For anyone that's wondering, the 6000 years is based on Gen 5 and 11, which supposedly give a perfectly accurate timescale for progeny:
Quote:
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth:
And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.
And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos:
And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters:
And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.
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Gen. 5: 1-8, NKJ
This starts at Adam and goes on quite some time. The idea is that these are a simple and unquestionable chronological link between the first week of existence and now. Even from a theological standpoint, I find this to be a weak argument. For example:
- There could be a gap of 4.5 billion years between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2.
- Also, the first "day", often cited as evidence that "day" means a 24-hour period, could actually demonstrate the opposite. It's possible that the darkness was a period of about 9 billion years between the big bang and the formation of the sun, and that the light was the 4.57 billion years of the sun. This would establish context for the use of day (yom) for the rest of the chapter meaning "eon" (or long passage of time) instead of a 24-hour day and would thus completely void the young earth theory.
The true stumble is when you come to the order of development from Genesis 1:
It's this, not the age of the earth, that creates the most substantial rift between creationism and a verifiable scientific history of life on our planet. Fish easily predate fruit-bearing trees by hundreds of millions of years. Reptiles predate birds because birds came from reptiles. And yes, stars predate fruit trees, too.
I'm surprised that people get hung up on the age of the earth instead of the order of evolution of life on the planet. It's the latter I've always found to be the most glaring inconsistency.