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Gramps, I have had numerous people ask me about the Dinosaur bones and the age of the earth. I am not sure what book I read, I think Gospel Doctrine, but it stated the earth as being only 5000 to 6000 years old. If so, how can bones be found that date back millions of years? I have been told that the earth was created from existing matter that had the bones in it. Any ideas on how to answer this question? Thanks nknight @uswest |
Dear nknight,
There reference to 6,000 years is not the age at which the earth was created,
but the time since it was transformed from a terrestrial to a telestial kingdom,
which took place at the fall of Adam. No chronological data is given in the
scriptures concerning the age of the earth. We have no information on how long
Adam and Eve and the plants and animals lived on the earth prior to its
transformation into a telestial kingdom. However, we do know that death was not
introduced in the earth until after the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the
Garden of Eden. There are two factors that throw into question geological and
anthropological dating estimates. One: Those estimates are all based on the
theory that the earth has had a benign history, the earth's present state has
been achieved as the result of very gradual aging processes--erosion from wind,
water, freezing and thawing, and from the gradual continental uplift from
internal pressures. It apparent, even to the casual observer, that the earth has
not had a benign history, but rather, a very catastrophic one where major
changes in topography have occurred as a result of cataclysmic events. Carbon
dating, which is accurate to only a few thousand years, presupposes a consistent
fraction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and a constant ratio of the
radioactive carbon 14 to the stable carbon 12. These factors could be affected
by major volcanic upheavals and by the near passage of relatively large
astronomical bodies in which there could have been exchange of material between
the earth and the passing body. But apart from all that, factor number Two:
Brigham Young reveals that before the fall of Adam the earth was not a member of
this solar system, that it preciously existed near the throne of God, and when
Adam fell the earth was brought into this solar system-- "This earth is our
home, it was framed expressly for the habitation of those who are faithful to
God, and who prove themselves worthy to inherit the earth when the Lord shall
have sanctified, purified and glorified it and brought it back into his
presence, from which it fell far into space . . . When the earth was
framed and brought into existence and man was placed upon it, it was near the
throne of our Father in heaven. And when man fell . . . the earth fell into
space, and took up its abode in this planetary system, and the sun became our
light. When the Lord said--"Let there be light," there was
light, for the earth was brought near the sun that it might reflect upon it so
as to give us light by day, and the moon to give us light by night. This
is the glory the earth came from, and when it is glorified it will return again
unto the presence of the Father, and it will dwell there, and these intelligent
beings that I am looking at, if they live worthy of it, will dwell upon this
earth" (Journal of Discourses, Vol.17, p.144, Brigham Young, July 19,
1874).
So, without any knowledge of the conditions under which the earth existed prior
to about 6000 years ago, there is no way for scientists to put a time line on
its history. This is one of the interesting questions to which we may find the
answers when we are no longer cumbered by the constraints of mortality.
Gramps