Dear Anonymous,

No time scale for events prior to the Garden of Eden experience are given in the scriptures. There are some things, however, that we can put together concerning this period. One, when the earth was created, it was created as a terrestrial sphere, and did not become a telestial word until Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit. No time line is given either for the interval between their partaking of the fruit and their expulsion from the Garden. Indications are that they were expelled from the Garden near the beginning of the first thousand years of the earth’s temporal existence, i.e. ~4000 B.C.

Prehistoric time measurement is to be held in question. One of the reasons for this is that all scientific conclusions are based on certain assumptions that are not called into question. These are the “givens” and form the foundation for the structure of the logic upon which the conclusions are based. They are called a priori assumptions.

Let’s examine a few of them upon which scientific time lines are based. The principle assumption is that the earth has had a benign history. That is, that the processes that effect the earth’s topology that are prominent in today’s scientific thinking, i.e., wind, rain, freezing and thawing, imperceptivity slow drift of the tectonic plates and continental uplift, have always been the major influences changing the earth, and have always occurred at the same rate that they do today. This theory is called “uniformitarianism.”

An opposing theory suggests that the earth has had a cataclysmic history, i.e., that the surface of the earth as been abruptly changed by great cataclysmic events, such as major volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, and impacts by space debris.

Up until the time of Sir Isaac Newton the cataclysmic theory held sway, and Newton was one of its proponents. However, in an epic debate on the subject, the uniformitarianism theory won the day, and has been accepted by the scientific world ever since. However, there is some scriptural information, and writings by the Brethren, in addition to a preponderance of rather recently discovered information about the history of the earth that strongly supports the cataclysmic theory.

From the scriptures— The universal flood that occurred in 2348 B.C. according to the English Bible, (various sources date the flood anywhere from 2288 to 3246 B.C.); and the division of the earth in the days of Peleg, who was born in 2247 B.C. and lived for 239 years.

From the writings of the prophets— Brigham Young made this very interesting statement about the history of the earth in 1874,