Tool - Why do christians believe the age of the earth is just a few thousand years old?

Why do christians believe the age of the earth is just a few thousand years old?

MADRID, Spain - A small piece of jawbone unearthed in a cave in Spain is the oldest known fossil of a human ancestor in Europe and suggests that people lived on the continent much earlier than previously believed, scientists say. The researchers said the fossil found last year at Atapuerca in northern Spain, along with stone tools and animal bones, is up to 1.3 million years old. That would be 500,000 years older than remains from a 1997 find that prompted the naming of a new species: Homo antecessor, or Pioneer Man, possibly a common ancestor to Neanderthals and modern humans. The new find appears to be from the same species, researchers said. A team co-led by Eudald Carbonell, director of the Catalan Institute of Human Paleo-Ecology and Social Evolution, reported their find in Thursday's issue of the scientific journal Nature. The timing of the earliest occupation of Europe by humans that emerged from Africa has been controversial for many years. Some archeologists believe the process was a stop-and-go one in which species of hominins — a group that includes the extinct relatives of modern humans — emerged and died out quickly only to be replaced by others, making for a very slow spread across the continent, Carbonell said in an interview. Until now the oldest hominin fossils found in Europe were the Homo antecessor ones, also found at Atapuerca, but at a separate digging site, and a skull from Ceprano in Italy. Carbonell's team has tentatively classified the new fossil as representing an earlier example of Homo antecessor. And, critically, the team says the new one also bears similarities to much-older fossils dug up since 1983 in the Caucasus at a place called Dmanisi, in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. These were dated as being up to 1.8 million years old. "This leads us to a very important, very interesting conclusion," Carbonell said. It is this: that hominins which emerged from Africa and settled in the Caucasus eventually evolved into Homo antecessor, and that the latter populated Europe not 800,000 years ago, but at least 1.3 million years ago. "This discovery of a 1.3 million-year-old fossil shows the process was accelerated and continuous; that the occupation of Europe happened very early and much faster than we had thought," Carbonell said. PROOF OF EVOLUTION "This is a well-dated site, as much as any site that age can be," Stringer said. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23813443/

Public Comments

only minority of Christians believe that way, namely the Creationists.
"...For the Bible tells me so."
Literalistic Bible believers are fucking stupid.
They are anti-science and pro-bible.
Oh no, you didn't use actual evidence did you? It's a fake, it's a fake I tell you! Yeah, it is very irritating how people just blatantly ignore the astounding evidence. Simply amazing.
because they believe anything you tell them.
BIBLE says so!!!!
Because they've been conned by cynical religious leaders who are only in it for the power, wealth and prestige of leading their 'flock' into ignorance.
Not all Christians do, just really really dumb creationists. They simply deny all facts so that they can live in their fantasy world, because they are so weak minded that if what they've been taught all of their lives was proven to be untrue, which it is, they would not know how to function. It's just too bad they have to push this insane agenda on free thinking, strong minded people who accept facts as facts and deal with it. FSM for life! http://www.venganza.org/
This is all old evolution junk science. The biggest lie ever told and sold to the world. If you want to learn real science go to the link below.
they say its a trick satan uses to lure christians away from god....or everyone for that matter...not just christians.....
chronological reconstruction of the old testament dictates the age of earth (and man) to be about 6,000 years. Of course, the problem with this approach is that god created the sun and the stars on day 4. Since the term "day" is measured in terms of the sun, how is this possible? Therefore, the reference in genesis to "days" must be symbolic and not literal. This makes the process of calculating the age of the earth from biblical references absurd
christians believe in every silly things. See this: you'll laugh to death! http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AhSS4U2Ekhj2FdsGL2c_1Wrsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080607015956AAFa4N5
Lack of or no education. being lied to. An exceptionally low IQ retardation and/or other mental illness. Blind ignorance. being born in America or the middle east. Those are just a few.
Some Christians Believe that the World is 6500 Years old because God made Adam and Eve mature and old, So why not make the Earth that Way. But there is the Long and Short Day theory. That theory is that a day for God is Thousands of Years. So 7 Days could be millions of years. Who knows. All i know is that God Created this Earth, I really Don't care how old it is.
because the bible says so your veracity in modern science is very moving maybe if they told u the sky was actually red u would ask christians why they thought the sky was blue
If evilution was true then why don't we see a rock with wings?
because scientists havent taken into account some of the harsh conditions that have occured(such as the flood!) that may have aged the fossil! there was a comment that said because they are anti-science and pro-bible..... i'm a student studying science and a christian..and a creationist....for me science itself proves evolution wrong!
Fortunately, not all of them do. Unfortunately, no amount of information given will convince the creationists otherwise.
Lack of or no education.
because the Bible tell us soooo???? do you believe everything you read? was you there? No No No........
Well, when you believe the dating sytems that are being used are 100% accurate, you can easily believe this article. When you believe that that the half-life of carbon has been a constant throughout the history of the earth, then you can believe carbon or radiometric dating. Other scientific dating methods do not reveal the same millions of years that these methods do, so the other methods are discarded to make science fit the scientists own personal beliefs in a billion year old universe. Take the decay rate, or half life of carbon, in light of what the bible says. The bible says that prior to the flood that people lived to be 900 years old. This would throw all methods based on decay rates off DRASTICALLY, because the decay rates prior to the flood would have been almost 10 times slower than they are today. Imagine looking at a car driving by you. You take out a radar gun and point it at that car and it registers 60 mph. So you therefore assume that one hour ago it was 60 miles away. Only before it passed you it had been driving 10 mph for 50 minutes, so in fact it had only travled 19 miles, instead of 60. That is quite a difference. Now multiply that and place a time on that car 7 hours ago. You can see how far off the calculations would be. Now you take what is said about ancestors to humans. Notice what the article did not say. It did not say that they had found an intermediary species to correlate apes with man. They found yet another type of man. Thats because they have never found any intermediate species to support jumps from one species to another, they have only found different forms of the same species. The mathematical odds of modern humans actually evolving from a single cell, through a series of good mutations, is 1 in 10 to the 2 billionth power. And using the scientific method of observed truths and empirical data, we have yet to witness a mutation being a positive thing for any existing species. That would mean that against impossible odds, we had a mutation that was good to get here....not just once, but several times. This is pratically impossible based on the evidence that exist today. Yet people here will believe this because "man tells them so". And remember that man has proven himself to be a liar throughout the generations. The evidence overwhelmingly supports a young universe to anyone who goes at it scientifically and actually examines the data and facts from an unbiased perspective. Yet there is no such thing with humans. Humans will make whatever they see fit their own worldview and their own perspectives. "Science" is no different. Putting a PhD after someone's name does not change their predisposition towards one viewpoint or another, and evolutionists have no incentive to tell the truth, because there is no consequence for lying that is visible to them, being just a descendant of apes and having noone to answer to.
I keep seeing some posts saying that not all Christians believe this, only Creationists....firstly, if a person doesn't believe in the Creation by God, they aren't Christians. I don't see how one could claim to be a Christian and not believe that God created the earth...though I'd be interested in hearing the reasoning behind this if one says that's exactly what describes them.... Second, it may not be quite right to say Christians believe the earth is only a "few" thousand years old (that would only put us at ca. 1,000 B.C., and it is fact the earth is older than that. Biblical Archaeology already proves the earth to be at least 6 thousand years old, and some Christians will go as far as to say it is more like 10,000 years old (based on field work and reading of Biblical geneology). It is a necessary reminder, though, that science is made up of a whole lot of theories (whether it is pro or con science or religion). If someone says that this or that fossil is 500,000 years old, that is based on a system of dating....but who were the first people to begin dating items, and by what criteria did they decide that this or that is this many years old? What made them right? We should question them in the same way that early Christians and the Catholic rule was eventually put into question. I've heard all the theories, but then again, they are only theories, and not proven. We give a lot of weight to science, but what do we really know? Perhaps--using a more flexible view of Creation--maybe the earth is actually billions of years old, but Adam and Eve were the first humans--that is, homosapiens, using the science lingo--and were the first of the royal line that leads to those who call themselves Christians...perhaps? But then again, this is a theory too (not mine, by the way). We can never answer these questions, and trying to state any of the theories as absolute truth is bold.
no i dont ........ i learn from wat sience tells me
Gen.1:1,2 [ All exist when book of Adam's descendants began ]; Job 38:4-7,30-32 [ All exist, angels as inhabitants of heaven, and space exist ]; Age of the earth is not given. Gen.1:3-25 [ It existed and was prepared ages, Adam was in last few years [ seasons, days years that are given in God's day four ], of God's day [ age, eon, era ] six, Gen.1:26; So now all time after Adam is not the age of the earth, but adds time known to time unknown. Year 2513 after Adam and 857 years after the flood, 1553 BC, Moses was at Exodus 3561 years ago, age 80 Exo.7:7; 12:40,41 [ 430 years after Abraham was age 75 Gen.12:4; at 427 years after flood to get covenant, Noah in flood year 1656 ]. The book of Genesis ended year 2368, 712 years after flood, 1698 BC. Gen.50:26; The book of Job ended year 2433, 777 years after flood, 1633 BC. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Gen.47:9,11,28; in Egypt, 215 years after covenant, and generation four Exo.6:16-23,26; 215 years after at Exodus of Egypt 430th years. Aaron dies 40th yr. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers 33:38,39; Moses dies 40th year Deuteronomy 1:3; 34:7; Books of Genesis, Job, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy ends at year 2553, 897 years after the flood, 1513 before Christ and does not tell the age of the earth. Solomon king 4 years 1Ki.6:1 [ 480 years after Moses dies ], year 3033, 1377 years after flood and 1033 BC, dies in 36 years 1Ki.11:42; Year 3069, 1413 years after the flood, 997 BC, kings end 391st year, year 3460, 1804 years after the flood, 606 BC, by the time Christ Jesus is in Rome world Empire #6, [ Egypt #1, and Moses, Assyria #2, and Isaiah, Babylon #3, Matt.1:1-17; 14 generations before Christ, and Daniel, 606 BC, gives 2300, 2500, 2520, 2580 and 2670 years after Babylon [ now 2614 years after Babylon ], Cyrus in #4, and Ezra, 536 BC, Old Testament done 443 BC, Greece, 336 BC, and Rome 64 BC to Christ and year 33 Christ ascended. Time is counted 2008 after Christ, [ year 6074, 4418 years after flood, 3561 after Exodus, 3521 from Moses death, 3091 after Samuel, 3045 after David, 3005 after Solomon died, 2614 from king end, there will be no king but Jesus at his 2nd coming, 1st counted 2008 now, bible in circulation in the world John 3:16; back to Abel [ son of Adam, Heb.12:22-24 ]; that God so loved, that he gave his only begotten son Jesus to save 1Cor.15:22-28,51-53; The 6074 years time given in the bible [ LOST in Eden to SAVED by Christ ], has nothing to do with the age of the earth.
primitives cannot think better...
It has to do with psychology. If a person is made to believe something early in life, it takes a lot of evidence and social pressure to change your mind. That's why most people are unsure about whether or not there is a Santa Claus for a while and talk about it to friends before deciding it's not real. So far, there's just not enough social pressure to admit it's unrealistic, even though there is plenty of evidence.