Where in the bible does it say that Earth is 5000 years old? I'm not saying it didn't, just curious to see what it says in particular.
It's not something taken word for word from the bible, it was worked out by men studying the bible.
James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland spent his time studying the Bible on how old the Earth is.
The main point he took was that the Old Testament describes the ages of the Patriarchs, the first men, the descendants of Adam and Eve. The Bible says how old each of these men were when they had their son.
James Ussher, using this and other dates and figures in the Bible (including the 6 days of creation, which he took as literal 24 hour days), he managed to work out the Earth to be approx. 6000 years old. (5600 years at his time of writing). More precisely he found that it started on what would have been the night before October 23rd, 4004BC
Young Earth Creationists take this figure, or similar figures that have been produced by other theologians, and conclude that the Earth is only 6k~ years old.
They assume this because it can be worked out from the dates and figures of the Bible.
They take this as truth, because Young Earth Creationists are also Fundamental Christians, and they take the Bible to be the absolute word of God, with each word being absolute truth.
Therefore Young Earth Creationists/Fundamentalists start to look at the world with one thought at the forefront of their mind: "Everything I see must be match the word of the Bible".
So, when they come in contact with something that doesn't fit too well, like say, the Grand Canyon, they see it as a problem they have to solve.
The Grand Canyon, by it's size alone, must be older than 6000 years. Science can show how quickly water can erode through all the layers of sediment in the Canyon. And it would take it a lot longer than 6000 years.
So, how do Fundamentalists find their answer? There isn't anything in the Bible that says "God carved out the Grand Canyon in only 2 days". There's nothing to literally cover that. (Many would expect this, as the Bible and it's stories were written in the Middle East and Europe, for 1300~ years, before anyone on that side of the world even knew that the Americas or the Grand Canyon existed. So when they were writing down the stories they knew of God and Jesus, they couldn't possibly have written anything about the Grand Canyon)
So now Fundamentalists have to look elsewhere in the Bible. And the best thing they can find, that even starts to relate to the idea of the Grand Canyon being formed by erosion, is Noah's Flood.
That's in the Bible. It's a very important part of it.
So they just assume that the Flood eroded the Canyon away. But scientists have an issue, because even a flood of that nature that lasted 40 days couldn't possibly erode that much material in such a precise way (following the course of a river).
But Fundamentalists take this as a win. They don't follow science, and they don't even follow the word of the Bible. They take sections that they like, and twist them to try and explain what they can't.
This is how Fundamentalists get unusual and bizarre views. What's even weirder is that some views don't even take reference from the Bible.
Some Fundamentalists believe the fossilised remains of dinosaurs to be planted by the devil as a trick, but others simply believe that dinosaurs must have lived within the 6000 years of the Earth, and therefore at some point in time, were living alongside humans beings.
It's worth noting that not all Creationists are so ridiculous. We're very much talking about Fundamental Christians, Young Earth Creationists.
Old Earth Creationists exist too. These are people who, for the most part, believe the Earth the universe is however many billion years old, and the earth too. They accept science and follow it. Perhaps eventually it can validate their beliefs. At the moment it certainly doesn't squish them out. They can accept the Big Bang Theory, or the Theory of Evolution.
Both allow for the existence of God. No one knows how the Big Bang started, that could be God. No one knows how life started, that could be God.
Furthermore they see the Bible as a book of teachings. It is metaphor and allegory. There are some points they believe happened, like the crucifixion of Jesus, and others they don't, like The Fall from Eden.
are you kidding me? Fighting has been going on all over the world for so long. Until recently the middle east has not been this violent. Its all a result of colonialism from the 18-1900s
Colonialism certainly left political issues and power struggles in many of these countries governments, but I wouldn't say that's the sole cause of the fighting.
Moreover it's the prevalence of extremism, particularly that of Muslim extremism, and many of this civil wars have been between extremist groups/views and governments.
Yes there are also issues of the unfortunately installed dictators throughout the regions of North Africa and the Middle East, but following their topples, it's been infighting between religious sects within the nations.
And Israel is solely on account of a 1200 year old division between the Jews+Christians/Muslims, whereby the Dome of the Rock was built on top of The Temple Mount, after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans centuries before.
This is still an issue of crusades. Jerusalem is a holy land for the Jews (their promised land), the Christians (death of Jesus) and the Muslims (visited by Muhammed, sight of the Dome of the Rock).
It is the holy land of all three people, and the Jews have it. The Palestinians and Muslims want it back. The Christian west supports the Jewish control over the area.
