Friday, August 31, 2007

Just How Old Is the Earth Anyway?

I have been studying to prepare my freshman for that very question. Dr. Kent Hovind is one of my favorite creation scientists and he has a wonderful video series that I think every family should grab and show their kids, especially if your kids are in public schools.
When I asked Kai, who of course was public school K-8, how old the Earth was, he told me "billions of years old". He has been brainwashed. Your kids too! Ask them. What if I can SCIENTIFICALLY prove the Earth is only about 6,000 years old? That will be my challenge next week in our first couple classes.

I want to leave you with one thought: We live in a UNIVERSE, correct?
What does the word UNIVERSE mean or come from?
In the Latin, "Uni" means: single, "Verse" means: spoken sentence.
So, the UNIVERSE is a single spoken sentence.
What does Genesis 1:3,6,9,11,14,20,24 and 26 start with?
And God said, "Let there (the, be, Us)......."

Pretty amazing isn't it?
Praise God!!

17 comments:

Corey said...

Is the oldest tree really 4300 years old?

Bill's Waste of Air said...

Yes it is and that is what is so cool about the Bible and the age of the Earth.
If the Flood was approximately 4400 years ago, then that tree fits right in with scripture.
If the Flood never happened and the Earth is millions or billions of years old, why is that the only and oldest tree?
Look at population. There are about 6 billion people now. It is agreed in most circles that there were about a half billion in Jesus' time. So that is quite a growth curve right? Based on that alone, if the Earth were millions of years old, then there should be about 150 billion people now!

Corey said...

Wrong! The Methuselah tree, the tree that Kent Hovind refers to, is dated back to 2832 BC. Then, there is Prometheus cut down in 1964 is older than that. It is even confirmed by the web site that Hovind uses in his seminar.

I have a video that debunks Hovind's claim of the oldest tree.

Your claim assumes that the population growth rate was always constant, which is a false assumption. Wars and plagues would have caused populations to drop from time to time. In particular, population sizes before agriculture would have been severely limited and would have had an average population growth of zero for any number of years.

There is no particular reason to choose a population growth rate of 0.5 percent for the calculation. The population growth from 1000 to 1800 has been closer to 0.1227 percent per year (Encyclopaedia Britannica 1984). At that rate, the population would have grown to its present size from the eight Flood survivors in 16,660 years.

The population growth rate proposed by the claim would imply unreasonable populations early in history. We will be more generous in our calculations and start with eight people in 2350 B.C.E. (a traditional date for the Flood). Then, assuming a growth rate of 0.5 percent per year, the population after N years is given by P(N) = 8 × (1.005)N

The Pyramids of Giza were constructed before 2490 B.C.E., even before the proposed Flood date. Even if we assume they were built 100 years after the flood, then the world population for their construction was 13 people. In 1446 B.C.E., when Moses was said to be leading 600,000 men (plus women and children) on the Exodus, this model of population growth gives 726 people in the world. In 481 B.C.E., Xerxes gathered an army of 2,641,000 (according to Herodotus) when the world population, according to the model, was 89,425. Even allowing for exaggerated numbers, the population model makes no sense.

Jen said...

wow Bill...have fun with this

Good times. Jen

Bill's Waste of Air said...

Well hey looky there we got us a real live liberal checkin out my sight!! Whoowee!
Well I'm just a dumb hick neo-con so I aint gonna get in a peein match with ya corey. I just figure I will stick with the Word of God and trust Him to see me through this life, just like He has so far!
I hope you have found peace and joy in your life, and if not I would be glad to tell you about my Savior!
I will pray for you friend!
In the meantime, what the heck brought you to my goofy blog? Surely I ain't googled yet am I?

Bill's Waste of Air said...

Whoops, did a quick check, and I see that our friend corey here does anti-hovind stuff, which is fine by me but why he would take the time to google some ding dong blog like mine out of the bazillions out there is pretty amazing and I am very flattered. You must have a lot of time! Wow!

Nathan Zamprogno said...

I always feel like I need to put my foil hat on when commenting on sites like yours, but here's something that I'll bet doesn't gel with your worldview.

I am a Christian. I work at a non-denominational K-12 Christian school in Australia. We are a mix of baptists, anglicans, pentacostals and so on. Nothing "fringe", thank you. No one would argue that we are anything other than mainstream, committed Christians who are impacting the society around us and genuinely seeking after God's will.

Here's the bit where you choke on your beef jerky. We don't hold to Young Earth Creationism. We don't teach it. I went on a School excursion last week with a bunch of 60 year 8 (~13 year old) kids to a renowned local cave system. I taught them that the caves were made millions of years ago. No one turned a hair.

We are what you and other creationists say can not exist: Christians who are not "compromised" or on the "slippery slope to apostasy". Bringing our kids up right in the Lord's way, and yet, emphatic about saying that modern Science says certain things about the great age of the Earth and the Universe around it. Does this dent our faith? No. It enlarges the stage within which we can marvel at the grandeur of God and His creation.

Meanwhile, what do you offer us? Kent Hovind? Convicted tax fraud? Tell me sir, where are the dinosaurs he tells his followers are still living in Java? Sir, tell me what you would say to the mother of the lady who took Hovind's advice because cancer therapy "shortens your life" and went without it. Tell me if you agree with Kent that 9/11 was a government conspiracy? That vaccination is an attempt at mind control? That the moon landings were faked?

It's a little quiet there, Bill. Go, educate yourself a little (here and here) and stop making a complete ass of yourself.

Nathan Zamprogno said...

It scares me that you're about to be responsible for filling young minds. God help them!

universe |ˈyoōnəˌvərs|
noun ( the universe)
all existing matter and space considered as a whole; the cosmos. The universe is believed to be at least 10 billion light years in diameter and contains a vast number of galaxies; it has been expanding since its creation in the big bang about 13 billion years ago.

ORIGIN late Middle English : from Old French univers or Latin universum, neuter of universus ‘combined into one, whole,’ from uni- ‘one’ + versus ‘turned’ (past participle of vertere).

Bill's Waste of Air said...

I am sorry to see such hatred from what I assume is a "Christian Brother".
Hey, here is the most important thing: Do you love Jesus with all of your heart, soul and mind? Then everything else is just air. Jesus is all the really matters and making sure that we are teaching our children that Jesus, who is God, came to be man and died on the cross for our sins and rose again and is seated at the right hand of God ready to come back and bring his Children home.
In the meantime we are to live Colossians 3 and with the Holy Spirit's power tell others about him.
So, I hope that you are on track with me there and we can agree to disagree about stuff that is way less important.
Lastly, this is kind of cool, so if I put a famous name in my blog, one that lots of people hate, people will come look at my site, which was mostly for the amusement of a few friends?
Cool, so here goes:
Oprah Winfrey, Adolf Hitler, Hugh Hefner, Billy Graham, Elvis Presley, Robert DeNiro, Nelson Mandela. Thats a good start.
Ok, nerds, start googling.

Corey said...

Bill, very interesting comments coming from a Christian. Or, more appropriately, called ad hominems.

If you really do believe and this is not a parody of how creationists think and act, do mature up.

Anonymous said...

And we wonder why there are so many denominations.....so much for unity in the Spirit! OK, Bill is a friend of mine so I'll defend him and give him a little kick in the backside simultaneously. He's very passionate about the Lord, but to his detriment, when he strays from scripture (absolute Truth) and includes sermons, videos and books, he's gotten himself into some hot water. All of this posturing and chest-thumping is ridiculous! In Bill's defense, I taught Bible at a Christian high school several years ago and thought I was pretty well versed in the Word. Looking back on it now, I was a fledgling idiot. Several years from now, I'll look back on this moment and realize the Lord still had more to reveal to me. If it weren't so, we would only need to read the Bible once and put it on the shelf next the other leather-bound classics. Hopefully, we will all end up in heaven, in the presence of our Savior and then we'll realize how little we actually knew.

Anonymous said...

Okay, boys, here's my two cents. I totally believe the Bible is 100% true and that God created everything in 6 days. Period! However, he created fruit trees as fully mature fruit bearing trees. God did not create apple tree seeds that had to be planted and mature for 7 years before they could produce fruit. So, on their first day of existence, they were fully adult. Same with Adam. On his first day old, Adam was a full adult. Obviously the same principal applies to the earth. On its first day of existence, the earth was fully mature, fully able to sustain life.

We serve a smart perfect God, who thinks over everything. And not one bit of this matters. Only our heart and where we choose to live after we die. I choose Jesus Christ and Heaven.

Blessings, Tammy

Bill's Waste of Air said...

Dear Corey, in case you do ever come back: what do I need to "mature up" about?
This is my blog, my opinions, my space, my fun, my thing. You are a guest, behave accordingly.
You still haven't said why you came to this obscure stupid blog anyway? Is this what you do for kicks?
Thanks Tammy, beautifully written as always.
That IS the really important fact!

Nathan Zamprogno said...

Corey's criticism on this post is justified for the following reason:

If the Emperor chooses to wear no clothes in the privacy of his own palace, fair enough.

If the Emperor chooses to wear no clothes in public, then he can expect to be laughed at.

Thus: If you have fringe and unscriptural beliefs, evidenced by your approval and support for a disgraceful fraudster like Hovind, well, it's a free country. You can't legislate intelligence.

However, if you put those views out there in a blog, an inherently public medium, then expect people, even Christians who can't abide con men purporting to speak for them, to take your views to account from time to time.

Anonymous said...

Bill,
Isn't this a great country! We can post our comments and discuss them freely with others. It's too bad some people have to be so nasty with their disagreements. We're supposed to build one another up. I don't agree with everything you say. Heck, I don't agree with everything my husband believes. But I love and respect him.

I hope I don't get personally attacked for my opinion on the age of the earth. It's 7000 years old, but again; on its first day of existence, God created it as fully able to sustain life, fully adult, and aged. So it could have been a million years aged or a billion year age on that first day when God created it 7000 years ago. That's just my opinion based on the Bible and my faith. Feel free to disagree, I won't attack you personally, I promise!

Won't it be fun to learn all these details in Heaven? I can't wait to learn how Enoch became no more. There is so little written about him. And about Paul's thorn in the flesh. I have a new theory about that one, but will save it for my blog in a few days.

Ephesians 4:29 “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

Christ lives! Tammy

Bill's Waste of Air said...

Very well said Tammy. I won't even begin to debate with someone who claims to be a "Christian" and then calls another Christian a foul name.
I would love to have intelligent debate but will not sink to such low levels.
I am sure that the person responsible will be off and never back again, but it was interesting to hear such a point of view, just wish the spiritual maturity had been higher so that resorting to name calling would have not been necessary.
I may have to delete the comments so that the kids don't read it.

Jen said...

Tammy...

Looking forward to hearing about your new theory about Paul and his "thorn"...