World Religions and the age of the earth

This is a very simple and straightforward thread.I am vague on what position other religions (besides the "big three") take on the age of the earth.Do Hindus think that the earth is 6000 years old? Do they care?What about Buddists?* This is not a thread to debate the rightness or wrongness of a religious worldview but rather to establish general outlook. I am hope more for an exchange of information rather than a heated debate.This message has been edited by Charles Knight, 11-02-2004 11:11 AM

Thread moved here from the Proposed New Topics forum.

I forget how old the Hindu system thinks it is, but I do recall they believe it's a lot older than what scientific dating gives us. I don't know how many Hindu's really care about that though there are a few who do.Buddhism might have a time line similiar to the Hindu but I would guess very few Buddhists actually care what the age is determined to be.lfen

Don't quote me on this, but I think both Buddhists and Hindies believe that the world is a lot older than 6000 years for one reason. According to their theology, heaven's (where the gods live) time run a lot slower than earth's. In other words, a minute in heaven time is like a year in earth time.

I'm pretty sure that Hindus beleive that the world is older than the scientific account, and the humans have been around for almost all that time. (Weirdly enough a dubious book written to support a fundamentalist view is quite often quoted by YECs- Forbidden Archaeology by Cremo and Thompson, I think).Buddhism is not that sort of religion. I'm all but certain that there is no set Buddhist teaching on that front. It is possible that groups within Buddhism will have their own ideas, but they'll come from somewhere other than Buddhism.

I'm in one of the "big three" but FYI Islam does not specify a certain age of the earth or universe.

Hinduism is the world's third largest religion, doesn't that make them one of the 'big three'?

No....it's makes them one of the big four doesn't it?

Well the world's biggest three religions are Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. I'd say that makes Hinduism one of the 'big three' of religions.

hum the winky smiley never appeared - but I entirely take your point.

Ah, the tale of the missing smiley. God damn the internet and it's inability to convey subtelty of meaning!

Actually it DID appear - I clicked the wrong smile button (you can see it in the message header).

Go toScienceWorldThere is a list of about 12 or so ancient calendars and time keeping methods somewhere on there.If I remember right the Chinese, Hebrew, Incan, and Mayan calendars have year 0 somewhere around 5000-7000 years ago.

Actually, the Maya used about 15-20 different calendars, each designed for a different function. The basic calendar dates back to the beginning of their reign (similar to us using 1 AD) and points to a date about 3000 BC IIRC. They also had calendars that ran back as far as ten million years.This message has been edited by jar, 11-04-2004 08:27 PM

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