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Original poster

Do you believe that the world is only a few thousand years old?

64 replies

TotallyBS · 01/02/2013 11:59

A long time ago I saw the episode of Friends where Ross tried to convince Pheobe that dinosaurs walked on the earth milions of years ago and that the world was not created a few thousand years ago like it says in the Bible.

I thought nothing of it until recently where I saw videos of the US elections.. Basically, you had evangelical Republicans standing up and saying that the world is a few thousand years old. One politician was chairman of some science committee.

This is a genuine. question (I bet they all say that :) ) if this is what you believe then how does dinosaurs and cavemen bones fit into your beliefs?

OP posts:
axure · 01/02/2013 12:13

Of course not, but I know lots of intelligent people who honestly believe that God created earth in 6 days etc... That's up to them, no point in arguing about it, enough arguing about 'flegs' in this part of the world.

TheDoctrineOfSciAndNatureClub · 01/02/2013 12:18

No of course not.

DioneTheDiabolist · 01/02/2013 12:43

No. I have only ever met one person who believes this (and he was in his late eighties).

Original poster
TotallyBS · 01/02/2013 12:58

But how can you separate this out? I mean, I seem to recall (O level RE) that Jesus's lineage in the Bible was traced back to various people in the Old Testament. There are other references to the Old Testament in the NT.

If you don't believe in various parts of the Old Testament then doesn't that cast a shadow on other parts of the NT?

Apologies up front for comparing the Bible to a text book but if I read a book from a noted scientist then i would believe what he wrote even if I didn't understand the science behind it. But if some sections were flawed then that would lessen my unquestioning belief in that x must be true even though I don't understand it.

OP posts:
Original poster
TotallyBS · 01/02/2013 13:01

Dione - in that case, you should tune into what is going on in the US. In many states there is pressure for public school to teach creationism side by side with evolution.

OP posts:
DioneTheDiabolist · 01/02/2013 13:13

The battle between creationism and evolution in US schools has been going on for nearly 100 years. It is not new.

hiddenhome · 01/02/2013 13:43

Genesis isn't intended to be interpreted as a literal scientific account of how the world came about. The men who wrote it weren't scientists and God didn't sit on their shoulders handing out dictation.

Nicknamegrief · 01/02/2013 13:48

Yes and no.

I believe that the biblical version of the creation is generally correct as far as the bible has been translated correctly. However I don't believe that the term day is anything like the day was have now, as in 24 hours long. For a start calendars are different now than even 1000 years ago.

I think of the biblical genesis day as been a set period of time that could have lasted millions of years, when you start to take that view on and look at the order in which things were created then it looks a lot more like how evolution occurred.

So I guess I don't believe the word is only a few thousand years old but many millions but I do believe in a God who created it and we are not all some accident of nature.

Original poster
TotallyBS · 01/02/2013 17:12

Dione - Yes but since the school prayer ruling the issue has been on the back burner. It just seems to the casual observer, ie me, that it is slowly becoming front and centre in recent years

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Iggly · 01/02/2013 17:16

Genesis etc are just a collection of fables, folk stories told around a fire and gradually written down. Just a way of making sense of the world without carbon dating etc.

That's my opinion.

And in thousands of years, if humans are still around, they'll be laughing or evangelicising about what we believed to be true. Maybe AIBU will become the source of ten commandments

AChickenCalledKorma · 01/02/2013 17:20

No - and I am a Christian. I even work for the church. No-one I know believes this either. It's a highly barmy minority opinion.

IThinkOfHappyWhenIThinkOfYou · 01/02/2013 17:31

I've never knowingly met anyone who believe this. I am a Christian and most of my friends are from church, my dcs faith school or my own faith school. I have seen several threads on here where people have assumed that Catholic/CofE schools teach creationism and make little jokes along the lines of 'I don't know what they will make of little Johnny when he starts, he knows all about evolution and the big bang!' which makes me think somebody must have these ideas in order for other people to pick up on it but I haven't come across it.

DioneTheDiabolist · 01/02/2013 18:26

Ithinkofhappy I too have noticed this along with a notion that scientists can't have faith. I find the Big Bang thing particularly ironic as it was originally proposed by Fr. George LeMaitre the father of Big Bang theory.

Sonatensatz · 01/02/2013 19:05

Yes I believe that the world is only a few thousand years old. Dinosaurs would have been created along with all the other animals and became extinct sometime in the post flood era. As to the Cavemen, there is lots of evidence of people having lived in caves throughout history. I do not believe that they were any less human than we are today.

thegreenheartofmanyroundabouts · 01/02/2013 19:40

No. In the UK creationism is a minority view.

AMumInScotland · 01/02/2013 19:54

Christians in the UK are a much more mixed bunch than the ones you hear about in the US. We have everything from liberals who believe the Bible was never meant to be read that way and that we evolved (possibly with some pushing in the right direction by God, possibly not), through people who believe God created each species separately but over a long period, to some who believe in 6 day creation. Even those who believe in a 6 day creation don't automatically go along with the "Young Earth" calculations of only thousands of years.

"Believing in" the Bible doesn't mean that you have to believe everything in it is literally accurate - if you look at the creation stories in the same way as you look at Jesus' parables, then the "Did this really happen?" question becomes less important than "What fundamental ideas does this story convey?"

nightlurker · 01/02/2013 22:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
TotallyBS · 02/02/2013 00:01

Sonatensatz - Dinosaur bones have been carbon dated by scientists as being a lot more then a few thousand years old. How.does that fit into your beliefs?

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Sonatensatz · 02/02/2013 11:35

TotallyBS- Carbon dating has also been shown to give dates of several thousand years for objects of known age that have been tested, therefore if it is unreliable for testing objects of known age how can we presume that it is reliable for objects of unknown age such as dinosaur bones?

ethelb · 02/02/2013 11:42

I used to work for an American company that had its routs in the oil industry. I worked for a magazine they produced and we weren't allowed to talk about 'fossil fuels' as the people at the top of the company (all bezzie mates with George W) "didn't beleive in fossil fuels". Apparently there had been a hug hoohah a few years back when the [British] editor had done a presentation in which she had mentioned fossil fuels to the office in Oklahoma, to shocked gasps, shaken heads and "some really upset people". It was BIZZARE.

Like it was actually rude to point out that fossils exist. Wtf?

sieglinde · 02/02/2013 11:43

No. Just no. The majesty of unfolding evolution is wonderful and should be loved for its scaly, bloody self.

Sonatensatz, most early hominids didn't live in caves - what do you make of the findings in Olduvai Gorge? (have to say I'm curious because I have NEVER met a creationist.)

cheddarcheeselover · 02/02/2013 11:44

sonatensatz. carbon dating is no good for items of known age because those items are from a time when humans messed with the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. carbon dating doesn't work for items since industrialistion. It is accurate for items before that.

Maryz · 02/02/2013 11:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
TotallyBS · 02/02/2013 12:10

Forgot about fossil fuels. Good catch. Then there are diamonds and .. and... Unless people are suggesting that God placed them in the ground basically ready made

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MostlyLovingLurchers · 02/02/2013 12:45

BS - i have met someone who did honestly believe that god put fossils in the ground to test our faith (poor lady was a nun who came into our A level RE class to discuss her faith and found most the RE students in our school were militant atheists).

I had a look at some YEC sites after a similar thread on MN a while ago and was dumbstruck at the willful misrepresentation of science and especially archaeology. My overriding feeling was that the 'information' they provide is cynical and deliberate manipulation by those with an agenda, mostly on the American right.