There are extensive reasons to believe that previous human civilisations reached much higher than was common in the 17th Century. Graham Hancock does a good job of going over many of these, but you will excuse me for not liking his evident Gnostic tendencies with reference to God as "the demi-urge."
One of the books I read when I was eleven was Homer's The Iliad. In it, you will find Homer's description of Aegis, the shield of Achilles, given to him by Athena. The shield has motion pictures on it. Which is odd, if you think of Homer as a bard for goat herds and crude mariners of 800 BC. But it is consistent with Plato's view that Greek civilisation was an effort to return to former glory and that a golden age, thousands of years earlier had existed. Also in The Iliad is a description of a wedding feast for which Haephaestus has built golden dancing girls out of metal - robots. There are also robotic serving carts which move from divan to divan to serve the guests of the feast.
Plato puts a number on the crash of that previous high civilisation. He says that his ancestor Solon, who was in Egypt roughly 600 BC was told by the Egyptians there that a great cataclysm had flooded the world 9,000 years earlier. So roughly 11,600 years ago. In the Critias and Timaeus, Plato calls this previous high civilisation "Atlantis." He also describes it as brutal, hierarchical, and ugly in many ways.
Graham Hancock points out that the Edfu building texts were obviously put on the walls of the Edfu temple because they were important. They describe a cataclysm that drowned an entire continent and from which the survivors came to Egypt. Hancock says these are refugees from Atlantis.
Hancock also points to "Meltwater Pulse B" which happens at the end of the Younger Dryas era roughly 11,800 years ago. At that time, based on extensive geological evidence, something like a comet hit the ocean and scarred the crust so that there was a prolonged exposure of magma. So much sea water boiled so rapidly that enormous clouds of steam went up into the sky, raising global air temperatures for about six weeks (forty days and forty nights). During that time, the Cordilleran, European, and Laurentide ice sheets melted, raising sea levels by about 400 feet.
Since today about 90% of the population lives within a hundred miles of the sea, we can imagine how few survivors were around to rebuild. The epic of Gilgamesh and the story of Noah in the Bible give similar accounts of few survivors.
God is quite clear in Genesis, the account of creation and the early days of mankind that Moses put in the Pentateuch. God flooded the world because mankind were very wicked. And God put a rainbow in the sky so people would know that God doesn't intend to flood the world again. Next time it's fire.
There are enormous monuments to some previous high civilisation, or perhaps more than one, all over the world. We know from genetic information that Minoan people sailed across the Atlantic and mined copper from the region of the Great Lakes about 4,000 years ago. And somebody, some time in the past, decided that the great big teddy-bear looking Giant Panda should be a bamboo eating vegetarian. Whoever that was didn't bother altering the DNA for its teeth, because the Giant Panda has the teeth of a carnivore even though it has no meat in its diet.
>there are excellent reasons for believing a much greater age of the universe
I recommend Netflix's "Ancient Apocalypse" with Granham Hancock for consideration about the age of human civilization. 10 years ago today I was in Peru preparing for a 5 day hike on the Inca Trail; summited Machu Picchu on June 21st/'13! My first hand observation of that site was there is likely lost/forgotten human civilizations; the Incas didn't build from scratch; they built atop of an earlier civilization's structures.
That is one difficult writing, one little jot out of place and the whole page changes not just a word.
Could it be along with many other mistranslations Where in Genesis it is written " IN the beginning". maybe it should read To begin with.
In the beginning sounds like the starting point but as you say the earth may be older than Mr. Usher speculated. Maybe it was not the absolute beginning but just the begining of the ages.
I would say that it is well not to be to certain of the work of men, such as Bishop Ussher. Some other men came up with the chronology back to the birth of Jesus. If you look at their work, apparently they think Jesus was born in the year 4 BC. Now, that makes utterly no sense. Jesus was not born 4 years "before Christ." So the men who got those figures together didn't do a very good job. There are various "scholars" who might be freemasons and therefore pushing false doctrines, who claim that "there is no evidence" for a census at the time of the birth of Jesus, but there was this census or that one, and they assert it is all misplaced. And that's only two thousand twenty-three years back. Could people have messed up their understanding of what God was saying in giving the words of the book of Genesis to Moses? I would say yes.
One of the things that Clarence Darrow said to William Jennings Bryan makes sense, to me. The Sun is not even in the sky on the first day of creation, so how long was the first day of creation? If God can make a day that is about 24 hours long, and a year that is 365.25 days long, could He make a day that is of any arbitrary length? Of course.
There's another aspect of "creation" that John writes up in his gospel, which I think is worth remembering: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
There are extensive reasons to believe that previous human civilisations reached much higher than was common in the 17th Century. Graham Hancock does a good job of going over many of these, but you will excuse me for not liking his evident Gnostic tendencies with reference to God as "the demi-urge."
One of the books I read when I was eleven was Homer's The Iliad. In it, you will find Homer's description of Aegis, the shield of Achilles, given to him by Athena. The shield has motion pictures on it. Which is odd, if you think of Homer as a bard for goat herds and crude mariners of 800 BC. But it is consistent with Plato's view that Greek civilisation was an effort to return to former glory and that a golden age, thousands of years earlier had existed. Also in The Iliad is a description of a wedding feast for which Haephaestus has built golden dancing girls out of metal - robots. There are also robotic serving carts which move from divan to divan to serve the guests of the feast.
Plato puts a number on the crash of that previous high civilisation. He says that his ancestor Solon, who was in Egypt roughly 600 BC was told by the Egyptians there that a great cataclysm had flooded the world 9,000 years earlier. So roughly 11,600 years ago. In the Critias and Timaeus, Plato calls this previous high civilisation "Atlantis." He also describes it as brutal, hierarchical, and ugly in many ways.
Graham Hancock points out that the Edfu building texts were obviously put on the walls of the Edfu temple because they were important. They describe a cataclysm that drowned an entire continent and from which the survivors came to Egypt. Hancock says these are refugees from Atlantis.
Hancock also points to "Meltwater Pulse B" which happens at the end of the Younger Dryas era roughly 11,800 years ago. At that time, based on extensive geological evidence, something like a comet hit the ocean and scarred the crust so that there was a prolonged exposure of magma. So much sea water boiled so rapidly that enormous clouds of steam went up into the sky, raising global air temperatures for about six weeks (forty days and forty nights). During that time, the Cordilleran, European, and Laurentide ice sheets melted, raising sea levels by about 400 feet.
Since today about 90% of the population lives within a hundred miles of the sea, we can imagine how few survivors were around to rebuild. The epic of Gilgamesh and the story of Noah in the Bible give similar accounts of few survivors.
God is quite clear in Genesis, the account of creation and the early days of mankind that Moses put in the Pentateuch. God flooded the world because mankind were very wicked. And God put a rainbow in the sky so people would know that God doesn't intend to flood the world again. Next time it's fire.
There are enormous monuments to some previous high civilisation, or perhaps more than one, all over the world. We know from genetic information that Minoan people sailed across the Atlantic and mined copper from the region of the Great Lakes about 4,000 years ago. And somebody, some time in the past, decided that the great big teddy-bear looking Giant Panda should be a bamboo eating vegetarian. Whoever that was didn't bother altering the DNA for its teeth, because the Giant Panda has the teeth of a carnivore even though it has no meat in its diet.
>there are excellent reasons for believing a much greater age of the universe
I recommend Netflix's "Ancient Apocalypse" with Granham Hancock for consideration about the age of human civilization. 10 years ago today I was in Peru preparing for a 5 day hike on the Inca Trail; summited Machu Picchu on June 21st/'13! My first hand observation of that site was there is likely lost/forgotten human civilizations; the Incas didn't build from scratch; they built atop of an earlier civilization's structures.
Oh my Brother,
This is NOT what I want to hear right now.
But I do hear and also see.
Have much to do and must be about my Fathers business.
Porcupine Fest next week over in NH.
Will be around.
This is like a scroll that is bitter to eat but in the belly sweet as honey.
I'll send you a .pdf of the essay. Feel free to share it with others, at the PorcFest and wherever.
The timing is in God's hands. The opportunities are many and varied, and I believe God is with us to bring us to victory.
Ya know Jim we been looking into paleo hebrew.
That is one difficult writing, one little jot out of place and the whole page changes not just a word.
Could it be along with many other mistranslations Where in Genesis it is written " IN the beginning". maybe it should read To begin with.
In the beginning sounds like the starting point but as you say the earth may be older than Mr. Usher speculated. Maybe it was not the absolute beginning but just the begining of the ages.
I would say that it is well not to be to certain of the work of men, such as Bishop Ussher. Some other men came up with the chronology back to the birth of Jesus. If you look at their work, apparently they think Jesus was born in the year 4 BC. Now, that makes utterly no sense. Jesus was not born 4 years "before Christ." So the men who got those figures together didn't do a very good job. There are various "scholars" who might be freemasons and therefore pushing false doctrines, who claim that "there is no evidence" for a census at the time of the birth of Jesus, but there was this census or that one, and they assert it is all misplaced. And that's only two thousand twenty-three years back. Could people have messed up their understanding of what God was saying in giving the words of the book of Genesis to Moses? I would say yes.
One of the things that Clarence Darrow said to William Jennings Bryan makes sense, to me. The Sun is not even in the sky on the first day of creation, so how long was the first day of creation? If God can make a day that is about 24 hours long, and a year that is 365.25 days long, could He make a day that is of any arbitrary length? Of course.
There's another aspect of "creation" that John writes up in his gospel, which I think is worth remembering: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Ha yeah that gave be a chuckle!! How can ya be born 4 years before yer born, hehehe.
That's true about the Word.
To begin with. the Word was Gods thought, it was with him it was in him it was him.
He then spoke the word and the word became creation (flesh, physical, material realm).
Then there is the idea that a day with him is like a 1000 years and 1000 years like a day.
Me thinks that what Usher was thinking 7 day week 7000 years.
4000years B.C. 2000years A.D> 1000 year rest.
All fine ideas but so many of the demonominations fight and devour one another of such things.
Good to consider and ponder things but not worth raping and pillaging over it;)
Plenty to do just in the daily ministration of life.
Quite insightful!