conkermaniac

How exactly do fundies determine that the earth is approximately 6000 years old from the Bible?

keyser_soze

Well, they generally use the begats section...and some self inspired delusional content as well. There is a nice thread on it here in several places, and a thread at sarfartiworshippers about the problems with a 6000 year old earth, and egypt with a history at least a couple millenia older. And that's not even taking into account china, which has been civilized since europeans were still living in mud houses and caves. They have a rather unique and DOCUMENTED history...they have been fond of writing for a while, and actually invented the printing press a few centuries before the gutenberg...

Jack the Bodiless

It's also worth noting that young-Earthers usually say "6,000 to 10,000 years" or thereabouts.

...Even though there is no Biblical basis for the older figure. From the genealogies, 4000 BC or thereabouts IS the correct age, but it's embarrassingly recent even for YEC's.

Similarly, the Flood supposedly happened in 2300 BC or thereabouts, during Egypt's Old Kingdom period. The Egyptians failed to notice it.

conkermaniac

I understand that they use the "begat" section to determine the age of the earth, but is there anywhere I can find this exact list?

Evolutionist

gen 5 has a pretty long begat list...

conkermaniac

...which only goes up to Noah, unfortunately. I believe that we would need a list that extends all the way to Jesus in order to determine the age of the earth according to the Bible.

Doctor X

Actually, it comes from Bishop Usher. It is also the source for "9 AM"--fans of Inherit the Wind will recall that Brady/Bryant proudly states exactly when the world began. I remember seeing the film and my dad laughing, "I always wonder where they got '9 AM.'"

According to a mentor--so take it with some handsful of sodium chloride because I am too lazy to confirm it--Usher worked through the "begats" 'n stuff to come up with the figure. "9 AM" was a "joke." I cannot remember which university he hailed from--Oxford or Cambridge--but it is the one where classes begin at 9 AM--he was joking that the world began as his alma mater began.

Probably as good of an explanation as any.

--J.D.

Heathen Dawn

Ussher was serious and gave out the date of 4004 BCE by calculating the "begats". It was John Lightfoot of Cambridge University who gave the joke time of 9 AM, 23rd of October - the start of the semester at his university.

See also Paul Tobin's calculation for a modern estimate (4165 BCE).

excreationist

In Matthew 1 and Luke 3 Jesus's ancestors are traced back to at least Abraham, though they don't talk about numbers.

AiG - Dating Noah's Flood
Here Answers in Genesis works out when Noah's flood was supposed to have happened... they used an event in 1 Kings that apparently has an archaelogical date and they traced that back to Genesis... their date for the flood is 2304 BC +/- 11 years and so creation would be at about 4000 BC.

Also, in their Which arguments should definitely not be used? section, it says "‘There are gaps in the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 so the Earth may be 10,000 years old or even more.’ This is not so. The language is clear that they are strict chronologies, especially because they give the age of the father at the birth of the next name in line. So the Earth is only about 6,000 years old."

Also, apparently the traditional Jewish calendar sets the date of creation at about 6000 years ago. I guess the calendar was started by some ancient scholars who used the genealogies to work out the date of creation.

Doctor X

Heathen Dawn:

Ah! Excellent! Nice to know there is something behind a story.

--J.D.