Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Happy Birthday, Earth! You don't look a day over 6000!

Woo hoo! Break out the party hats! It's the birthday of our favorite planet--- at least according to  Archbishop Ussher, who (in 1658) calculated that the Earth was created 9am on 23 Oct, 4004 BC. (Alas, he didn't specify a time zone.)

Lesser known but also true: The rest of Ussher's calculations said the Earth would end around 2004. That didn't happen, of course, but contradictory evidence is never a problem for Creationists or Biblical literalists.

Party on!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ussher_chronology

4 comments:

  1. I'll bet he didn't take into account the increased time dilation due to the Earth spinning a bit faster each year.

    That would put the date nearer to 2032. So we still have some time...unless the Aztecs are correct of course. :-)

    Peace,
    Randy

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  2. Just like a consumate crazed leftie. Leave out some important bits to meet your agenda. Fact is, his scholarly achievements remain considerable — his work in sorting out the genuine from the spurious letters of Ignatius was a milestone and his pioneering gathering of sources relating to early Irish church history laid the foundation for much subsequent research. Even his efforts to identify the date of creation, often derided these days, gathered together the most up to date scientific, chronological, historical and biblical scholarship in an impressive synthesis.

    So to feel better about yourself, Fred, you once again try to deride another -- even if he used the best possible information available at the time and has been dead for 350 years.

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    Replies
    1. Just like a crazed creationist, you cannot tolerate different opinions.

      So to feel better about yourself, you deride another.

      And using your excuse "even if he used the best possible information available at the time and has been dead for 350 years", explains why the bible is such a farce.

      also, it is consummate. duh.

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  3. You misread my post, Mr/Ms Anonymous. I mocked contemporary Creationists and Literalists. I didn't criticize Ussher an iota.

    If I’d wanted to mock Ussher, I would have pointed out there was a *real* scientific revolution going on then --- some of Ussher's contemporaries included Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, Blaise Pascal, Evangelista Torricelli, et al.

    Ussher is not of that rank of thinker. He might have been, had he challenged the orthodoxy of his day with the same intellectual rigor with which he operated within it.

    But he didn't. And I don’t much care. My post wasn't about Ussher, and it certainly didn't mock him.

    It *was* mocking contemporary people who are willfully ignorant of science and technology; who cling to ideas long-disproved; who reject ideas that require relearning or rethinking of the comfortable beliefs of childhood.

    You know, we're all born ignorant; we all start from zero. But some people choose to remain that way, and choose to ignore information that doesn't fit their prejudices, or that makes them uncomfortable.

    To me, that's inexcusable. It's irrational.

    And that's what your misspelled, anonymous, ad-hominem attack boils down to. You're angry because I mock those who embrace the irrational.

    I’m OK with that, and happily accept the charge. I *do* mock creationists, biblical literalists, climate-change-deniers, supply-side economists, practitioners of voodoo, flat-earthers, and any and all others who consciously, deliberately, ignore facts that contradict their beliefs.

    Willful ignorance is inexcusable.

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