6000 Year-old Earth

[MrsFrozen]

Hello.. I would appreciate some help on this.

A Fundamentalist friend and I were talking last night, and he told me that he only believes the Earth is 6000 years old. I'm sure you have heard of this theory before, but I'll go into it a bit.. He says that if we look at the begats in the Bible, then there are 2000 years from Adam and Eve to Noah, and 2000 years from Noah to Jesus, and 2000 years from Jesus to us. He says carbon dating is wrong, all science in this respect is wrong, skeletons of Neanderthals and anything that might go against this theory are fabricated and wrong, that dinosaurs were really plant-eaters and were on the Ark, or didn't exist at all. He says there is no way of dating, that anything that goes against this theory is innacurate. He says the numbers in Genesis are not symbolic, and that God made the earth in 6 24-hour days.

The only other person I have met who truly believed this was a Baptist anti-Catholic woman, and this theory seems very strange to me. I went to Catholic schools my whole life and we were never taught evolution (I don't believe in evolution), but we were taught that the earth is billions of years old. I figured if this 6000 year theory were a teaching of the Church, then I would have been taught it.

I told him that the begats could very well have only named key people generations apart, or that these people could have lived to be a thousand years old, or that since they really didn't have surnames back then, they could have been taking in terms of families, and those families could have lasted generations (hope I'm making sense). I also told him we don't use the Bible as a big dictionary, that we are not believers in "sola scriptura," and that it is not blasphemous to believe that the earth is billions of years old.

Did I handle this well? I admitted to him that I was not educated on this theory and that I would try to find out more about it. So does the Church have any kind of official teaching on this? I am worried about this theory because it seems that it's tipping over into a cult-type belief, but this could be because I was taught differently my entire life. Is there anything I should add to what I have said? Has anyone else dealt with this sort of thing? Any articles on it? I would love some help. Thank you!

God bless. :)

[Mary's Knight, La]

i forget which Gospel it is but the one that starts out listing the ancestors of Jesus is known to have skipped generations to make it have symmetry

[phatcatholic]

hold tight frozen, i'll find u some articles as soon as i get the chance.....

[MrsFrozen]

hold tight frozen, i'll find u some articles as soon as i get the chance.....

Thanks! :D

God bless..

[phatcatholic]

frozen,

here are two articles to read. they are very helpful, if u have the time to read them. however, i will also pull some quotes out and do some summarizing of my own so that u get the general idea:

--Adam, Eve, and Evolution

--Evolution: A Catholic Perspective

first, know that, in general, catholics are given much liberty concerning evolution. for example, we are as free to hold that the world is 6,000 years old as we are that it is millions of years old. we are also free to hold that man evolved from a previous creature. we are even free in our interpretation of the 6 days (symbolic or literal). however, there are some things to which we cannot dissent. they are:

1. all things were created by God

2. all of mankind evolved from two humans (monogenism), instead of two or more groups of humans (polygenism).

3. our souls did not evolve from anything previous, but are a special creation from God.

4. the universe is of finite age. it is not something that has existed from all eternity, but something that began at a certain time.

in my personal opinion, i don't see the need for a literal interpretation of genesis. 6 days-6,000 years. it doesn't really matter. i see genesis as recording "what" happened, more than it records "how" it happened. also, regarding this 6,000 year theory, their is irrefutable scientific evidence that proves that man is at least a million years old.

again, read the two articles for more info. Also, see the "faith and science" entry in the reference section, as well as these sites, for more articles on this topic:

--Catholic Pages: Evolution

--Catholic Culture: Science

--Catholic Educator's Resource: Science

--Biblical Evidence for Catholicism: Science and Theism

i hope this helps.......pax christi,

phatcatholic

Edited January 19, 2004 by phatcatholic

[Guest justaplainsong]

Frozen

why cant the days just mean days, God is a big God, he could do it just as its written! Alot of people get stuck on this.

Besides it helps undermind that whole Darwin thing on its own.

Edited January 21, 2004 by justaplainsong

[thicke]

In the end though, does the Earth being 6 thousand years old or 6 million years old have any effect on our salvation. I mean, does it really matter????

[MrsFrozen]

Hi, everyone. When I posted this, I was under the impression that it might go against a church teaching. I was wrong.

I've come to peace with this now. Thank you for your posts.

God bless. :)

[Oik]

Hey there is a lot I am able to access on this subject thanks to the info. I have been looking for some good info on evoultion and the church for a while.

[phatcatholic]

Hey there is a lot I am able to access on this subject thanks to the info. I have been looking for some good info on evoultion and the church for a while.

i'm glad i could hook ya up. if u need an article on ANYTHING, i'm ur man

welcome to phatmass!

pax christi,

phatcatholic