When was the universe created?
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." --
Genesis 1:1
- Archbishop James Ussher: 22 October 4004 BCE
- The Universe's birthday party
- The full chronology
- Young-Earth Creationists: 6000 - 10,000 years ago
- "...the Biblical chronology is
about a million times shorter than the evolutionary chronology. A million-fold
mistake is no small matter, and Biblical scholars surely need to give primary
attention to resolving this tremendous discrepancy right at the very foundation
of our entire Biblical cosmology. This is not a peripheral issue that can be
dismissed with some exegetical twist, but is central to the very integrity of
scriptural theology." -- Henry Morris, The Biblical Basis for Modern Science, Baker,(1984),
Page 115.
- Jehovah's Witnesses: 46,026 BCE
- The JW book "Let God Be True" (1946) says that each of the seven
days of creation was 7,000 years long. And that since Adam was "created toward the
close of the sixth day, he was put on earth toward the end of 42,000 years of earth's
preparation." (p. 155) And since "[a]ccording to reliable Bible chronology Adam was created in the year
4026 B.C.E., likely in the autumn of the year, at the end of the sixth day of
creation" (April 1, 1968, Watchtower), we know that the universe was created
in 46,026 BCE.
- Old-Earth Creationists: Somewhere between 10,000 and 20 billion years
- It's hard to pin these folks down, but they generally accept some form of day-age
interpretation for the creation days of Genesis 1.
- Catholic Church: The date cannot be determined from the bible
- "At least 200 dates have been suggested, varying from 3483 to 6934 years B.C., all
based on the supposition that the Bible enables us to settle the point. But it does
nothing of the sort. ...
The literal interpretation has now been entirely abandoned; and the world is admitted to be
of immense antiquity. ...
On such questions we have no Biblical evidence, and the Catholic is quite free to follow
the teaching of science." -- Catholic Encyclopedia:
Biblical Chronology
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