Every day brings a new story. And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books
Today is the story of January 4th
___________________________________________________________________________
It is the fourth day of the year, leaving 361 days remaining in 2023.
On this date in 1581, Bishop James Ussher was born in Dublin.
He did so by taking some of the actual events in the Bible, marking their dates, and creating a timeline from other events mentioned in the Bible and the genealogy of people named.
His work showed that God began creation on Oct. 22, 4004 B.C. It started just before nightfall, he said in his works on the topic, Annales veteris testamenti, a prima mundi origine deducti, and its followup, Annalium pars posterior. The volumes were published in 1650 and 1654.
He was by no means the first and only man to dedicate part of his life to the issue of when creation started. Many others during his time were struggling with the concept, including several who proposed alternate birthdays for the Earth.
But perhaps because Ussher was the Primate of the Church of Ireland -- the Anglican leader in England's then-colony of Ireland -- his date was considered most godly. Indeed, it was widely accepted to be accurate, at least in the Western World, well into the 19th Century.
Even today, "young-earth creationists" accept his work as Biblically inspired, and as a basis for the belief that the Earth is merely 6,000 years old (6,026 years old as of today, if you don't count the year zero).
That, of course, flies in the face of scientific research and discovery showing the universe to be some 13.7 billion years old. This age has been confirmed in many ways, including by the James Webb Space Telescope, which can actually see that far back in time.
And in this chronology, the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old.
No comments:
Post a Comment