Don't you just hate it when you miss an important anniversary? I do have an excuse though - try as I might rushing about the place, I could not track down six thousand birthday candles.
In the 1650s, an Anglican bishop named James Ussher published his "Annals of the World," The book, now published in English for the first time, is a favorite of homeschoolers. It's the history of the world from the Garden of Eden to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 and in it the bishop calculates the creation of the earth happened on Oct. 23, 4004 B.C. – making it exactly 6,010 yesterday.
Ussher's arrival at the date of Oct. 23 was determined based on the fact that most peoples of antiquity, especially the Jews, started their calendar at harvest time. Ussher concluded there must be good reason for this, so he chose the first Sunday following autumnal equinox.
Well thank goodness for that - there's a robust method behind the calculation, for a minute I was worried that it may be nonsense.
Anyhoo tonight I'll be raising a glass for the planet. Happy birthday old girl!
2 comments:
Facts have no place in religion! It's all about faith dammit! You have to have faith to believe.
So when someone comes up with some patently unbelievable shite like the earth being 6000 years old, you can just say it is God testing your faith.
Poor, flawed, illogical argument, but I believe I win!
I have faith that the earth is not 6,00-odd years old.
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