[_ Old Earth _] The earth is billions of years old, except that its not.

[Featherbop]

If I remeber right, most scientists and people who profesionally date the earth's age agree and believe that the earth is around 4.5 billion years of age.

I really think that they could be right, but wrong at the same time.

When God created the earth, He created adult animals, and Adam and Eve were created adults, and plants were created grown, but they were just "born".

This lead me to think: Since God created other things already as if they had been there for a long time, it could very well follow that the earth was created as if it had been there for billions of years!

There may be nothing to argue about between 'old earth' believers, and 'young earth' believers!

 

[SyntaxVorlon]

You cannot claim any of those things without evidence. All that the evidence shows is that the earth is in fact billions of years old. This is all that can be claimed as it is all that can be used to explain the evidence well.

If you want to, believe anything, just don't attempt to claim it in a logical setting.

 

[Vic C.]

Hahaha, another poll!

Actually, I kind of like this theory, even though I've heard it before. In the world of furniture refinishing, this would be called, 'antiquing'. :

 

[Featherbop]

You cannot claim any of those things without evidence. All that the evidence shows is that the earth is in fact billions of years old. This is all that can be claimed as it is all that can be used to explain the evidence well.

If you want to, believe anything, just don't attempt to claim it in a logical setting.

I'm not saying I can show its true, and you can't show that it isn't true. But it just matches the Biblical, and earth dating evidence very well. Coincidence? I think no.

Of course, I could be wrong, noones even really sure if the earth is really 4.5 billion years old anyway.

 

[cubedbee]

Why would God decieve us like that? Why would he want to make reality out of line with our perceptions?

 

[Barbarian]

More to the point, if God could perfectly fake great age, it is of no practical difference to science whether or not He did that.

The results would be the same in either case.

It matters to me as a Christian, however, since God does not lie to us.

 

[Featherbop]

I don't think its a distortion of reality since this idea lines up with Biblical evidence as well.

I'm not convinced that the earth is, or was created old, I don't think anyone can know unless they witnessed it from the beginning. There simply isn't enough knowledge to determine the truth, but since it lines up with the Bible, I think it might be credible.

But, i guess it would be irrelevant to science. Noone could determine if the earth was created old, young, or created young as if it were old.

 

[Barbarian]

God always has the trump card. If He chose to be deceptive, He could fool us.

But if you assume that God is not deceptive, than one cannot escape the conclusion that the Earth is billions of years old.

 

[Featherbop]

God always has the trump card. If He chose to be deceptive, He could fool us.

But if you assume that God is not deceptive, than one cannot escape the conclusion that the Earth is billions of years old.

Noone knows how old the earth is. Too much information is not known. Noone alive today was there at the beginning. I will never accept the earth being created billions of years ago, because it is foolish for anyone to claim to know the truth of the matter. We lack knowledge of the beginning. It is the key to the whole mystery.

 

[cubedbee]

Ummm...we find rocks that are 3 or 4 billion years old. This is extraordinarily strong evidence for the fact that the world wasn't created 6000 years ago.

 

[SyntaxVorlon]

God always has the trump card. If He chose to be deceptive, He could fool us.

But if you assume that God is not deceptive, than one cannot escape the conclusion that the Earth is billions of years old.

Noone knows how old the earth is. Too much information is not known. Noone alive today was there at the beginning. I will never accept the earth being created billions of years ago, because it is foolish for anyone to claim to know the truth of the matter. We lack knowledge of the beginning. It is the key to the whole mystery.

No one alive today was at Gettysburg, but I don't see you saying there is reason to doubt that it happened. Will the fact that in 50 years no WWII veterans, holocaust survivors, or Nazi perpatrators will be left be reason to doubt that the holocaust happened. The same for the Armenian genocide by the turks, the native american genocide perpatrated by the spanish, british and later american governments?
It is foolish for someone to doubt it in such conditions as the planet can be shown to be ~4 billion years old through a variety of methods.

 

[reznwerks]

When God created the earth, He created adult animals, and Adam and Eve were created adults, and plants were created grown, but they were just "born".

!

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I guess he gave Adam and Eve a navel as well. At what age did God create Adam and Eve? Probably 24ish I'd say wouldn't you? Any idea why God created all the viruses that plague mankind?

 

[Featherbop]

God always has the trump card. If He chose to be deceptive, He could fool us.

But if you assume that God is not deceptive, than one cannot escape the conclusion that the Earth is billions of years old.

Noone knows how old the earth is. Too much information is not known. Noone alive today was there at the beginning. I will never accept the earth being created billions of years ago, because it is foolish for anyone to claim to know the truth of the matter. We lack knowledge of the beginning. It is the key to the whole mystery.

No one alive today was at Gettysburg, but I don't see you saying there is reason to doubt that it happened. Will the fact that in 50 years no WWII veterans, holocaust survivors, or Nazi perpatrators will be left be reason to doubt that the holocaust happened. The same for the Armenian genocide by the turks, the native american genocide perpatrated by the spanish, british and later american governments?
It is foolish for someone to doubt it in such conditions as the planet can be shown to be ~4 billion years old through a variety of methods.

Big fallacy there. Gettysburg was very very very very recent compared to the supposed origin of earth 4.5 billion years ago. History will not likely fail with such a historically recent event. I'm not even neccersarily saying that the earth isn't dated to be 4 billion years of age, I'm just saying that it may be only created as if it were that old.

If the dating is correct indeed, then the Biblical indications are in line with the science, and there is no reason to continue arguing for something we can't show to be true either way we lean.

 

[Featherbop]

When God created the earth, He created adult animals, and Adam and Eve were created adults, and plants were created grown, but they were just "born".

!

=========
I guess he gave Adam and Eve a navel as well. At what age did God create Adam and Eve? Probably 24ish I'd say wouldn't you? Any idea why God created all the viruses that plague mankind?

I do not think adam and eve had a naval, they were not born of a womb.

I imagine that God created them at the 18-35 age ranges.

I do not know the original purpose for the virus and bacteria, but in the begging until the fall of mankind, they plagued noone. The arguement that the world isn't perfect is invalid against christian beliefs, facts, and the Bible itself. But I understand that you, rezn, cling to stale and outdated/irrelevant arguements like flys cling to honey.

 

[cubedbee]

I do not know the original purpose for the virus and bacteria, but in the begging until the fall of mankind, they plagued noone.

Almost every animal has several species of bacteria living symbiotically in its stomach and aiding with digestion. I know ruminants like cows or deer would die without their bacteria--I think humans would live but be more sickly.

 

[SyntaxVorlon]

Big fallacy there. Gettysburg was very very very very recent compared to the supposed origin of earth 4.5 billion years ago. History will not likely fail with such a historically recent event. I'm not even neccersarily saying that the earth isn't dated to be 4 billion years of age, I'm just saying that it may be only created as if it were that old.

You're saying that on the basis that if there was no one alive at that time who is still alive we can't say anything with any degree of certainty, which is wrong 30 different ways to thursday. It is through the knowledge we have that we can say that the Earth is as old as it is. However you have no knowledge or evidence or even really a good reason to believe that the earth was "created old," at the very least you have yet to present a good reason.
I was using Gettysburg as a way to point out WHY your thinking on this is incorrect. If your logic is valid then the fact that no one is alive today who was present for Gettysburg is enough of a reason to doubt that it happened and would give credibility to any historical conspiracy theory that stated that it did not happen. The fact that historians and everyone else has evidence from that time of the existence of the Battle of Gettysburg is enough to make that claim ludicrous but to use your reasoning here "it could have always been fabricated."

If the dating is correct indeed, then the Biblical indications are in line with the science, and there is no reason to continue arguing for something we can't show to be true either way we lean.

I was wondering why you continue to argue that the Earth is as young as a few thousand years at all if after saying this statement.

 

[Featherbop]

I'm giving a good arguement, but this disscussion is not for atheists. They just don't get it here. All I'm saying is that if indeed the dating methods are correct, or can be shown to be correct, then the Biblical evidence that the earth is created old, but it is young is correct.

It all makes sense to me.

Noone knows the age of earth. Assumtions have to be made in order to make the assumtion of the age dating. I am fine with the fact that we can't know for sure. Anyone who says they know for sure and can prove it, is a lier.

 

[Vic C.]

It all makes sense to me.

LOL, of course it make sense to you. The scary past.....I understand it too! :o :

 

[yanjy]

I'm giving a good arguement, but this disscussion is not for atheists. They just don't get it here. All I'm saying is that if indeed the dating methods are correct, or can be shown to be correct, then the Biblical evidence that the earth is created old, but it is young is correct.

I understand the arguement, but its not a good one. If its true that the universe was created mature then the universe could have been made 100 years ago and look to be 4.3 billion (not sure if thats the right number) years old and there would be no way to tell. Heck, we could have been made last week with our memories intact and all the evidence of an old universe, but there would be no way to tell if that really happened.
:robot: <--really cool smiley

 

[SyntaxVorlon]

I'm giving a good arguement, but this disscussion is not for atheists. They just don't get it here. All I'm saying is that if indeed the dating methods are correct, or can be shown to be correct, then the Biblical evidence that the earth is created old, but it is young is correct.

It all makes sense to me.

You are factually, logically and grammatically incorrect.
The best explanation if we look at all the evidence we have is that the Universe really is as old as it looks and what cosmology says is true.
Dating methods have long since been shown to give accurate approximations of geological ages of the scope of the earth.

Noone knows the age of earth. Assumtions have to be made in order to make the assumtion of the age dating. I am fine with the fact that we can't know for sure. Anyone who says they know for sure and can prove it, is a lier.

The age of the Earth IS a highly corroborated and established fact, taken from every data we can find or use. Doubting that the Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old is beating a dead horse.