October 22, 2004

Happy 6,000th birthday, Universe?

British geologists are celebrating the 6,000th anniversary of the birth of the universe today.

At 6pm tonight at the Geological Society of London, scientists will raise their glasses to James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, who in 1650 used the chronology of the Bible to calculate the precise date and moment of creation.

Working from the book of Genesis, and risking some speculation on the Hebrew calendar, he calculated that it began at 6pm on Saturday October 22, 4004 BC.

Actually, he put the date at October 23, and then pedantically realised that time must have begun the night before, because the Bible said that "the evening and the morning were the first day."

Of course that takes the Biblical description literally as opposed to allegorically, as many people believe.

One thing that this does not take into account, is that 6,000 years after 4004 BC is actually 1997AD -- seven years ago.

Posted by mhking at October 22, 2004 04:05 PM
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