Creationists turn against Pat Robertson for saying Earth isn’t 6,000 years old

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

In the video embedded below, “Creation Today” hosts Eric Hovind and Paul F. Taylor asserted that “God’s word” is “the basis of all knowledge,” and that televangelist Pat Robertson is off-base in saying that perhaps the world is more than 6,000 years old.

The two hosts were discussing Robertson’s response to an email he received from a “700 Club” audience member who wanted to know why the Bible doesn’t say anything about the dinosaurs.

“Of course the Bible does cover dinosaurs,” said Taylor, “we have talked about that on this show several times.”

What Robertson said in response to the viewer, however, was that, in spite of what Creationists and Ireland’s Archbishop James Ussher [1581-1656] say, the Earth is not 6,000 years old. Ussher was a Christian cleric who claimed to have pinpointed the moment of Creation to the day.

Hoving and Taylor laughingly dismissed the idea that Ussher could be wrong in any way, with Taylor asking rhetorically of Robertson, “Do you assume then that Archbishop James Ussher had no actual evidence for his proposition when he wrote such a big book. People talk about this 6,000 years that Archbishop Ussher came up with.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/06/creationists-turn-against-pat-robertson-for-saying-earth-isnt-6000-years-old/

[NuclearDem]

1. He should know.

He was there dammit.

[shenmue]

2. There's another Hovind?

Ken spawned?

Crimony.

[boston bean]

3. Wow. Who would have thought that Pat Robertson

Would be the one who wasn't so fucking crazy?

[boston bean]

4. .

[JBoy]

5. LOL. "Of course the Archbishop had evidence the earth is 6000 years old".

"Look how thick the book is!"

Also, "He got it from the bible", ergo, QED.

[kiranon]

6. Hard to believe anyone could be so stupid as to believe

the earth was only 6,000 years old. Loved the picture of the Apple computer and the religious texts side by side. Now if they would just use the computer to learn something.

[exboyfil]

7. A coworker who is a great engineer

believes that the earth is 6,000 years old. It simply boggles the mind that an individual that intelligent can hold such a belief.

[Cresent City Kid]

8. I have a similar coworker

A brilliant programmer, but he sounds silly trying to square science and his beliefs. He realized that a 6000 year old universe meant that light from celestial objects had to leave their sources less than 6000 years ago. He could have postulated that the universe was much smaller, but decided that since the speed of light is not always a constant, it could be sped up enough to explain the universe at its actual size.

We all remember from geometry that you can have sound logic with false assumptions: All dogs have 3 legs, Fido is a dog, Fido has 3 legs. Creationist start with the assumption that the Bible is strictly factual and bend the rest of the universe to fit.

[DrDan]

17. well - I think your programmer friend is somewhat correct

an object cannot "travel" through space faster than the speed of light - however, that does not preclude the expansion of space itself faster than that - so objects can "recede" from each other faster than the speed of light.

[Cresent City Kid]

18. The expansion can be faster than the speed of light

but the light coming off of objects is hitting Earth after trips of billions of years for the farthest objects.The expanding space between us and the objects wouldn't speed up the light.

[DrDan]

19. no - it will not speed up the light

but the size of the universe is not limited to the speed of light

[Cresent City Kid]

22. My point is that the light must be much older than 6000 years.

And the universe in which these events take place must also be much older.

[DrDan]

23. I certainly agree with that

I was just responding to this - "since the speed of light is not always a constant, it could be sped up enough to explain the universe at its actual size."

[Cresent City Kid]

24. I hear you

That assertion was my friend's mental gymnastics. A 6000 year old universe at its actual size would require light to be much faster than the speed measured by scientists. It does vary from this constant but only downward.

[undeterred]

25. Some people operate with two sets of mental furniture

and feel no cognitive dissonance at all.

[BlueJazz]

9. ...and while you read the big book Taylor, I'll tell the people about the all new "Meal-o-Matic"...

...which (thru the grace of God)..cooks food by using the "Holy Heat Waves"

[marmar]

10. Wow, when Pat Robertson comes off as the "sane" one ..........

....... you must be totally f**king whackadoodle.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. Yeah. Remember, these people want to put that shit in public school science textbooks.

It absolutely IS a political issue.

[Recursion]

13. Can I just add, Usher was laughed at *in his own day*

Also, Darwin did not introduce the idea of gradual changes of species over millions of years; his theory instead explained the observed phenomenon of gradual changes of species over millions of years.

[kelliekat44]

14. I don't get it. To believe in a creator does not mean you have to believe the earth is 6,000 years.

What kind of thinking is this? What kind of god or creator do these people worship?

[Warren DeMontague]

15. A couple things. One, there's not a whole hell of a lot of critical thinking going on.

Two, they can't just believe in any "creator" (I don't, personally, but plenty of people do and are still able to reconcile that belief with scientific fact) ... they have boxed themselves into a very narrow literal interpretation of the Bible which means everything about 6 days and the garden of Eden and Cain and Abel and Noah's Ark has to be literally true.

Which, by their math, necessitates a 6,000 year old Earth.

I don't fucking understand it, but it frightens me that these people are anywhere near public school textbook committees.

[ck4829]

16. It's not a kind of thinking, it's dogma

If your POV and my POV don't match up, then your point of view must be skewed or biased... If science and what I believe don't mesh, then science must be wrong... I have a laundry list of beliefs, and if you don't share them, then you must have been indoctrinated by the atheists/gays/liberals/secular humanists/etc.

[Agnosticsherbet]

20. When you bild a zoo, you shouldnl't be surprised that there are animals in it.

Didn't something he purports to believe in say, "As you reap so shall yee sow," or something like.

[Warren DeMontague]

21. Sigh.

It must be tough to live in a universe that so glaringly does not match the contents of one's own head. It explains a lot of the angst, anger, and bat-shit nuttiness of a lot of people.


If only the world would conform to their preconceived notions.

[hobbit709]

26. When you believe in the written down heat induced hallucinations of itinerant sheep herders.