Another topic gave me the idea to post this one. I have always asked myself, why does the Society not agree with the amount of time archeologists say dinosaurs and other species roamed the earth? They agree the earth has existed for maybe billions of years. But why do they give life on earth only thousands of years, since the creation of animals, vegetation? Anybody out there an archeologist or a researcher of these things that can share some information on this?
Millions of years vs. Thousands according to the Society
by Cindi_67 16 Replies latest watchtower bible
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JCanon
The implied Bible chronology that the Creative Days were only 7,000 years each is based on the concept that the millennium, the 1000-year reign of Christ would fulfill the Great Sabbath within the last Creative Day. I agree with this assessment.
However, when it comes to dinosaurs and how old they are, science can't really determine that. For instance, for non-fossilized dinosuar bones they found which they try to test with RC14 dating, the dating doesn't go back past 30,000-50,000 years. So what they tested they got results within the range of the Bible's timeline. If we presume the dinosaurs are the "great sea monsters" mentioned in the Bible that were created on the 5th day, then they would max out at around 20,000 years. Some of the RC14 testing has only reached back to 9,000 years.
21 And God proceeded to create the great sea monsters and every living soul that moves about, which the waters swarmed forth according to their kinds, and every winged flying creature according to its kind. And God got to see that [it was] good. 22 With that God blessed them, saying: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the waters in the sea basins, and let the flying creatures become many in the earth.” 23 And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a fifth day.
But this is a huge controversy about the dating as noted below:
"Finding this fossil wood in Jurassic limestone suggested the possibility of testing for the presence of radiocarbon ( 14 C). Most geologists, however, would not bother with such tests because they wouldn’t expect any 14 C to still exist. With a half-life of only 5,570 years, no 14 C should be detectable after about 50,000 years, let alone millions of years, even with the most sensitive equipment. So this fossilised wood from the Marlstone Rock Bed of Jurassic ‘age’ had potential for testing the validity of the fossil dating technique underpinning modern geology."
Here's the entire article: http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v22/i2/geology.asp
So while they are dating things millions of years, there are contradictions and challenges and so it is simply not absolute at this point. Some lava flows, for instance, not more than 50 years old gave by argon gas dates back to millions of years, but that's because of the abnormal concentration of the gas in the lava flow, an anomaly. Thus who knows what was going on in the atmosphere way back when which results in some of these exaggerated dates. And since RC14 is not useful past a certain period less than 50,000 years, that method cannot be used for dating non-fossilized dinosaur bones.
Apparently, one argument is that zero carbon should be found in any dinosaur bones if they are older than 50,000 years, yet some has been found in nonfossilized bone. How do you get around that?
In the meantime, in case you haven't seen, there's a group called AiG which deals with all the arguments. Because everything is inconclusive, it's not in a position to adequately challenge the Bible's timeline at this time.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/
You might want to check out the website regarding specific dating issues.
My position is that for all the millions of years the scientists claim, plus claiming there was no global flood, "written history" and all kinds of advanced astronomy, medicine and archicture suddenly appear in abundance but only going back about 4,000 years! Which aligns with the Bible's timeline for development after the flood. Why was man so backward for millions of years and then suddenly became so smart in the last 4000 years? Further, those ancient Egyptians and Sumerians are clearly not ape men but men just like us today.
So I just dismiss these dating issues from science, which only pertains to living materials, as inconclusive, especially when hardcore archaeology doesn't date past 4000-5000 years. Since the dating claims of millions of years is solely based upon a narrow range of scientific study, something we can't double-check ourselves, people hold on to their belief in the Bible and it's timeline.
JC
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Homerovah the Almighty
The society has to maintain and support the bible's chronology for the simple reason that is what they have structured themselves on
to do otherwise would only weaken formation.
Plus to the fact none of the leaders of this group will not study any science like geology, biology to any extent, these sciences are not empowering to them so why bother.
why would anyone study a science that would weaken your obtained power, there is a under lining reason to maintain the status quo.
This is the soul reason that religions like this will not accept or support scientific knowledge even to the outer regions of common sense.
Thankfully mankind has finally removed the box that religion has placed over us for generations and now we can see what a fascinating world we live in.
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Shepherd Book
The Creation book, and others, don't have an issue with the length of time sicentists say that life has been here on earth - unless I am mistaken. The Watchtower Society claims that Genesis agrees with finding that indicate that plants and animals have existed for millions of years. Their only two issues with origin-of-life scenarios are 1) that life did not evolve but was created as fully formed species and, 2) that humans have only been around since 4026 B.C.
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Awakened07
The WBTS agree with the date of the earth and universe because there are so many different scientific methods that support that view.
But they have to put their foot down somewhere, and that's where the Bible's creation days come in. 24hr days are a little embarrassing, so they use other scriptures to infer that the days are undefined periods of time. The 7000 years is because they believe (or believed; you never know, I might have missed some new light) that since it's now been about 6000 years since Adam, and God's rest is said at least once in the Bible to be still running, that it makes sense that once the 6000 years are over, the last thousand years of the last 'day' will be the millennium of Christ. I guess perhaps that theory was shot to the non-existent hell, since 1975 came and went and we're now 32 years into that millennium. Who knows.
'Answers in Genesis' by the way, is a young earth creationist site, set up to support the view that the Biblical creation story is 100% reliable, and literal (seven 24hr days).
Some other sources:
http://scienceandevolution.blogspot.com/2007/07/accuracy-of-fossils-and-dating-methods.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/list.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CD/CD020.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CD/CD011_1.html
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Homerovah the Almighty
Old ignorant uneducated men should never be in a position of power, the results are indiscriminately bad for all.
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greendawn
And especially when those old uneducated men are obstinate and arrogant and will not receive suggestions or advice from anyone without throwing them out of the org.
Have also in mind that there are the young earth creationists who believe that everything including the universe were created in six literal 24 hour periods. -
nicolaou
greendawn: why is young earth creationism more foolish than any other version of creationism? If 'with God all things are possible' why sneer at a literal six day creation?
I sneer at creation - period.
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DannyHaszard
Everything discussed above I have pondered over and over for thousands of hours of contemplation as I was born JW 1957 and was also born a science nerd.
what's my contribution now? I don't have a clue what a waste of my time that along with everything else watchtower
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Witness 007
7,000 years theory is no longer taught by Witnesses in the new Reasoning book it says; "Many thousands of years." Also the creation book no where says 7,000 years. Since the embarrasment of 1975 it has not offically changed just never mentioned any more.