Creation

The acronyms ad (anno domini) or ce (common era) refer to the time since the birth of Christ. Before this there were billions of years.

Present estimates put the age of the earth at 4.54 billion years, plus or minus 45 million. The universe may be around 13.7 billion years old.

The major reason I believe in creation-science and don't believe in evolution is because I know and have been created by the maker of all things, who has spoken and stated how the universe and everything in it came to be. Secondly, as one would expect if this was an empirically correct view there is not one scientific fact, correctly understood, which contradicts this. Three proven scientific laws point clearly to a creator in a positive way. 1. The Law of Biogenesis - life only comes from life. Science has proven that life cannot and does not arise spontaneously from whatever conditions one cares to imagine. 2 and 3. The first and second laws of thermodynamics point clearly to a creator, since things decay rather than get more orderly over time (although of course the total discussion is much more complex). Modern Genetics also points to a creator, since no genetic code can be demonstrated to have arisen by chance, together with the ability to read that code. Information does not arise spontaneously - and there is an incredible amount of information in even the tiniest cell. Scientific studies also suggest strongly that the earth cannot be anywhere near as old as evolution requires and is in fact 'young.' Why evolution is not the best explanation? Because in order to have evolution, something had to change. And at the beginning there was nothing. So, what did change? If you change nothing, you will get nothing.

Answer From someone who believes BOTH: Darwin has explained pretty well the evolution of species up to a point. However if one follows the path "Species 1" -> "Species 2" -> "Species 3" through the evolution line, it is quite possible to ask "From what did everything begun"? Or even to ask "OK, but why do the evolution rules exist and apply? Who/what put them in motion?". The evolution theory does not have answers to that. There comes into play the theories about the "First cause" and so on. So in that perspective, I believe both theories are true in their perspective.

Answer: Even Evolutionists Have Problems Regarding Long-Age Dating Methods 'The age of our globe is presently thought to be some 4.5 billion years, based on radiodecay rates of uranium and thorium. Such "confirmation" may be short-lived as nature is not to be discovered quite so easily. There has been in recent years the realization that radiodecay rates are not as constant as previously thought, nor are they immune to environmental influences. And this could mean that the atomic clocks are reset during some global disaster, and events which brought the Mesozoic to a close may not be 65 million years ago but rather, within the age and memory of man.' Frederic B. Jueneman, FAIC, 'Secular catastrophism'. Industrial Research and Development, June 1982, p.21. 'All the above methods for dating the age of the earth, its various strata, and its fossils are questionable because the rates are likely to have fluctuated widely over earth's history. A method that appears to have much greater reliability for determining absolute ages of rocks is that of radiometric dating.'.... 'It is obvious that radiometric techniques may not be the absolute dating methods that they are claimed to be. Age-estimates on a given geological stratum by different radiometric methods are often quite different (sometimes by hundreds of millions of years). There is no absolutely reliable long-term radiological "clock." The uncertainties inherent in radiometric dating are disturbing to geologists and evolutionists....". William D. Stansfield, Ph.D. (Instructor of Biology, California Polytechnic State University) in The Science of Evolution, Macmillan, New York, 1977, pp.82 and 84. 'In conventional interpretation of K-Ar age data, it is common to discard ages which are substantially too high or to low compared with the rest of the group or with other available data such as the geologic time scale. The discrepancies between the rejected and the accepted are arbitrarily attributed to excess or loss of argon.' A. Hayatsu (Department of Geophysics, University of Western Ontario, Canada), 'K-Ar isochron age of the North Mountain Basalt, Nova Scotia'. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, vol. 16, 1979, p.974. 'Thus, if one believes that the derived ages in particular instances are in gross disagreement with established facts of field geology, he must conjure up geological processes that could cause anomalous or altered argon contents of the minerals.' Prof. J. F. Evernden (Department of Geology, University of California, Berkeley, USA) and Dr. John R. Richards (Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra), 'Potassium-argon ages in eastern Australia'. Journal of the Geological Society of Australia, vol. 9 (1), 1962, p.3. Regarding the rubidium/strontium (Rb/Sr) method:

'These results indicate that even total-rock systems may be open during metamorphism and may have their isotopic systems changed, making it impossible to determine their geologic age.' Prof. Gunter Faure (Department of Geology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA) and Prof. James L. Powell (Department of Geology, Oberlin College, Ohio, USA) in Strontium Isotope Geology, Springer-Verlag, Berlin and New York, 1972, p.102. 'One serious consequence of the mantle isochron model is that crystallization ages determined on basic igneous rocks by the Rb-Sr whole rock technique can be greater than the true age by many hundreds of millions of years. This problem of inherited age is more serious for younger rocks, and there are well-documented instances of conflicts between stratigraphic age and Rb-Sr age in the literature.' Dr. C. Brooks (Professor of Geology, University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada), Dr. D. E. James (Staff Member in geophysics and geochemistry, Carnegie Institution of Washington D.C., USA) and Dr. S. R. Hart (Professor of Geochemistry, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA), 'Ancient lithosphere: its role in young continental vulcanism'. Science, vol. 193, 17 September 1976, p. 1093. The age of the Earth is only relevant to this question, if it is too short to permit evolution, or too long to support Young Earth creationism, which is based on a literal or semi-literal reading of the Bible. And the age of the Earth is entirely irrelevant to Old Earth creationism, since the advocates of this position are quite happy to argue their position in the light of the earth being 4.5 billion years old. The Theory of Evolution requires the Earth to be at least a few million years old. It does not require the world to be 4.5 billion years old. So, even with the unproven assumption that the rates of radioactive decay have altered dramatically over the eons, this is irrelevant to the possibility of evolution having occurred. A literal reading of the Bible requires to world to be around 6 thousand years old. No discussion of rates of radioactive decay can plausibly shoehorn the geological evidence into six thousand years. Even a semi-literal reading of the Bible, supposing for example that one biblical creation day was really one thousand years, makes no material difference. Young Earth creationism can not use scientific data to prove its point. I therefore accept that evolution of life has occurred. The following are some of the scientific arguments used by young earth creationists. Sometimes the arguments do not explicitly point to the Biblical age used by creationists of 6000-10,000 years but they are also much younger than evolutionary ages allow and are a much bigger problem for the theory of evolution than creation. In many cases the data (most of it researched and published by evolutionist scientists) points to an earth or universe which is not even millions of years old.

1. Rapid Disintegration of Comets: means they cannot be 5 billion years old or they wouldn't exist. Around 100,000 years is postulated as a maximum.

2. Insufficient sea-floor sediment: At current rates of erosion the amount of sea-floor sediments actually found could accumulate in 12 million years. The oceans are alleged to have existed for 3 billion years.

Creationists contend these sediments could have accumulated rapidly at the flood of Noah c. 5000 years ago.

3. Insufficent Sodium Chloride in the sea:Evolutionary estimates for the age of the earth's oceans are 3 billion years. With current rates of deposition, the salt in the sea could have accumulated in 42-62 million years at today's rate and of course much faster in the Noahic flood.

Note: Calculations done for many other elements produce even younger ages.

4. Decay of the magnetic field of the Earth:This is occurring too rapidly to fit the long-age evolutionary paradigm - the total energy stored having decreased by a factor of 2.7 over the past 1000 years. Creationists have a model explaining this based on sound physics.

5. Tightly bent strata: These stata, thousands of feet thick are tightly bent without cracking. Yet they are meant to have solidified over millions of years and then bent. The creationist explanation is that they formed while still plastic as the entire formation had to be soft when formed to avoid cracking. This would point to the folding having occurred thousands of years and not millions after formation.

6. Fossil Radioactivity: Radiohaloes which have shown evidence of having been squashed indicate that the Jurassic, Triassic and Eocene formations in the Colorado plateau were formed in a short time-frame - over months, not hundreds of millions of years. This is so since the rings formed by the haloes, which only exist for a short time before they decay were squashed, indicating rapid formation. If the rocks had formed over a long time span the haloes would not have been there.

7. Misplaced Helium: Helium is generated by radioactive elements as they decay. The escape of this Helium into the atmosphere can be measured. If this has been occurring for 5 billion years there should be much more Helium in the atmosphere, instead of the 0.05% that is actually there when compared to the relevant time scale.

8. Insufficient stone-age skeletons: The 100,000 year stone-age of evolutionary anthropologists should have produced many more skeletons - around 4 billion, many more of which should still be around compared to the few thousand found.

9. Recent Agriculture: The archeological evidence shows the stone age people to be as intelligent as modern man and yet it is claimed they existed for 100,000 years before discovering that plants grow from seeds. Creationists would think that it is more likely that man was without agriculture for a much shorter period immediately after the flood.

10. History too short: Stone-age people built huge monuments, did beautiful cave paintings and kept records of lunar phases. It seems unreasonable that they should wait nearly 100,000 years before beginning to make written historical records around 4-5000 BC. A much shorter Biblical time-scale seems to better fit this evidence.

Source: These points are condensed from an article by creationist Dr. Russel Humphreys, in Creation Ex Nihilo 13 (3): 28-31, June -August 1991.

The footnotes to this article contain the relevant scientific data relating to the points made. This will be posted as a link for those wishing to check the data or inquire further.

These are not the only arguments used by creationists, but are a sample of some.

Other arguments include:

11. Saturn's Rings are aged much less than claimed by evolutionary theory: This is based on relatively recent observations which show a decay rate of the rings which would mean that they would not still exist if the universe were as old as claimed by evolutionary theory. 12. Processes thought to take a long period of time can take a short time given the right conditions: Among the list of such processes includes the following:

Coal and Oil formation. Opal formation. Stalactites and Stalagmites in Limestone and other caves.

Diamonds

General Geologic processes are not always slow and gradual but sometimes catastrophic in nature Some Examples of Rapid Geologic Processes. The long-accepted dogma taught by Charles Lyell that geologic processes always take vast amounts of time is being challenged by recent discoveries in science.

The following are now accepted as having formed catastrophically in a relatively short period of time:

- a major portion of Washington State

- the Snake River Plain of Idaho

- the Altai region of Southern Siberia

- the Black Sea basin

- the upper Mississippi River Valley

- the Hudson River Valley including New York City

- Wyoming's Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

- Owen's River Gorge in California

- the Great Lakes/S. Lawrence River drainage basin

- the English Channel and Dover Straits (the most recently discovered addition to this list)

Scientists who are not creationists of any kind are now openly talking about catastrophism of a major kind in shaping some of these vast areas. Diamonds, Coal and Opals These have all been demonstrated as not requiring millions of years to form. They can all be formed quite quickly under the right conditions.

Further To The Age Issue:

Evolution has been likened to a salesman who made a loss on every sale and assumed by increasing his volume he could still make a profit. No length of time, whether billions or as little as millions (no scientist who believes in evolution thinks the earth and universe can be that young) can account for a process which shows a net loss when operating. I am here talking about the modern science of genetics which does not at all support the 'uphill' development of organisms but shows an accumulation over time of harmful mutations. In other words science shows that our genes are deteriorating not 'improving'. The changes required by evolution to work are all in the wrong direction.

The 'age of the earth' issue only serves to highlight that the vast ages supposed by evolutionists to be necessary to make it 'work' are in fact illusory, as shown by evolutionists themselves. In any case, regardless of the amount of time involved it is not shown by science to work, but rather science shows the reverse.

Thus there are good reasons not to believe in evolution. Conversely, science shows precisely what is predicted under the creation model. Data consistently comes in much younger than expected and many of the older ages can be explained under the flood model, where undoubtedly a number of geologic processes were much more rapid. Actually, neither Evolution nor Creation has any real scientific proof-- they are both matters of faith (even though evolutionists believe that their is no such thing as faith). Was anyone who is around now on the earth there when it happened? Then you can't say that what you believe is really scientific. The reason they call it, "Missing Link," is because it is still missing-- they still can't find any human-ape bones. However, there are things, such as the amount of dust on the moon and ocean floor sediment that suggest that it could not possibly be millions of years old.

Answer The answer is really quite easy to find. Find the nearest human being to you, someone you can watch closely for a while. Study him or her for a few weeks. Then ask yourself what you believe. If you decide you believe in creation science I take it to mean that you believe God created man. Do you actually believe there could be a "superior being" idiotic enough to create the collection of idiots who populate the human race? Most Christians, for example. We have a God who sent Moses to convey his Ten Commandments. One of those commandments is Do Not Kill. Not, Do Not Kill Unless You have Sufficient Justification..., but simply Do Not Kill. And the God who made that commandment is the very God we say we worship, as we go out there and kill people in our wars. If there is a God, he created evolution, and He's up there pacing in heaven right now, waiting with Godly patience I believe,for the Thankful Day man finally evolves into the lowly status of extinction. Why? Because even the people who pretend to worship Him won't keep His commandments.

Answer None of the evolution process is proven. Also, a dog is still a dog no matter if it's a golden retriever or a wolf.

Christians believe that God created the world out of nothing in a seven day time. (There is debate over if these are real 24-hour periods or just ammounts of time.) These are the days of creation as taken from the NIV version of the Bible:

3And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning-the first day.

6And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning-the second day.

9And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.

11Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13And there was evening, and there was morning-the third day.

14And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16God made two great lights-the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19And there was evening, and there was morning-the fourth day.

20And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23And there was evening, and there was morning-the fifth day.

24And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

26Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth,b and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

27So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

28God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

29Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

31God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the sixth day

(On the seventh day God rested.)

Many Christians believe that the world was created ex nihilo by God around 6,000 years ago. However, this is not supported by science, nor is the belief strictly in accordance with the Bible.

Until the early centuries of Christianity, Christians based their beliefs more literally on the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament, but these beliefs are less commonly held today. Because there are two creation stories in Genesis: (1) verses 1:1 to 2:4a; (2) 2:4b to 2:22, Christianity generally preferred the version in Genesis 1:1 to 2:4a for its understanding of the creation of the world in six days. However, Christianity does use the second story for its literal understanding of the creation of Adam.

The first of these (1:1-2:4a) is recognised by scholars as the work of the Priestly (P) source, based on a Mesopotamian mythe encountered by the Jews in Babylon. So, the creation account that has the world created in six days, which every Christian learns as a child, did not even exist prior to the sixth century BCE. A summary follows, in order to show that there really are two creation accounts in Genesis: In Genesis 1:1 to 2:4a ( up to first sentence of 2:4) there was a pre-existing watery chaos. The ocean was already present and a wind moved across the surface. The seas rested on the dry land, which appeared on day 3 when God gathered the waters together. The order of creation was as follows: (Day 1) light [day]; (2) the firmament, which was believed to separate the waters of the heavens from the lower waters; (3) By gathering the lower waters in one place the land appeared. Grasses and trees; (4) sun; moon and stars - the lights in the firmament; (5) fish, land creatures and fowl; (6) man, both male and female. Notice that the light of day was not yet understood to have originated from the sun, although the sun was universally understood to rule the day. That is why it was possible to have grass and trees before the sun was created.

Genesis 2:4b to 2:15 says that there was pre-existing dry land, but God had yet to make it rain for plants to grow. A spring arose and God took some moist clay and made Adam. After Adam, he made the creatures of earth, one by one, then finally Eve. This account could scarcely be different from the previous version.

Some Christians hold to what they regard as a literal reading of the Bible, with the world and all life on it created just 6000 years ago, while others seek to accommodate the biblical stories within a much longer timeframe. Finally, some Christians who acknowledge that the world is far older than stated in the biblical account accept that it was formed by natural processes. Many see a compromise between science and religion and hold to "theistic evolution" as the explanation for the world we live in.

For a more detailed explanation of different views, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

Day by day, God created the universe and everything in it (Genesis ch.1).God created the universe out of nothing (Exodus 20:11, Isaiah 40:28; Rashi commentary to Genesis 1:14; Maimonides' "Guide," 2:30). Note that the Torah, in describing the Creation, deliberately employs brevity and ellipsis, just as it does in many other topics. See the Talmud, Hagigah 11b.

• On day 1: God created the universe in general, light, and this Earth. The light was not the same as that of the sun. Rather, it was light that God created before the sun, and which emanated from a point in space without any physical source; like what we might term a "white hole."
  
• On day 2: God created the separation between the Earth and the upper atmosphere.
  
• On day 3: God separated the continents from the oceans, and created plants.
  
• On day 4: God created the sun, moon, and stars.
  
• On day 5: God created birds and fish.
  
• On day 6: God created animals and people.
  
• On day 7: God ceased creating, thereby creating the concept of rest.
  

See also:

Is there evidence of Creation?

Can you show that God exists?

Seeing God's wisdom

The following meaning of Rodney comes from "Behind the Name." The meaning is different from the one you have indicated.

RODNEY

Gender: Masculine

Usage: English

Pronounced: RAHD-nee

From a surname which was originally derived from a place name meaning "Hroda's island" in Old English. Hroda is a Germanic name meaning "fame".

Source: http://www.behindthename.com/name/rodney

Before the earth got here, there had to be a universe - the stars and the sun, around which our world revolves. The universe is considered to have started with a "Big Bang", when a single primordal point of matter and energy exploded, eventually expanding to form the universe as we know it. Science tells us that the Earth was then formed from hot gases around the Sun. Present estimates put the age of the earth at 4.54 billion years, plus or minus 45 million years.

Of course, this scientific explanation differs from theological views on creation, which can be reviewed at: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

The Old Testament

Noah And Ham

Genesis 9:21 - 27 (KJV) And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

Sodom

The Violence Of Homosexuals

Genesis 19:4 - 11 (KJV) But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, and said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

Nakedness

Leviticus 18:22 (KJV) Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

Leviticus 18:26 (KJV) Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:

Leviticus 18:29 (KJV) For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.

Homosexuality

Leviticus 20:13 (KJV) If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

The Homosexuals At Gibeah

Judges Chapter 19

Judges 19:22 (KJV) Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.

Judges 19:23 (KJV) And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly.

Judges Chapter 20

The New Testament

God Gave Them Up To Vile Affections

Romans 1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

Romans 1:27 (KJV) And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

Romans 1:31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

Romans 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, THAT THEY WHICH COMMIT SUCH THINGS ARE WORTHY OF DEATH, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Leviticus 18:22

Leviticus 23:17

Leviticus 23:18

Kings 14:24

Those are only a few. You'll have to look those up yourself because WikiAnswers deems some of the words in the passages obscene.