The bible and the age of the universe...

[Santiago]

As you may noticed, im pretty new to these forums and im still at the earlier stages of developing my debating skills against religion. Since I haven't studied the bible... yet... I want to know: Where does the bible says the universe is 6.000 years old?

[Whitney]

Hi 54, the bible does not directly say the age of the earth.  My understanding is that 6,000 year number was determined by following the geneology listed in the OT to determine the age of the earth based on the generations/life spans.  I forgot who did it, but I think it might have been a monk.  So, the 6,000 is an approximation.

I hope that helps, maybe someone else can offer you a more in depth account of how they got the number.

[Santiago]

Oh, thanks. 2 things then:

- What's "OT" supposed to mean? Dumb question, I know.

- My username is supposed to say Santiago ;b

Thx a ton for your answer!

[Santiago]

Damn, just realized I meant the age of the EARTH, not the universe. Sorry for the confusion guys!

[Whitney]

OT=old testament NT=new testament

[Santiago]

Thanks! Im getting somewhere now.

[Kyuuketsuki]

Hi 54, the bible does not directly say the age of the earth.  My understanding is that 6,000 year number was determined by following the geneology listed in the OT to determine the age of the earth based on the generations/life spans.  I forgot who did it, but I think it might have been a monk.  So, the 6,000 is an approximation.

I hope that helps, maybe someone else can offer you a more in depth account of how they got the number.

Don't know the specifics but I believe it was Bishop Ussher (think that's the right spelling).

Kyu

[brekfustuvluzerz]

you are correct about the genealogy or the "begats" as they are called. essentially, 2000 years from creation to the flood, 2000 years from the flood to jesus, and 2000 years from jesus to now. that doesnt leave much time for things like the grand canyon and dinosaurs, or evolution, or just the formation of societies and cultures. i would be interested to find out how long it would take to go from having only one family on earth after the flood, to having the 6.7 billion we have today, only four thousand years later according to the bible.

[Caucmusulman]

you are correct about the genealogy or the "begats" as they are called. essentially, 2000 years from creation to the flood, 2000 years from the flood to jesus, and 2000 years from jesus to now. that doesnt leave much time for things like the grand canyon and dinosaurs, or evolution, or just the formation of societies and cultures. i would be interested to find out how long it would take to go from having only one family on earth after the flood, to having the 6.7 billion we have today, only four thousand years later according to the bible.

think about the fact that in 200 years the population went from 1 billion to 6.7 billion, that is a shtload of people, and i think somewhere i read an article that said that there is evidence that most humans died out i think it was 70 thousand years ago, from some cataclysmic event, and that today we all descend from a few thousand people that managed to survive. and again, this was a long time ago, so i don't remember the details, just the main point that people can reproduce pretty fast. but i wouldn't think that 6 thousand years would be enough, around 60000 should be sufficient.