Happy Birthday, Earth

According to Bishop Ussher's now-famous calculation, God created the earth on October 23, 4004 bc. Which makes today that 6010th birthday for the planet. Unfortunately, she hasn't aged well. She looks like she's about 4.55 billion years old.

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Maybe the Earth should give up smoking. That makes you age more quickly ;)

She can't quit smoking without gaining weight.

Wow. Earth was born on the same day as Michael Crichton. That's not at all ironic.

By SomeRandomCanadian (not verified) on 23 Oct 2006 #permalink

Don't rag on the Earth's ungraceful aging; the rest of the universe looks over three times as old.

Ha! The ironic thing here is that the older things are typically the younger they look (to us). You know, universal expansion, light speed and all that.

So really, I guess poor old Mother Earth really does just look bad close-up ;)

Lucky for me, tonight, I get to see Judge Jones of the Dover court case give a talk at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting. What a fitting way to celebrate.

By Miguelito (not verified) on 23 Oct 2006 #permalink

Wow. Also turns out that the EARTH was born on the same day as Miyuu Sawai, the Japanese actress who played sailor MOON. Also not at all ironic.

P.S. Yes, they actually made a live action Sailor Moon.

By SomeRandomCanadian (not verified) on 23 Oct 2006 #permalink

Take it easy on Ussher. He wasn't the one who calculated the birth to the exact day in October, and the exact time. That was some other guy.

And, remember, Ussher was writing a geological treatise from the best informatin he had. When creationists start touting scientists like Newton as creationists, we ought to tout Ussher as an anti-creationist. His paper had adequate warnings about potential flaws in his methodology -- I'll bet that, were he alive today, he'd not hesitate much to endorse Old Earth science on the basis of the data presented.

In any case, it's 17th century science at best. There's no reason to take 17th century science over 20th century science, especially in the 21st century.

We can still complain about Scofield all we want though, right?

Ed Darrell said:

In any case, it's 17th century science at best. There's no reason to take 17th century science over 20th century science, especially in the 21st century.

If they get to use 17th century theology, we get to use 17th century science. It's only fair!

Today is also the 162nd anniversary of the Great Disappointment, experienced by the thousand of followers of William Miller, who had predicted the world would end on Oct. 22, 1844. Many of them supposedly sold farms and took other drastic actions in preparation for the end--and then woke up the next morning to, well, a great disappointment. The event (often cited in discussions of cognitive dissonance) forced a lot of rethinking of millenialist theology, and ultimately spawned the Seventh Day Advenmtists and Jehovah's Witnesses.

A lady with experience is far more interesting than one who has only smooth skin to offer.

"We can still complain about Scofield all we want though, right?"
What's to complain about? John's an excellent guitarist.

And just to make things even more fun, WorldNutDaily seems to have re-published Ussher's "Rare Biblical Masterpiece"!

The book, now published in English for the first time, is a favorite of homeschoolers and those who take ancient history seriously. It's the history of the world from the Garden of Eden to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.