Board index ‹ Creation and Evolution

[Tweed of Wills]

The earth is not 6,000 years old. it just isn't.

[jimwalton]

You're right, it's not. There is no validity to it. The Bible doesn't teach it or insist on it.

[Tweed of Wills]

if the Bible does not teach it, why are there Christians that claim it? The church I grew up in taught it.

[jimwalton]

The young earth theory is based in counting the generations of Genesis. But that's where the mistake lies. Genealogies weren't the same entity in the ancient world that they are today. In our world a genealogy is to record every person in every generation, in the right order and without gaps. We want to see the sequence. Not so in the ancient world. In the ancient world, genealogies were for royal purposes (to show who was the next rightful king), or religious purposes (to make a theological point). As such, the ancients left huge gaps and sometimes even changed the order to make their point (we're not aware that the writers of the Bible ever changed the order, but they did leave huge gaps). You know how Jesus is called "the son of David"? There are 1000 yrs between them. No matter, he was his son. This was common in the ancient world. They included the generations that fit their agenda. Even in the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 10 (as well as the ones of Matthew and Luke), they include the people who make up the number that fits their theological point. In our day, we cry FOUL, but in the ancient world, this was business as usual. The genealogies weren't not primarily a way of record keeping, but to establish continuity from one era to another. Even numbers were often (but not necessarily) symbolic rather than literal.

As such, we can't "count" anything by adding up the genealogies in Genesis. Somebody counted up the years, and concluded the world was created in 4,004 BC, which is simply impossible. Jericho has archaeological layers back to 7,000 BC. Egypt goes back further than 4,000 BC, as do other civilizations. Many artifacts have been discovered from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Chalcolithic periods—all showing life forms long before 4000 BC. Young Earth Creation isn't possible, and the Bible doesn't teach it or insist on it.

Why do churches teach it? They are following a mistake of understanding about ancient genealogies.