"What is the age of the earth?"

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What about the fossil record?
What about it?

The Tree of Life has fallen.
Code:
			**[Charles Darwin's tree of life is 'wrong and misleading', claim scientists ](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/4312355/Charles-Darwins-tree-of-life-is-wrong-and-misleading-claim-scientists.html)**

			** Charles Darwin's tree of life, which shows how species are related, is "    wrong" and "misleading", claim scientists.   **
 
What about it?

The Tree of Life has fallen.
Code:
			**[Charles Darwin's tree of life is 'wrong and misleading', claim scientists ](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/4312355/Charles-Darwins-tree-of-life-is-wrong-and-misleading-claim-scientists.html)**

			** Charles Darwin's tree of life, which shows how species are related, is "    wrong" and "misleading", claim scientists.   **
For the 10,000,000,00th time: I AM NOT A DARWINIST! However, the fossil record does show an evolutionary trend. The fact that it has been revised multiple times is a testimony to the self-correcting nature of science. There is no reason, in my mind, to think that the earth was created in six 24 hour days. There is ample evidence that Genesis 1 is largely symbolic, and demonstrates the liturgical orientation of creation.
 
For the 10,000,000,00th time: I AM NOT A DARWINIST! However, the fossil record does show an evolutionary trend. The fact that it has been revised multiple times is a testimony to the self-correcting nature of science. There is no reason, in my mind, to think that the earth was created in six 24 hour days. There is ample evidence that Genesis 1 is largely symbolic, and demonstrates the liturgical orientation of creation.
It is now a bush with links between. The fossil evidence supports an explosion of life and then stasis.
 
It is now a bush with links between. The fossil evidence supports an explosion of life and then stasis.
Which does not contradict evolutionary theory. It does seem to contradict gradualism, but not punctuated equilibrium. The young earth silliness has no way to explain radiometric dating.
 
Which does not contradict evolutionary theory. It does seem to contradict gradualism, but not punctuated equilibrium. The young earth silliness has no way to explain radiometric dating.
PE is construct.

So we have an explosion of life (creation), and we know now that all organisms share around 500 or so genes (core), and the super language of DNA which allows organisms to rapidly respond and adapt. We now know that DNA actively fights against mutations. The fossil record shows creatures that haven’t changed much since.

We see the modern synthesis being replaced by the EES (self organization).

Sounds like IDvolution. IDvolution uses the latest science is consistent with Church teaching, St Augustine and St Thomas.
 
PE is construct.

So we have an explosion of life (creation), and we know now that all organisms share around 500 or so genes (core), and the super language of DNA which allows organisms to rapidly respond and adapt. We now know that DNA actively fights against mutations. The fossil record shows creatures that haven’t changed much since.

We see the modern synthesis being replaced by the EES (self organization).

Sounds like IDvolution. IDvolution uses the latest science is consistent with Church teaching, St Augustine and St Thomas.
Why do you try to make the claim that I am not in line with the CHurch’s teachings? I am 100% loyal to the Magisterium. Catholics may hold to evolution (or YE creationism for that matter) and still be loyal to the Church. Or do you think that people are allowed to believe what they want, so long as it lines up with your beliefs.
 
Why do you try to make the claim that I am not in line with the CHurch’s teachings? I am 100% loyal to the Magisterium. Catholics may hold to evolution (or YE creationism for that matter) and still be loyal to the Church. Or do you think that people are allowed to believe what they want, so long as it lines up with your beliefs.
Explore:

Why Human Evolution can never become part of the Deposit of Faith

Creation/Evolution Articles
 
Hello buffalo,

The tree of life is still there, at least here in the macroscopic world. The objections you’re reading about are due to its inapplicability to microbial life. Bacteria are just too promiscuous. Where we can trace ancestry within a tree when genes are transferred solely through reproduction, processes such as horizontal gene transfer in the microscopic world tear the tree apart. Where we have specialized sex cells, protected by multiple barriers, one-celled organisms are their own sex cells, and foreign genes can be inserted relatively easily. There are traces of this in our DNA as well, foreign segments inserted by viruses, the “endogenous retroviral insertions” used to provide independent phylogenies to check against other trees generated by cladistics or changes in individual genes.

This thread is supposed to be about the age of the earth. How do we keep getting sidetracked into discussions of evolution?

As ever, Jesse
 
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).
Phil wins the thread. Never mind Genesis. If you want to be entirely sure that the age of the earth really is 4.5 billion years, and that we really do know this beyond a shadow of any reasonable doubt, read Dalrymple. He’s collected the entire gamut of evidences from separate fields of inquiry into one book, examining a host of independent methods used to derive our earth’s age in detail, along with the data used in the calculations. It’s written specifically to answer the doubts of those who’ve been see-sawed by proponents of young earth creationism.

As ever, Jesse
 
<< Phil wins the thread. Never mind Genesis. If you want to be entirely sure that the age of the earth really is 4.5 billion years, and that we really do know this beyond a shadow of any reasonable doubt, read Dalrymple. >>

Thank you. He convinced me many years ago. Even though he’s agnostic, he’s a good guy. You can read his entire testimony from the 1981-82 "Arkansas Creationist Trial." Also his taking apart of the “scientific creationists” (young earthers) from the 1970s 1980s here:

How Old is the Earth? A Response to “Scientific” Creationism (classic paper)

And other articles on my site, just to advertise them more: 👍 👍

Theistic Evolution and the Roman Catholic Church
Intelligent Design and the Church
A Commentary on Genesis 1-3 by Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)
Creation and Evolution by Cardinal Schonborn ( later included in his book Chance or Purpose )
Adam, Eve, and the Hominid Fossil Record
History of the Collapse of “Flood Geology” and a Young Earth by Davis A. Young (evangelical geologist)
The Evolution of "Bible-Science" ( classic paper from Schadewald in Scientists Confront Creationism )

And let’s not forget my favorite, based on posts in here:

Catholic Creationism and Jack Chick Comics 😃

Phil P
 
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