Usually, I need not explain something bluntly apparent to some, but it might be the circles I find myself in. But, I realized that many people I know believe that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old. Hence, I find myself writing this reply...
In 1650, Bishop James Ussher, who was Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland published in Latin "Annales Veteris Testamenti, a prima mundi origine deduction, una cum rerum Asiaticarum et Aegyptiacarum chronic, a temporis historici principio usque ad Maccabaicorum initia producto" ("Annals of the Old Testament, deduced from the first origins of the world, the chronicle of Asiatic and Egyptian matters together produced from the beginning of historical time up to the beginnings of Maccabees"). The date of the world's creation was the 22nd of October, 4004 BC, at 6pm (according to the proleptic Julian Calendar). He was a prolific reader and had great depth of information, ancient history, including the rise of the Persians, Greeks and Romans, and expertise in the Bible, biblical languages, astronomy, ancient calendars and chronology. His book was regarded as the book for the creationist. He calculated that Solomon's temple was completed around 3,000 years after creation, and Jesus Christ came 1,000 years afterwards ('fulfilment' of the Temple'). When analyzed, Bishop Ussher's work was seen as an "honourable effort for its time" and argued that the common ridicule only reflects a "lamentable small-mindedness based on mistaken use of present criteria to judge a distant and different past."
The church had Religion and science or "natural philosophy" used to be friends. People did believe that science confirmed the existence of a higher power. But in the 17th century, Galileo Galilei, the father of modern astronomy, agreed with Nicolaus Copernicus's book "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) published in 1543 about a century before, on the nature of our solar system. Copernicus knew his work would be controversial and left publishing until he knew he was dying. But never in his wildest dreams did Copernicus could know that it would change everything, as he even dedicated this book to the pope. His book changed it so much that it has been known as the Copernican Revolution. Galileo saw how the heavenly bodies moved via his modified, more robust telescope. He proposed a heliocentric solar system (the Earth and other plants revolve around the sun) compared to the geocentric (the Earth is the centre of the solar system and the sun and other planets go around the Earth) proposed by Ptolemy in 2.AD, this was the official church stand, as they believed it was based on scripture.
It took us time to realize that stars are sun-like balls of burning hydrogen and helium gases which, at their centre, undergo nuclei fusion under extreme pressure to produce energy. When looked at, all the heavier elements are formed in the belly of the stars (stellar nucleosynthesis), and anything heavier than iron elements is formed in supernova explosions (supernova nucleosynthesis) themselves. Although stellar nucleosynthesis actually forms Nickel-56, this is very unstable and decomposes to Iron-56. So much energy is released during a supernova explosion that the freed energy and copious free neutrons streaming from the collapsing core drive massive fusion reactions long past iron formation. The formations of a wide variety of elements take a process of millions and millions of years from the scientific perspective. In short, they cannot be created under the natural laws we have observed for thousands of years.
At night there are millions and millions of miles away. The distance is measured by the speed of light. By looking at the heavens and the speed of light, we can estimate when everything was formed, and it is definitely with a high degree of certainty that it was more than 10,000 years ago. With our present technology, we estimate the universe to be 13.772 billion years, with an uncertainty of 59 million years. With the Earth on this scale, it will be about 4.543 billion years. With the redshift in the light spectrum (Doppler effect), we know that the universe is expanding from that alone, the nearest galley being 4 light years away from the farthest recorded galaxy MACS0647-JD, being about 13.3 billion light-years away.
Then there is the issue of the movement of tectonic plates, which shows that at least there was a time that the current continents were not in their current position - continental drift. The presence of mountains, valleys, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc., shows the dynamic Earth in constant motion according to its plates overlying a rotating core. These plates overlying land masses come together, forming a supercontinent and separating. Also, rock material and fossils indicate that adjacent continents used to be one whole landmass. Now, they are separated by hundred kilometres of open ocean. A more recent supercontinent called Pangaea formed about 300 million years ago. Africa, South America, North America and Europe nestled closely together, leaving a characteristic pattern of fossils and rocks for geologists to decipher once Pangaea broke apart. The puzzle pieces left behind by Pangaea, from fossils to the matching shorelines along the Atlantic Ocean, provided the first hints that the Earth's continents movement.
Also, of course, there is the issue of fruits, which have been genetically selected by breeding to produce totally different products than nature has intended. Our domestic animals could now never survive in the wild, except with a few exceptions. Our grains which are weeds, have been selectively grown and bred over the years so that they can't survive or with incredible difficulty. It takes time and knowledge. If you were to see their natural, unmodified ancestors, you would be recognized that over the years, they had been enhanced or selected to produce the features that we see today. Also, horses have been selectively bred across many generations to produce variation according to a targeted function, i.e. racehorses have been bred for speed, and draft horses have been bred for power and endurance. Cows have been selectively bred across many generations to produce offspring with improved milk production and beef production.
All these through breeding programs from wheat, fruits, and rice show that could not have been done within 6,000 years.
There are animals not present today, but they have been dead thousands or millions of years ago. The reason we know this is from their fossils crystallized in stone. These animals have been extinct even before man if we go by the 6,000 years that had appeared in the Garden of Eden. By studying the soil topography, they could go down through the ages. Each layer had specific flora and fauna limited to that period, never to appear again (95% of all species are extinct). They notice areas or periods devoid of animals which indicate widespread destruction or a great catastrophe (massive extinctions). But this was soon taken over by a new species of animals and plants which had not appeared before.
There are other atoms apart from Carbon which are more stable and have a longer half-life. The half-life of uranium-238 is 4500 million years. When it decays, it forms thorium-234, which is also unstable. Finally, after a series of radioactive isotopes are formed, it becomes lead-206, which is stable. These would give a better indication of the age. Using radioactive Uranium dating, they estimated the age of the Earth to be around 4.56 billion years.
In 1650, Bishop James Ussher, who was Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland published in Latin "Annales Veteris Testamenti, a prima mundi origine deduction, una cum rerum Asiaticarum et Aegyptiacarum chronic, a temporis historici principio usque ad Maccabaicorum initia producto" ("Annals of the Old Testament, deduced from the first origins of the world, the chronicle of Asiatic and Egyptian matters together produced from the beginning of historical time up to the beginnings of Maccabees"). The date of the world's creation was the 22nd of October, 4004 BC, at 6pm (according to the proleptic Julian Calendar). He was a prolific reader and had great depth of information, ancient history, including the rise of the Persians, Greeks and Romans, and expertise in the Bible, biblical languages, astronomy, ancient calendars and chronology. His book was regarded as the book for the creationist. He calculated that Solomon's temple was completed around 3,000 years after creation, and Jesus Christ came 1,000 years afterwards ('fulfilment' of the Temple'). When analyzed, Bishop Ussher's work was seen as an "honourable effort for its time" and argued that the common ridicule only reflects a "lamentable small-mindedness based on mistaken use of present criteria to judge a distant and different past."
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| Bishop James Ussher |
Astrological evidence
I know that God is a "god of laws", and the universe follows specific physical laws. Planets, stars, comets and other natural phenomena follow those laws. Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer in the 17th century. Kepler believed that he saw God's glory in the heavens, "I wanted to become a theologian. For a long time, I was restless. Now, however, behold how through my effort God is being celebrated in astronomy". He gave us Kepler's laws of planetary motion which demonstrated that the planets and other "heavenly bodies" followed laws, and we easily, when we understand these laws, can confidently state the speed, orbit and position of such heavenly bodies. Hence, we could predict the movement of the heavenly bodies, a realm exclusively reserved for the gods. For example, a man has been able to land on the Moon, send rockets to land probes on Mars, Venus, and Asteroids based on these laws and has been able to investigate the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto. |
| Galileo Galilei |
The church had Religion and science or "natural philosophy" used to be friends. People did believe that science confirmed the existence of a higher power. But in the 17th century, Galileo Galilei, the father of modern astronomy, agreed with Nicolaus Copernicus's book "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) published in 1543 about a century before, on the nature of our solar system. Copernicus knew his work would be controversial and left publishing until he knew he was dying. But never in his wildest dreams did Copernicus could know that it would change everything, as he even dedicated this book to the pope. His book changed it so much that it has been known as the Copernican Revolution. Galileo saw how the heavenly bodies moved via his modified, more robust telescope. He proposed a heliocentric solar system (the Earth and other plants revolve around the sun) compared to the geocentric (the Earth is the centre of the solar system and the sun and other planets go around the Earth) proposed by Ptolemy in 2.AD, this was the official church stand, as they believed it was based on scripture.
It took us time to realize that stars are sun-like balls of burning hydrogen and helium gases which, at their centre, undergo nuclei fusion under extreme pressure to produce energy. When looked at, all the heavier elements are formed in the belly of the stars (stellar nucleosynthesis), and anything heavier than iron elements is formed in supernova explosions (supernova nucleosynthesis) themselves. Although stellar nucleosynthesis actually forms Nickel-56, this is very unstable and decomposes to Iron-56. So much energy is released during a supernova explosion that the freed energy and copious free neutrons streaming from the collapsing core drive massive fusion reactions long past iron formation. The formations of a wide variety of elements take a process of millions and millions of years from the scientific perspective. In short, they cannot be created under the natural laws we have observed for thousands of years.
At night there are millions and millions of miles away. The distance is measured by the speed of light. By looking at the heavens and the speed of light, we can estimate when everything was formed, and it is definitely with a high degree of certainty that it was more than 10,000 years ago. With our present technology, we estimate the universe to be 13.772 billion years, with an uncertainty of 59 million years. With the Earth on this scale, it will be about 4.543 billion years. With the redshift in the light spectrum (Doppler effect), we know that the universe is expanding from that alone, the nearest galley being 4 light years away from the farthest recorded galaxy MACS0647-JD, being about 13.3 billion light-years away.
Geological evidence
Geology is the study of rocks and the formation of soil and earth movement. Geologist understands rock formation is due to pressure and time. Igneous rock is formed from the Earth's core's hot Manga, which comes from volcanoes. Sedimentary Rocks were formed from dead organic matter or sediments. Then there are Metamorphic Rocks which were initially Igneous and Sedimentary and have undergone a change. People have since realized that the deeper you go into the Earth, the longer ago it seems. The presence of fossilized rocks deep in the Earth indicates that millions of years ago, this organism must have been in existence. The presence of coal, petroleum and natural gases is essentially dead pressurized plant material over time. Because coal takes millions of years to develop and there is a limited amount of it, it is a nonrenewable resource. The conditions that would eventually create coal began to develop about 300 million years ago, during the Carboniferous period. Similarly, petroleum and natural gases were formed millions of years ago.
Then there is the issue of the movement of tectonic plates, which shows that at least there was a time that the current continents were not in their current position - continental drift. The presence of mountains, valleys, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc., shows the dynamic Earth in constant motion according to its plates overlying a rotating core. These plates overlying land masses come together, forming a supercontinent and separating. Also, rock material and fossils indicate that adjacent continents used to be one whole landmass. Now, they are separated by hundred kilometres of open ocean. A more recent supercontinent called Pangaea formed about 300 million years ago. Africa, South America, North America and Europe nestled closely together, leaving a characteristic pattern of fossils and rocks for geologists to decipher once Pangaea broke apart. The puzzle pieces left behind by Pangaea, from fossils to the matching shorelines along the Atlantic Ocean, provided the first hints that the Earth's continents movement.
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| Tectonic plates |
Biological evidence
Some people do not believe in evolution, but most biologists believe it in one form or another. There has been natural selection in islands where we have introduced other species into the habit, like rabbits in Australia or dogs in New Zealand. Worse is the introduction of the African killer bees in America. During the industrial revolution in the UK, black moths thrived, and the lighter ones died out, as the darkened trees offered an advantage and protection against predators. Hence there was selection, but it was not natural. There was "survival of the fittest". Rattlesnakes are now becoming less noisy as they find out their noise is causing them problems. Of course, the is the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria which have become resistant to multiple antibiotics. This has occurred in the last 70 years after the use of antibiotics. Therefore, we should discuss something other than our domesticated animals with different versions or breeds of dogs.Also, of course, there is the issue of fruits, which have been genetically selected by breeding to produce totally different products than nature has intended. Our domestic animals could now never survive in the wild, except with a few exceptions. Our grains which are weeds, have been selectively grown and bred over the years so that they can't survive or with incredible difficulty. It takes time and knowledge. If you were to see their natural, unmodified ancestors, you would be recognized that over the years, they had been enhanced or selected to produce the features that we see today. Also, horses have been selectively bred across many generations to produce variation according to a targeted function, i.e. racehorses have been bred for speed, and draft horses have been bred for power and endurance. Cows have been selectively bred across many generations to produce offspring with improved milk production and beef production.
All these through breeding programs from wheat, fruits, and rice show that could not have been done within 6,000 years.
There are animals not present today, but they have been dead thousands or millions of years ago. The reason we know this is from their fossils crystallized in stone. These animals have been extinct even before man if we go by the 6,000 years that had appeared in the Garden of Eden. By studying the soil topography, they could go down through the ages. Each layer had specific flora and fauna limited to that period, never to appear again (95% of all species are extinct). They notice areas or periods devoid of animals which indicate widespread destruction or a great catastrophe (massive extinctions). But this was soon taken over by a new species of animals and plants which had not appeared before.
Carbon dating and other radioactive isotopes
Almost every biological being interacted with Carbon in the Carbon-cycle of life.
Radioactive Carbon-14 created from Nitrogen in the upper atmosphere by cosmic radiation has a known concentration. The ratio is well-known, and the decay rate of Carbon-14 is well-established (half-life 5,730 years). Hence, we can estimate anything in the ground at the age of no longer exposed to the atmosphere based on the Carbon ratio between these isotopes. The practical limit of Carbon-14 dating is about 50,000 years.
Radioactive Carbon-14 created from Nitrogen in the upper atmosphere by cosmic radiation has a known concentration. The ratio is well-known, and the decay rate of Carbon-14 is well-established (half-life 5,730 years). Hence, we can estimate anything in the ground at the age of no longer exposed to the atmosphere based on the Carbon ratio between these isotopes. The practical limit of Carbon-14 dating is about 50,000 years.
There are other atoms apart from Carbon which are more stable and have a longer half-life. The half-life of uranium-238 is 4500 million years. When it decays, it forms thorium-234, which is also unstable. Finally, after a series of radioactive isotopes are formed, it becomes lead-206, which is stable. These would give a better indication of the age. Using radioactive Uranium dating, they estimated the age of the Earth to be around 4.56 billion years.
Historical Evidence
Then there are storylines and migration patterns together with chromosomal genetic markers, which show a pattern that is not in keeping with a 6,000 years history.
It is likely to be older.
It is likely to be older.
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