Note that I don't really believe in a young Earth, but there are a couple of points I wanted to make.
Quote from Cucurbita;960073:
The issue I suppose is that he's a high ranking member of the Committee of Science.
Now there are quite a few religious scientists out there, but they know quite well (or at least, almost all of them know) that the Earth is most definitely not 9000 years old. Even human "history" begins earlier than that with the Neolithic Revolution. Of course, human history isn't the only thing that proves it is much longer.
Ah yes, I would agree with you here.
Quote from Cucurbita;960073:
Our observations from Astronomy really shows us the rules of our Universe. Radiocarbon dating is a proven method of showing how old carbon bearing materials are. While other dates may be theoretical and based on inconclusive evidence, carbon dating is sure to accurately provide dating back to 60000 years. Oh and of course, I guess dinosaurs never existed.
The absolute maximum about of years carbon-14 dating can date is 50,000 years. Since, after 50,000 years, practically all the carbon 14 would have decayed - since the half life of Carbon 14 is 5730 years.
Now, you might say - that's close enough ... so?
Well, carbon-14 dating at it's current stage isn't all that accurate as you claim it to be.
There are several assumptions made in Carbon 14 dating, in while doesn't really impact the dating of more recent organic things - can greatly impact the calculations of anything past about 5000 years old.
For example, the one major assumption is that the levels of C-14 have stayed constant in our atmosphere. Which is certainly not the case, especially when you think of Earth's more recent exposures to radioactivity. Which can be from the sun, nuclear power, nucleaur waste, etc.
Any time you have radioactive substances releasing alpha and beta particles, those particles can easily fuse with some Carbon 12 or Carbon 13 and "create" Carbon 14.
Now, in all honesty - I do accept C-14 dating as legitimate, so don't misunderstand. However, I just want to bring to light that even things that apparently are "old" - may indeed be younger. Which of course, is
part of the argument coming from young Earth creationists.
And no - most Young Earth Creationists
do believe in dinosaurs. They (as well as I) hold the view that dinosaurs died after the Flood of Noah, but not because they "missed" the Ark.
Quote from Cucurbita;960073:
The bible definitely doesn't say the Earth is about 9000 years old.
Yes, you are also correct - the Bible does not explicitly state that the Earth is a certain amount of days old.
Quote from Cucurbita;960073:
The only way he could have gotten away with saying that the Earth is 9000 years old is if he properly elaborated in his beliefs. A theory such as "could it be possible that instead, God created the world, but began the world not from the start of the Universe but the middle?".
In the
beginning, God created the Heaven and the earth. The Hebrew word used here is בּרש××™×— and it refers to time absolutely - meaning from
day one. If you could pinpoint a "first day" - which would be a bit hard for humans to do.
So - that viewpoint doesn't really hold up to Genesis 1:1.
Quote from Cucurbita;960073:
I've also heard people believe that "6 days in God's vision must have been very different from 6 days in man's point of view".
Looking back to the Hebrew - the word used was "yom", which has multiple meanings.
The Hebrew word yom translated into the English “day†can mean more than one thing. It can refer to the 24-hour period of time that it takes for the earth to rotate on its axis (e.g., “there are 24 hours in a dayâ€). It can refer to the period of daylight between dawn and dusk (e.g., “it gets pretty hot during the day but it cools down a bit at nightâ€). And it can refer to an unspecified period of time (e.g., “back in my grandfather's day...â€).
However, the context in which the word "yom" is used in Genesis 1:5-2:2, describing each day as “the evening and the morning,†makes it quite clear that the author of Genesis meant 24-hour periods. The references to “evening†and “morning†make no sense unless they refer to a literal 24-hour day.
This isn't conclusive evidence as to Genesis referring to 24-hour days, so I can see where people might believe otherwise. However, I personally believe in 24 hour days.
Quote from Cucurbita;960073:
I would love to read his thesis "Scientific data that actually show that this is really a young Earth."
I'm sure there are websites you can look at - heck there's even an entire organization dedicated to informing people about a young Earth.
While again - I'm not a young earth creationist, I do admire some of their thoughtful and meaningful stances.