Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Speedkill · 09-07-2004, 02:54 PM

I was looking around the net for viewpoints counter to what I had been reading in The Bible Unearthed, since much of it seems very convincing and I wondered what Christian responses were to current archaeology were and I found this.

Basically, this guy Gerald Aardsma decided that a 1 was left out of the Bible in copying and the exodus should be 1,480 years before Solomon and if you do that, archaelogy corresponds to the Bible almost perfectly. I searched the forums and didn't see any place where this was discussed. I assume at least some of you have seen it. Any good reasons why it's wrong? Obviously it's a bit hard to prove or disprove what he says about adding a thousand years to the chronology, but what about it fitting into archaeological finds after that? I don't know enough about the Bible and current archaelogical finds to really be able to figure this out for myself, at least not for a while.

Toto · 09-07-2004, 03:48 PM

I had not heard of this before. A little googling reveals that Dr. Aardsma is (or was) Assistant Professor of Astro Geophyics at the Institute for Creation Research. He evidently discovered that tree rings indicate that the earth is older that 6,000 years (the heretic!) and this appears to be his attempt to stay Biblical.

His theory on Jericho is debunked here.

Talkorigins notes:

Quote:

It's ironic but true, that Aardsma (the author of the ICR Impact article that defended ICR's heliocentric stance against encroaching geocentrist sentiments), agreed to leave ICR recently, because he no longer agreed with the lower range of ICR estimates for the age of the earth. Aardsma is absolutely convinced, via tree-ring data, that the earth cannot possibly be as young as 6,000 years. ICR still says the earth could be between 6,000 to 15,000 years old and ICR does not want to offend many of their supporters by "upping the lower limit" to 12,000 years as Aardsma has done.

Speedkill · 09-07-2004, 05:05 PM

Thanks. That was exactly what I was looking for.

09-07-2004, 02:54 PM	#1
Speedkill Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Montana Posts: 25	Gerald Aardsma and OT chronology I was looking around the net for viewpoints counter to what I had been reading in The Bible Unearthed, since much of it seems very convincing and I wondered what Christian responses were to current archaeology were and I found this. Basically, this guy Gerald Aardsma decided that a 1 was left out of the Bible in copying and the exodus should be 1,480 years before Solomon and if you do that, archaelogy corresponds to the Bible almost perfectly. I searched the forums and didn't see any place where this was discussed. I assume at least some of you have seen it. Any good reasons why it's wrong? Obviously it's a bit hard to prove or disprove what he says about adding a thousand years to the chronology, but what about it fitting into archaeological finds after that? I don't know enough about the Bible and current archaelogical finds to really be able to figure this out for myself, at least not for a while.

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09-07-2004, 05:05 PM	#3
Speedkill Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Montana Posts: 25	Thanks. That was exactly what I was looking for.

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