Compressing Geological history into Biblical Timescales

[Graceheart the Leopard]

Hello,
I had originally come up with this idea a year or two ago, but the thread subsequently was spammed to death and I gave up on it. So here it is again:

Some time ago I stumbled across Uncylopedia's article on "Universe: The Musical", to be specific, the Creationist version, where the history of the universe is scaled down to about 6000 years of history (starting around 4004 BC and ending at 2000). The idea of representing the history of Earth in thousands of years really intrigued me, and thus I decided to create my own chronology. However, unlike "Creation: The Musical", I started with Earth's formation, and the 'Present Day' is represented as 1950, which is defined as the present year in the 'Before Present' epoch. I would like to have two versions of this, one with a 'lite' history cribbed from Wikipedia's Timeline of Evolution, and a more detailed version based on Scientific Physic's Geologic and Biological Timeline of the Earth.

(Note, each 'scale' year is about 755 795 actual years and 1 'day' is actually 2070 years)

Spoiler Lite Version :

4004 BC: Formation of the Earth
3077 BC: Formation of Simple Cells
2019 BC: Creation of photosynthesis
696 BC: Evolution of multicellular life
1157 AD: Simple animals appear
1196 AD: Anthropods evolve
1223 AD: Complex animals evolve
1289 AD: Earliest fish and proto-amphibians
1322 AD: Earliest land plants
1421 AD: Earliest insects and sees
1474 AD: Evolution of Amphibians
1554 AD: Evolution of Amphibians
1686 AD: Evolution of Mammals
1752 AD: First birds
1778 AD: Earliest flowers begin to bloom
1864 AD: K-T Extinction
1947 AD: Proto-humans evolve
September 12th, 1949: Modern humans
December 20th, 1949: Extinction of neanderthals

 

[LightSpectra]

Even if you did take various books in the Hebrew Bible as literally as possible (which isn't something you're supposed to do, by the way, for reasons belonging to common sense, internal to the text, and historical theological development), the calculations that put the earth at being created in 4004 BC is based off of some rather subjective premises and dubious reasoning. The person we have to thank for this is the Anglican bishop James Ussher, who published his textual research in 1654. Most people aren't aware that while the Bible was his primary source, he was also going out of his way to make sure the dates fit contemporary scientific opinions; given that the fields of geology and archaeology were very primitive in this century, it was widely believed the earth was about 6,000 years old, so Ussher carefully interpreted Biblical passages in order to have it conform to this paradigm.

So essentially what you're doing in this thread is taking somebody's wrong correspondence of a misunderstood Biblical interpretation to geological theory, and then trying to post-facto legitimize the original misunderstandings by making it an allegory in its own right.

To this day, people are still going out of their way to interpret the Bible to arrive at the 4.54 billion year mark, which is missing the point of why the Hebrew Bible exists in the first place. Attempting to correspond Biblical allegory to the stages of the universe's development is, except maybe for solely recreational purposes, silly.

 

[Plotinus]

Ussher's chronology became very widely known simply because, in the eighteenth century, it became customary to print Bibles with his dates in the margin showing when all the events happened. I don't know why Ussher's dates were chosen, but there were plenty of other chronologists in the early modern period making their own calculations and coming up with different dates for all the biblical events, including creation.

Still, I don't really see the value of representing the actual history of the Earth scaled down to begin in 4004 BC. What does this achieve?

 

[Leoreth]

So basically people who question the current scientific consensus are relying on numbers that were specifically designed to support an earlier scientific consensus? Good to know.

 

[Plotinus]

So basically people who question the current scientific consensus are relying on numbers that were specifically designed to support an earlier scientific consensus? Good to know.

I don't think modern young earth creationists rely upon Ussher's figures or indeed appeal to them particularly. Not that I follow such stuff, of course.

 

[Graceheart the Leopard]

To be honest, I just thought it would be a neat thought experiment that I wanted to share. I only did this again so I could have something to do at 2 AM.

 

[History_Buff]

Still, I don't really see the value of representing the actual history of the Earth scaled down to begin in 4004 BC. What does this achieve?

I think it's a pretty good tool for demonstrating just how young humanity as a species is.

 

[CELTICEMPIRE]

I don't think modern young earth creationists rely upon Ussher's figures or indeed appeal to them particularly. Not that I follow such stuff, of course.

I prefer an old Jewish prediction that put creation at about 5555 BC.