Recently, our local paper carried a story about an individual building a museum in Ohio dedicated to the premise that the earth is really only 6,000 years old as per the Bible. He wants to show the reality of that fact in his museum - he is absolutely serious and will spend millions on the museum. He will also make millions because millions will come to his museum to have their beliefs verified as true - how - don't ask.
The gentleman mentioned above and his supporters belong to a Christian group that takes the Bible literally (every word is true) and therefore believes the Creation story in the Book of Genesis in the Bible.
Many Christians consider these particular Christians as an embarrassment to their religion because they are so obviously wrong as to be objects of ridicule.
I actually know a few of THEM and like them very much. The one person I am thinking of was a college graduate and a devoted Baptist. In conversations with her (she liked to talk about her religion) she maintained that the earth is indeed only 6,000 years old and that archeological/ scientific evidence that places the earth into the millions of years is plain false, a plant, a conspiracy and the work of the devil. Obviously we could not discuss the subject because there was no room for discussion.
The Book of Genesis actually has two (2) creation stories. It is not the earliest creation story. Civilizations in Egypt and Mesopotamia had earlier ones. Scholars actually can show where the Jewish Creation story came from, usually mentioning the Epic Of Gilgamesh among others.
Most civilizations had creation stories so they could answer questions from the people as to where did we come from and how did all this come to be. Interestingly, most creation stories have a "flood" story too indicating that a huge flood probably did happen.
Scholars call these creation stories "myths" and most cultures have them. Modern people recognize why the stories were written and consider the stories as "wisdom literature" because they usually had a moral or lessons for life tucked into it.
Creationists or Fundamentalists believe that God actually wrote the book or at least inspired someone directly to write it.
Scholars note that the evidence is overwhelming that the stories were written many, many years later. Some of the evidence includes mentioning "things" that did not exist until many years later and could not be known to people of that time.
A whole course on the Bible would explain how, when and by whom the Bible was written. It is a must for people trying to understand all this.
My National Geographic just sent me a book describing the wall paintings in a French cave that are 17,000 years old. Dinosaur bones have been found and dated to millions of years ago and I can keep talking about the evidence for a good long time.
The question is basically who is right. I don't think you can ignore scientific evidence as somehow phony or a conspiracy - believe me.
So where does it leave the 6,000 year group.
I call them that to differentiate them from Creationists who believe that God created the world and everything in it but not necessarily according to the Book of Genesis.
I really don't know what to think about so called educated people believing something so obviously false. I guess I have to research this a little bit more.
Janusz
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