Does the Bible say the Earth was created in 6 days, 6000 years ago?

hi integral,Yes i've also come to appreciate this point about genesisthose opening words are merely a title..the title being 'in the beginning, God created the heavens and earth' (basically Moses is identifying his God as the creator of all things)then vs two suggests that the earth was standing as part of the universe for it says so clearly, water deep was already there, as was the darkness upon its surface so the account is not describing God as actually making the planet, rather its describing him preparing the planet for habitation.

you will also notice that no other ancient creation accounts describe the order of earths creationAn existing Planet
Atmosphere Created
Dry Land Bought Forth
Sea Creatures Created
Flying Creatures Created
Vegetation created
Land Animals Created
Mammals Created
Mankind Createdyou wont find another creation account as believable as this one

one thing is the order of eventsatmosphere- land - sea creatures - flying creatures - vegetation - land animals - mani believe that sits pretty well with current scientific knowledge ... pretty amazing that an ancient could have got this order of events even partially correctand he doesnt have any of those crazy gods stories like one who fought with his wife and used part of her body to create the sea and another to create the land and then when they had a child, that childs tears dripped onto a leaf that turned into a human

in a thick atmosphere, the light from the sun could have reached the earth without the sun being visible. Just like on an overcast day, there is still light coming through but no sun. there is nothing unscientific about that.the next day is the 2nd day in which it is said that an 'expanse' is made between the 'waters above and the waters below' this same expanse is later said to be where the flying creatures fly, therefore, the primitive atmosphere was a lot thicker and its logical that the light from the sun came thru it graduallyphotosynthesis happens where there is no direct sunlight...there are plenty of shade loving plants that thrive where there is no sun, and just look in a rainforest...the lushest undergrowth comes from plants that NEVER see the sunand finally, in the first instance of Genesis the expression 'let light come to be' uses a hebrew word which means 'general light'but in the second instance when its talking about the sun and moon coming to be, it uses a different hebrew word which means 'source of light'this tells us that the initial light was coming from the sources of light, but not directly so because the atmosphere was so overcast...but once that all cleared, then the sources of light could be seen in the sky.

thanks for that brian,
its true there are some horrible tales in the biblethe bible doesnt shy away from telling of the faults and crimes of the people. That in itself is evidence to me that they really are inspired by God. Nor do the writers hold back from recording their punishments by God when they had gone astray.but lets be honest, im sure we can read even more horror stories in the daily paper.

hey kuresu,i've read a lot of information to the contrary, this is what confuses me about evolutionary science....there are sooooo many different opinions The Book of Popular Science says: “From [earliest] times down to the present, the perpetual process of building and destroying mountains has continued. ... Not only have mountains originated from the bottom of vanished seas, but they have often been submerged long after their formation, and then re-elevated.”The New Encyclopædia Britannica says: “The average depth of all the seas has been estimated at 3,790 metres (12,430feet), a figure considerably larger than that of the average elevation of the land above the sea level, which is 840 metres (2,760feet). If the average depth is multiplied by its respective surface area, the volume of the World Ocean is 11 times the volume of the land above sea level.”14 So, if everything were leveled out”if the mountains were flattened and the deep sea basins filled in”the sea would cover the whole earth to a depth of thousands of meters.

that atmosphere wasnt in Adams day... i dont believe the bible is talking about a literal 6 days of creationthe hebrew word translated 'day' in english, means 'period of time' ... the development of the earth for habitation would have been a long long process... we know that dinosaurs existed for instance and they died out millions of years before mankind came alongthey would have been created in the 'day' or period of time where the sea monsters and land animals were created If only we could all speak ancient hebrewthankfully, there are people who actually can....these are the ones why we do well to get our information from

it was a simple way to explain the end of the creative period, when the sun rises again, a new day begins, its a new daythis is how moses wrote so that the people could understandAlso, an interesting point is the fact that the 7th creative 'day' did not finsih with "there came to be evening and their came to be morning"it just finishes with "and there came to be evening a 7th day and God proceeded to rest"more than 4,000 years after the seventh day, or God’s rest day, commenced, the Apostle Paul indicated that it was still in progress. At Hebrews 4:1-11 he referred to the earlier words of David (Ps 95:7, 8,11) and to Genesis 2:2 and urged: “Let us therefore do our utmost to enter into that rest.” By the apostle’s time, the seventh day had been continuing for thousands of years and had not yet ended.this gives proof that Moses did not have a literal 24hr period of time in mind when he wrote the account. a creative 'Day' was obviously a very long period of time.... just as the hebrew word suggests.

Moses, in keeping with the method of writing in his day, simply used this first phrase as the subject title of the writing that was to follow.the Assyrians, Babylonians & chaldeans all wrote in this same method. The first line of any tablet they wrote on, was the title of work that followed.Today, we might use just a few words to describe the chapter of a book and it is separate to the paragraph, making it clear that it is a title. Well the ancients did not do that and this is an example of it.you noticed that vs 2 said...'and the earth proved to be formless and waste...'
What we call 'verse 2' is actually the beginning of the account and it indicates that the earth was already existing. Edited by Peg, : No reason given.

you might like to ask him what the Hebrew title of the book is. You might be interested to find out that Genesis” (meaning “Origin; Birth”) is the name given to the first of these books by the Greek Septuagint, whereas its Hebrew title Bere’·shith” (In the Beginning) is taken from the first words in its opening sentence.but if he has a different answer, i'd be interested in hearing it.About vs 1, it must be taken into consideration the style of ancient writings and the way they were constructed.Moses was an ancient writer and therefore it would be pointless if we were to try and interpret his ancient style of writing as a modern style of writing,If we compare other anceint writings, (Assyrian/Babylonian) we find that the first sentence is always the title of the work to follow. It is nothing more then a 'heading' or a 'chapter title'so if we apply this rule to Moses writing, then, 'in the beginning God created the heavens and earth' is simply the name of his book.Vs 2 really is the Vs 1 which states in the king james version
'And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters'So, the earth here is already exisiting and at some point God begins to work on the earth to prepare it for habitation.

if something is formless and void, it must also be existing...otherwise how could it be described in any way? Some have called a desert region a 'barren wasteland', of course we know the land exists...its just barren/waste/void etc... words to describe its condition.you notice that the scripture says 'now the earth was formless and void.... and Gods active force was moving over the surface of the waters...'the earth was an existing planet that was formless and void of life...the preparation of the planet spanned eons of time and each 'creative day' or 'creative period' was of unspecified lengththe beginning of each new 'day' marked the beginning of a new phase in the process of Gods works to prepare earth for habitation.

You would certainly expect it to declare the God created the heavens and earth because it was an account about the creation of them.All im saying is that we need to take in consideration the style of writing of ancient authors.
They all wrote in such fashion... just as today, all authors separate the title of each chapter from the body of text.
Chaldean Account of Genesis 1876 - George Smith - Google Booksthis link provides you an evidence of how ancient writers wrote. On page 20-21 'Each subject or series of tablet had a title, the title being formed by the first phrase or part of phrase in the subject. Thus the series of astrological tabels...bore the title "When the Gods Anu, Elu...' this being the commencement of the first tablet'Why would we not apply ancient styles of writing to Moses work, but apply it to all other ancient texts???

and yet the 7th day, the day God proceeded to rest, does not end with 'and it came to be evening and morning' as in the case of each of the preceding five days, indicating that it continued. (Ge 2:1-3)more than 4,000 years after the seventh day, or God’s rest day, Paul indicated that it was still in progress at Hebrews 4has anybody ever considered this point?

taps foot whilst waiting for someone to tackle the dilema over why the 7th day is not spoken of as coming to and end'and there came to be evening and there came to be morning a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th day'.... but no 7th dayGen 2:2 '2And by the seventh day God came to the completion of his work that he had made, and he proceeded to rest on the seventh day from all his work that he had made. 3And God proceeded to bless the seventh day and make it sacred, because on it he has been resting from all his work that God has created for the purpose of making.'why doesnt the 7th day come to an end???anyone???

the point is that many claim that the 'days' of genesis are literally 24hrs in lengtheach creative day ends with 'and there came to be evening and there came to be morning'but this statement does not appear for the 7th day. However the Apostle Paul says 4,000 years later that the 7th day was still in progress and christians had the opportunity to 'enter into Gods rest day'so, how can it be deducted that the genesis 'days' are literally 24hours long in light of these facts?