History

From a strictly human standpoint, the claim that the earth is young is just so much double-talk. But the question of whether the earth is billions of years old, or just a couple of thousands of years old, occupies a central place in the creation/evolution debate. For some, it is the question of whether there was time for the impossible to happen - life to arise from non-life. In the mind of the Biblical Christian, however, it is not a question of defeating evolution but of what is true, what does the Bible say?

1. The name Genesis that we apply to the first book of the Bible has been adopted from the Greek word GENESIS meaning "beginnings." The Jews call this book BERESHITH which is the first Hebrew word of this book and means "In beginning." Genesis 1:1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. There is a logical order here: Beginning (time), heavens (space) and earth (matter). The Big Bang Theory has reversed this order. Note that "the heavens" is plural.

1. Just how does the modern geologist tell the age of a rock by simply looking at it? For that matter, where do all those millions of years come from and how can they be reconciled with Genesis? It is always good to know where ideas originate and why but first a very important but seldom reported fact, even among creationists, about rock strata. Everyone today has been taught that each layer of rock typically seen in road- cuttings, was laid down as sediment, one upon another, from a sequential series of floods in the past.

It's no surprise that the history taught in our schools is a rather dull subject. Virtually all events in history, particularly European history, were motivated by religious causes: Muslims massacred Christians, Catholics slaughtered Protestants, Protestants killed Catholics, and all parties persecuted Jews. In the 1800s schools were run by religious authorities, and children attended the school of their parents' faith. When governments took over education, children of various faiths were all hurled together into the same classroom.