How we know the world is 6025 years old

Published: Sat, 08/14/21

James Ussher was a Church of Ireland Archbishop and Primate of all Ireland between 1625 and 1656. He was apparently a prolific scholar and church leader who is particularly remembered for calculating the date and time of the creation of the world. According to Ussher this dramatic event took place at around 6pm on the 22nd of October 4004 BCE, or currently 6025 years ago this coming October. Some fundamentalist Christians take this calculation as evidence that the world is indeed just 6000 years old. Some would prefer a slightly different figure as it seems that the Arch Bishop’s maths was not all that good. Either way it is quite widely believed that the date of creation can be calculated by adding up the generations listed in the Bible and then adding on the accepted time since the Birth of Jesus Christ. It seems that there is quite a bit of scope for debate within this principle, but however you crunch the numbers found in
scripture, the date of creation comes out at something between six and ten thousand years ago.

Ussher’s conclusion was based on perfectly good scientific method.

He formed a thesis: That it is possible to calculate the date of creation by adding up consecutive ages of generations listed in the bible.

He looked for a reliable source of data, and what could be more reliable than the word of God?

Then the processed the data according to accepted laboratory techniques, eg adding up numbers.

He then presented a conclusion for peer review. Most of the criticism was of his calculation method but however you add up the ages found in the bible the result doesn’t vary that much.

Of course there are two ways that science develops. One is better method, more accurate calculations, more detailed analysis etc of existing data. The other is simply looking for more data and working out how to apply the scientific method to the new information.

You may have previously heard that some fundamentalist Christians believe that the world is only 6000 years old, now you know where the idea comes from (if you didn’t already). Don’t be too smug about it, the date of creation is calculated using perfectly valid scientific method. The issue is the very limited data set that is being used.

It is easy to laugh at one particular group for believing in ‘facts’ derived from a very limited data set, but in fact most of what we think we know has been presented to us in a very similar way. I would suggest that the fundamentalist Christians are doing the world a major favour by revealing this method of belief creation and maintenance.

The easy way to attack the ‘6000 year old world’ argument is by asking. ‘What about geology, paleontology, genetics, ice core samples, archeology etc etc?’ Data collected from all these disciplines, and various others, will contradict the notion that the world is just six millenia old.

On the other hand when you start looking at all the data available, it becomes very difficult to make any really accurate calculation. For example geologists will try adding up layers of sediment as displayed in Colorado’s Grand Canyon. The many layers certainly indicate that the world is old but exactly how old is each layer? The sediment doesn’t come with a date stamp, so working out the age of each layer still involves a great deal of guesswork. Eventually you might end up with a theory that the Universe stared with the ‘Big Bang’ which doesn’t seem to be any different to me than. ‘And God created Heaven and Earth’. The origins of the universe are a mystery, a fascinating conundrum to contemplate, and indeed investigate, but there are no really conclusive answers, much as the priests of religion and science would like you to believe there are.

If you really want to be sure of something, and encourage others to believe the same as you, then the best thing is to limit access to just one source of data. Christian fundamentalists will argue that the only source they trust is the word of God, eg the bible. If the bible is your only authoritative source of information then you can believe that world is only a few thousand years old. Such inconvenient details such as the existence of fossils are explained as having been put their by God to test the faith of true believers. Rather like many people will say that they would rather trust the BBC and the government than bother with ‘conspiracy theories’.

The funny part is that in America, Republican voting, right wing, fundamentalist Christians have been among the most skeptical about the Covid 19 narrative and the least likely to be jabbed. It as if a strong religious belief inoculates against the Covid propaganda. By contrast liberals whose religion is much more likely to be a politically correct scientific secular materialism could not wait to participate in the Covid 19 initiation ritual, other wise known as ‘vaccination’. It is a strange world that we live in.

Regards

Graham

PS Very interesting analysis of the state of the world from Israel Shamir. Is the trans humanist agenda behind Covid and the, so called, green movement. https://www.unz.com/ishamir/trans-digital-vs-oil/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=pmd_75878bd2f146863fc63310824d02b055bafb167a-1628967048-0-gqNtZGzNAfijcnBszQfi