Christianity and the Earth (entry in Conservapedia)

Bible scholars have estimated the age of the earth based on the Creation account in Genesis and the genealogical accounts in Numbers and other books of the Pentateuch. One famous estimate was published in 1650 by James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh in a book called Annals of the World, in which he estimated the Creation to have occurred on 23 October 4004 B.C. Other Biblical scholars maintain that there are possible gaps in the genealogies, often using the ideas of the 19th century Calvinist theologian Benjamin Warfield on the issue. ^[1] However, James Barr, regius professor of Hebrew at Oxford University, wrote in 1984 the following: "… probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1–11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that: … the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story.’" ^[2] Furthermore, it should be noted that Barr himself rejects supernatural Christianity, and so is not a priori biased in favor of creationism. ^[3]

Evolutionists claim that scientific evidence, obtained through the scientific method, suggests otherwise, dating the earth at beyond 4 billion years old.^[4] In addition, many human societies predate the alleged creation of the world at 4000 B.C.^[5]

Many Christians believe that the Earth is the perfect distance away from the Sun and take this to be evidence of God's existence. ^[6]

[The preceding text in the Conservapedia entry on "Earth" gives the basic dimensions, in miles and other "English" units with the metric equivalents in parentheses.]

References

1. http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/primeval_chronology.shtml


2. http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1606/


3. http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/pca_creation_study_committee_report.shtml


4. http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html


5. http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/


6. http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html


7. http://www.anthropic-principle.com