Those who advocate teaching of creationism as science in public schools base their beliefs on the literal interpretation of the Bible. Bishop James Ussher (1581-1656), an Irish Anglican Church cleric, calculated that the Earth was very young, 6,000 years of age.
His calculations were compiled by tracing biblical genealogies backward. He set the date of the origin of the Earth as occurring on Oct. 26, 4,000, B.C. at 9 a.m. in Mesopotamia.
Modern day creationists still advocate a young Earth, discounting all modern scientific methods of dating the Earth, the horizontal sequence of strata and radioisotope methods of dating fossils. They rely on the biblical account of the Great Flood as the single most important geologic event in Earth history.
Creationists have the certainty of divine authority for their findings, while science is open-ended and with much more to learn. For creationists, what science does not know is God's domain and will never be revealed to us.
Modern scientists believe the universe to be about 15 billion years old, with the Earth forming about 4 1/2 billion years ago. Creationists believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old, but argue the Creator purposefully designed it to appear much older! Thus scientific dating procedures just discover that which God put there to trick us and test our faith.
With the true age of the Earth firmly established by biblical authority interpreted by Bishop Ussher, perhaps President Bush could lead a national celebration of the Earth's official birthdate on Oct. 26 singing, "Happy, Happy Birthday, Earth!"
Virgil A. Sestini
Las Vegas
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