How Old Is The Earth?

[MEMNOCK]

I was curious to find out what religions teach that the earth is only 6000 years old. I have read a few things on searches about it but have never met someone who actually believes that. Please let me know if you believe that and what religion you belong to. Not really a debate although feel free to if you like, it is more of a curiosity to me.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Jews recently commemorated the Jewish New Year of 5773, but only the most orthodox would accept this date and reject the consensus of science.

 

[MEMNOCK]

Jews recently commemorated the Jewish New Year of 5773, but only the most orthodox would accept this date and reject the consensus of science.

Thats pretty much what I have come across. Some religions if taken literal state the earth is that young...But I haven't met any of the supposed believers of that. What peaked my interest was that I read some articles that stated almost half of this country believed the earth was less than 10,000 years old. With that many people I am sure I would have met a few.

 

[Storm]

I was curious to find out what religions teach that the earth is only 6000 years old. I have read a few things on searches about it but have never met someone who actually believes that. Please let me know if you believe that and what religion you belong to. Not really a debate although feel free to if you like, it is more of a curiosity to me.

I don't believe any faith teaches it explicitly. Some nutjob a while back decided to add up the stated ages in the Bible and got roughly 6000, and for some reason, people cared.

Go figure.

Jews recently commemorated the Jewish New Year of 5773, but only the most orthodox would accept this date and reject the consensus of science.

Do even they teach that the calendar is significant to the actual age of the planet? (It's an honest question, I have no idea.)

I mean, Richard Dawkins accepts that this is the year 2012 CE, and I have no idea what year the Chinese are in. Calendars are pretty arbitrary by necessity. Actually, all our attempts to mark the passage of time.

 

[Me Myself]

I don't believe any faith teaches it explicitly. Some nutjob a while back decided to add up the stated ages in the Bible and got roughly 6000, and for some reason, people cared.

Go figure.

Though to be fair, at least humankind would be no older than 6000 according to the bible.

The 7 days of genesis may not be seven days, but for the rest, it is hard to imagine that the specific years they put to each human till Jesus were meant as a metaphor.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Do even they teach that the calendar is significant to the actual age of the planet? (It's an honest question, I have no idea.)

It is referenced to the sixth day of creation.

 

[Storm]

Though to be fair, at least humankind would be no older than 6000 according to the bible.

The 7 days of genesis may not be seven days, but for the rest, it is hard to imagine that the specific years they put to each human till Jesus were meant as a metaphor.

Didn't say it was metaphorical. Everybody here knows how I feel about Literalism, but that doesn't make EVERYTHING symbolic. Mickey Mouse can say 2 + 2 = 4.

Rather, I meant that there's no reason to assume that scriptural genealogy is relevant to geology. I thought it went without saying, but I guess I expected too much.

 

[Storm]

It is referenced to the sixth day of creation.

OK, thanks for the info.

 

[Quiddity]

As old as science says it is. There is no consensus or definitive dogmatic teaching on the matter.

 

[ChristineES]

It isn't religions that teach that the earth is 6,000 years old, but individuals within the religions. For example: Some Christians say it is only about 6,000 years old and most of us know it's older.

 

[Photonic]

It's 4.54 billion years old. With some deviation.

 

[Photonic]

It isn't religions that teach that the earth is 6,000 years old, but individuals within the religions. For example: Some Christians say it is only about 6,000 years old and most of us know it's older.

Bingo!

 

[averageJOE]

It isn't religions that teach that the earth is 6,000 years old, but individuals within the religions. For example: Some Christians say it is only about 6,000 years old and most of us know it's older.

She beat me to it.

 

[Pegg]

I was curious to find out what religions teach that the earth is only 6000 years old. I have read a few things on searches about it but have never met someone who actually believes that. Please let me know if you believe that and what religion you belong to. Not really a debate although feel free to if you like, it is more of a curiosity to me.

we believe that the age of 'mankind' on earth is only 6,000 years... but not the earth. The earth is obviously much older and the genesis account says nothing of the age of the earth itself. It only gives us the age of mankind by listing the geneology of Adams offspring.

 

[Infinitum]

From what I know the idea that the Earth is only 6000 years old isn't that old. The first instance I'm aware of where the number is given is in the 17th century by James Ussher. If someone has info that contradicts this, I'm curious to hear about it.

 

[javajo]

I was curious to find out what religions teach that the earth is only 6000 years old. I have read a few things on searches about it but have never met someone who actually believes that. Please let me know if you believe that and what religion you belong to. Not really a debate although feel free to if you like, it is more of a curiosity to me.

Hi, I believe God created the earth and that it is not very old. I'm a Christian, but not all Christians believe that.

 

[gnostic]

we believe that the age of 'mankind' on earth is only 6,000 years... but not the earth. The earth is obviously much older and the genesis account says nothing of the age of the earth itself. It only gives us the age of mankind by listing the geneology of Adams offspring.

If that's true then why do we have evidences of Neolithic settlements of both Jericho and Damascus dated as far back as over 10,000 years ago?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

From what I know the idea that the Earth is only 6000 years old isn't that old. The first instance I'm aware of where the number is given is in the 17th century by James Ussher. If someone has info that contradicts this, I'm curious to hear about it.

AFAIK, he was the first one to give that precise a value, but I don't think the idea that the Earth is on the order of thousands of years old started with him.

 

[javajo]

AFAIK, he was the first one to give that precise a value, but I don't think the idea that the Earth is on the order of thousands of years old started with him.

It didn't, but he did come up with the date of Sunday, Oct. 23, 4,004 BC. which is interesting. Depending on the text and the method people have gotten anywhere from 4,004 to 12,028 BC. Jesus said that in the beginning God made them male and female and they did not divorce when he discussed divorce with the religious leaders in the Gospels. From that, I think humans were here from the beginning of creation like the Bible says.

2 And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him.
3 And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you?
4 And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away.
5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.
6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.
7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.
9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Mark 10

 

[Awoon]

So some God starting thinking about creating the Earth 7000yrs ago then decided to go ahead and do it 6000yrs ago?