE2.jpg

The definitive work is The Age of the Earth by Dalrymple (Stanford Univ Press, 1991). I have a summary of this detailed book here:

Evidence for an Old Earth (and Evidence for Evolution), a Catholic perspective

“According to the widely accepted scientific account, the universe erupted 15 billion years ago in an explosion called the ‘Big Bang’ and has been expanding and cooling ever since. Later there gradually emerged the conditions necessary for the formation of atoms, still later the condensation of galaxies and stars, and about 10 billion years later the formation of planets. In our own solar system and on earth (formed about 4.5 billion years ago), the conditions have been favorable to the emergence of life. While there is little consensus among scientists about how the origin of this first microscopic life is to be explained, there is general agreement among them that the first organism dwelt on this planet about 3.5 - 4 billion years ago. Since it has been demonstrated that all living organisms on earth are genetically related, it is virtually certain that all living organisms have descended from this first organism. Converging evidence from many studies in the physical and biological sciences furnishes mounting support for some theory of evolution to account for the development and diversification of life on earth, while controversy continues over the pace and mechanisms of evolution. While the story of human origins is complex and subject to revision, physical anthropology and molecular biology combine to make a convincing case for the origin of the human species in Africa about 150,000 years ago in a humanoid population of common genetic lineage. However it is to be explained, the decisive factor in human origins was a continually increasing brain size, culminating in that of homo sapiens. With the development of the human brain, the nature and rate of evolution were permanently altered: with the introduction of the uniquely human factors of consciousness, intentionality, freedom and creativity, biological evolution was recast as social and cultural evolution.” (From the International Theological Commission, headed by then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger now Pope Benedict XVI, statement "Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God" plenary sessions held in Rome 2000-2002, published July 2004)

Phil P
 
PhilVaz said:
There is no question the earth is very old. We’ve known this well before Darwin. It was Christian and Catholic scientists who helped discover this.

The definitive work is The Age of the Earth by Dalrymple (Stanford Univ Press, 1991). I have a summary of this detailed book here:

Evidence for an Old Earth (and Evidence for Evolution), a Catholic perspective
Click to expand...
Thanks Phil. You know I have gone back and forth on this issue but if you read some books on the topic even by Christian scientiests like maybe that the one that Phil recommended you really do see that there are features of the earth that cannot be explained if it is just a few thousands of years old. Then the young earth folks start telling you that God just made it to look old or that all the scientists in the world are brainwashed and deceivers or some such. Now it is getting like that with this other business about the whole universe going around the earth. I get very suspicious when beliefs have to rely on big conspiracies and all sorts of special arguments to prop them up.
 
dnar said:
Did you read both volumes? I am thinking about reading them also.
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I bought the abriged version (713 pages) then I bought the DVD with the animation. The DVD contains the complete two volumes of the book which I have read. There is no question in my mind that the universe revolves around the earth which does not move. That is what scripture says and the Church Fathers all believed.

I wish I could attend the First Catholic Geocentrism Conference in Novemeber.
 
=PhilVaz;7114559]There is no question the earth is very old. We’ve known this well before Darwin.
Click to expand...
Actually there is a question.
The definitive work is The Age of the Earth by Dalrymple (Stanford Univ Press, 1991). I have a summary of this detailed book here:
Click to expand...
Evidence for an Old Earth (and Evidence for Evolution), a Catholic perspective
Click to expand...
"According to the widely accepted scientific account, the universe erupted 15 billion years ago in an explosion called the ‘Big Bang’ and has been expanding and cooling ever since
Click to expand...
.
There is zero evidence that a “big bang” ever occurred.It cannot be proven.

Are you the Phil that Dr. Sungenis is addressing here?

catholicintl.com/scienceissues/dialogue-evolution1.htm
 
Theories are “proven” to the extent that all other hypothesis have been tested and discounted.

Medical treatments are proven theories, until more advanced scientific discovery is added to that gained knowledge.

I don’t have a problem with Christians believing in the Young Earth.

However to me, it is forcing Earth Sciences into the literal interpretation of Scripture.
 
Third_Day said:
Yes. He came up with the Big Bang “theory” which cannot be proven.
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Ok. Just wanted to make sure you knew that the Big Bang theory, like science and western civilization, is a product of the Church. 🙂
 
Can you imagine our Eternal Father explaining creation of the earth and the universe in any other way to Moses?

Moses grew up and was educated in Egypt. The Sun was one of their gods. So were bulls, beetles and dog faced images.

They wrote in pictographs.

Their greatest mathematical achievements were triangular pyramids made of solid stone.
 
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