How Old Is The Universe

[StFrancis]

As per scientific studies the universe is thought to be about 5billion years old. The Bible describes about a much younger universe, it specifically talks about earth. Are we supposed to combine the stories to come up with the truth or we are supposed to trust only one story, the bible story about creation?

 

[Deacon]

The bible also mentions the four corners of the earth.
It tells us the sun rises and sets, and even stood still at one point.

Perhaps what the bible seems to say about the age of the earth needs to be interpreted with a different set of hermanutical glasses.

Rob

 

[Revmitchell]

As per scientific studies the universe is thought to be about 5billion years old. The Bible describes about a much younger universe, it specifically talks about earth. Are we supposed to combine the stories to come up with the truth or we are supposed to trust only one story, the bible story about creation?

We need to be careful that we do not fall for the assumption that the so called "science" is not skewed toward presuppositions that are anti-God and anti-scripture.

 

[OnlyaSinner]

The bible also mentions the four corners of the earth.
It tells us the sun rises and sets, and even stood still at one point.

Perhaps what the bible seems to say about the age of the earth needs to be interpreted with a different set of hermanutical glasses.

Rob

Since the Bible also mentions the circle of the earth (in Isaiah), I think it's clear that "four corners" is a figure of speech. And saying sunrise/sunset is merely use of conventional language - if the Bible can be critiqued for having those terms, then so can daily newspapers, TV weather forecasters, almanacs, etc.

How much of the science concerning the age of the universe rests on the assumption that purely naturalistic phenomena are all that may be considered?

 

[Salty]

I would say the Earth is older than Dr. Bob

 

[Alcott]

It's the earth that is supposedly 4.5+ billion years; the universe is estimated to be 13+ billion years. This is based on an inexplicable 'reshuffling' of the matter/energy that makes up the (or 'this' universe. And no, it is not compatible with a literal understanding of Genesis.

 

[OldRegular]

The bible also mentions the four corners of the earth.
It tells us the sun rises and sets, and even stood still at one point.-

And your "Point" is??????

Perhaps what the bible seems to say about the age of the earth needs to be interpreted with a different set of hermanutical glasses.

Rob

I suggest that the use of glasses to color or hide Biblical interpretation is a tool of Lucifer!

 

[Deacon]

error, seems the software won't let me post more than a few lines.

Do you want to send me to one of the four corners of the earth for punishment?

It has been mentioned in another thread that words apart from their context mean nothing, so too passages of the bible need to be interpreted in a contextual framework. Outside of a proper framework passages can be misinterpreted. The context colors the interpretation we give words and passages. Context is king!

And we talk a lot about interpreting the bible in context as though there were just one context but there's lots of different contexts that affect the meaning of a particular word or passage.

Rob

 

[Deacon]

The Linguistic context deals most specifically with the words within a passage. You yourself OldRegular, have put on special linguistic glasses to examine biblical words. Word-level studies are often a starting place for finding out what a passage means. There are other tools, glasses that help us to more clearly see what the author of a passage is trying to communicate.

We can look at the literary context; what is the genre of the passage? ...narrative, wisdom literature, poetry, etc. The literary context frames our interpretation - they are a hermeneutical set of glasses to aid us in our interpretation.

We also need to put on hermeneutical glasses to view the worldview context of the passage; the historical, cultural and religious contexts help us to understand the authors point of view when writing the passage.

Hope this clears things up.

Rob

 

[ApollotheBrave]

Trying to combine science and religion into one history is like trying to mix oil and water. Both have a very different definition of what is universally acknowledged in the world even if some of it overlaps. Science is rapidly changing everyday while religion is just keeping up. Personally I think the universe is billions of years old as well but don't tell that to creationists.