When was the Earth created?

When I was a chair of governors some creationist club sent me a DVD in the hope that I would encourage its inclusion in science lessons. I threw it straight in the bin. Interesting though, that someone apparently had the money to mailshot all the secondary schools in this way.

Whoops! I got my previous sum about how many years out GrannyAs figure of 250million was. Her figure was 250 million and mine was 4600 Billion. I am too tired to do the sums tonight.

I suppose we could just all agree that it was a heck of a long time ago?

sorry that last post should have read .
Whoops! I got my previous sum about how many years out GrannyAs figure of 250million was, horribly wrong

I can't comprehend time on that scale, it 'does me 'ead in miss' as a former pupil used to say.

The human population of the Earth is around seven billion, we are told. The Earth is about four and a half billion years old. If the facts/numbers are juxtaposed like that I think they are easier to 'comprehend'. Four and a half billion years is still a hell of a long time though.

I used to find the concept of distance measured in light years 'did my head in' but it's actually quite a simple concept really. I can sometimes see the Andromeda Galaxy from my bedroom window. That's two and a half million light years away from us, so what I'm seeing happened two and a half million years ago. Awesome thought.

I'm quite surprised at the acceptance of the word "created" in this thread title. #connotations.

Good point, jingl!

I was using the word 'created' because people believe it was 'created' 6000 years ago. Obviously it was formed millions of years ago and not 'created'

There are many numbers and scales of things we can't comprehend. We can't force them into our narrow human frame of reference any more than you could force an ant to see a double decker bus.
Maybe the salient point is that humans or creatures much like us have only been around for the blink of an eye in terms of the earth's existence.
This of course does not sit comfortably with the notion of an anthropocentric deity. Make planet, be very patient for a few billion years waiting for life to evolve to the point where churches emerge. Download lots of rules into heads of churches... That does my head in.

It totally does your head in. It's why I enjoy the Geology.
Blissful

jess and nellie both –

Just picked up on this thread while looking at some beautiful fossils on my desk which I was the first to set eyes on for 180 million years. I have photos on my laptop of even more amazing fossils our Geology group was allowed to see in Charnwood Forest - the oldest found in England at c. 570 million years, age known by isotope dating. They were discovered by the young son of a Unitarian Minister who encouraged him to find out what they were.
Like Greatnan I am genuinely interested in how some people can deny this knowledge & how they view fellow Christians who can hold their belief & accept the scientific facts. Is it just about not wanting to disagree with others in a group you value for fear of being ostracised? I do hope someone will answer this. I am sure we all live out many contradictions in our lives but I'd love to understand this contradiction more.

It's that bit about hlding onto their beliefs and accepting the scientific facts that I find hard to understand. That's surely cognitive dissonance, with knobs on.

Reminds me of Mark Twain's definition of 'faith' as 'believing what you know ain't so'.

As I said above, someone, somewhere will believe the most unlikely things, sometimes before breakfast. The MoD has now closed down its surveillance of reports on UFOs but people are still seeing them. And giant cats.

Nothing wrong with giant cats lilygran - there used to be a fair number as pets at one time and what the heck do you do with it once it is big enough to eat you? My son who is a very reliable witness (can tell a tench from a roach through the surface of the water at 20 metres, that kind of thing) once saw a puma from a train in the s of england in broad daylight. Although I concede that most of the signtings are felix domesticus. Or possibly wild boar, which have also escaped and are breeding quite well.

Jess I believe you - but why do they only manage to take photographs and film of unconvincing creatures?

Reposting this article about universes crashing into each other. It's on the science forum too. Great stuff.