Comments on: Happy Belated Birthday

By: The Watcher

The Watcher — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 05:04:24 +0000

“Of course, there will be those who disagree with Ussher’s calculations of time — especially evolutionists who need billions of years to explain their theory of how life sprang from non-life and mutated from one-celled animals into human beings.”

Or, flipped around, there will be those who disagree with the modern scientific consensus — especially fundies who need to believe that the Earth is only 6,000 years old because it says so in the Bible, despite any reliable evidence.

By: Ron Britton

Ron Britton — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 06:40:05 +0000

Ferin:

If I understand the article correctly, Ussher did get the correct date for the autumnal equinox. He consulted astronomical tables calculated by Kepler.

The reason it has shifted by about a month is because there was a lot of monkeying with the calendar in the old days. Is the date that we honor as the date he calculated really supposed to be Oct. 23? I don’t know. I guess we need to adjust for one or more of those calendar changes. It probably does belong in September, and we’re all reporting it wrong.

By: Ron Britton

Ron Britton — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 05:06:31 +0000

Obviously it was supposed to be "brainless". I've been writing some of these articles really late at night, and mistakes creep in.

By: Ferin

Ferin — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 04:24:20 +0000

Um, the autumnal equinox is in September.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox

By: sil-chan

sil-chan — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 02:21:29 +0000

For life is quite absurd
And death’s the final word,
you must always face the curtain with a bow…
Forget about your sin
give the audience a grin
enjoy it it’s your last chance anyhow

By: Jr.

Jr. — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:47:40 +0000

Happy Birthday, Earth! Sorry for all the crap we keep doing to you.

I like the “Brianless” subheading too.

By: jesse

jesse — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 18:10:31 +0000

Pssst, the first subheading says “Enter the Brianless” which is pretty funny, if not intentionally so

By: Ron Britton

Ron Britton — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:08:26 +0000

These people believe that each “day” of creation is literally 24 hours. I’m guessing that Ussher is counting backward in 24-hour blocks for the period without a sun. But of course he did say that the beginning was at “nightfall”, so how is that even possible?

The Bible actually does refer to a flat Earth, but by Ussher’s time, everybody knew that the world was round. I’m guessing that his date is relative to wherever the Garden of Eden was.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:50:07 +0000

One thing you might like to consider. How could creation start on October 23? After all we use a solar calender. We use the months to signify where we are in our orbit around the sun. But if the sun was only created on the fourth day then how could there have been any date at all?

And another bit of trivia. Since the Earth is a sphere October 23 in good old Ireland would be October 24 in Australia. So saying that the absolute date for creation was October 23 seems to imply that the world is flat. Either that or Ussher didn’t understand about diurnal measurement on a sphere.