Science lovers poke fun at reckoning of Earth's age

I read an article in the Austin American Statesman today. Here's a link to it on the web. The first few lines immediately caught my attention:

They drank a blue-green concoction called Noah's Floodwaters Punch. They ate a Flat Earth Cake, a gentle poke at the Bible's description of the planet's shape. They listened to scienfific talks about the age of the earth.

Just who were these people? It was a gathering at Bookpeople, one of the local Austin bookstores. This meeting was held by the Center for Inquiry, a nonreligious organization that has had an Austin chapter for nearly a year.

This event was

an opportunity for those who disagree with creationism to have their say. In the always controversial process of deciding what Texas' science textbooks say, he said, "A lot of people representing the science view don't always have a forum."

Alright, is anyone going to correct the Austin American Statesman? It's one thing to report about events like this, but let's be accurate. The article says that the people at this meeting were eating a Flat Earth Cake, poking fun at just how "non-scientific" the Bible is in describing the earth. But just where does the Bible describe the earth as being flat?

From the website clarifyingchristianity.com, we learn that

The Bible described the shape of the earth centuries before people thought that the earth was spherical.

Isaiah 40:22
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

The word translated “circle” here is the Hebrew word chuwg which is also translated “circuit,” or “compass” (depending on the context). That is, it indicates something spherical, rounded, or arched—not something that is flat or square.

The book of Isaiah was written sometime between 740 and 680 BC. This is at least 300 years before Aristotle suggested that the earth might be a sphere in his book On the Heavens.

This brings up an important historical note related to this topic. Many people are aware of the conflict between Galileo and the Roman Catholic Pope, Paul V. After publishing A Dialogue on the Two Principal Systems of the World, Galileo was summoned to Rome, where he was forced to renounce his findings. (At that time, “theologians” of the Roman Catholic Church maintained that the Earth was the center of the universe, and to assert otherwise was deemed heretical.)

We could not find any place in the Bible that claims that the Earth is flat, or that it is the center of the universe. History shows that this conflict, which took place at the time of the Inquisition, was part of a power struggle. As a result, scientific and biblical knowledge became casualties—an effect we still feel to this day.

The article also says they were celebrating Earth's birthday, a satire on the belief held by some creationists that the Earth was created on Oct. 23, 4004 B.C., an idea attributed to the 17th-century Anglican Archbishop James Ussher.

It's true James Ussher came worked out a system in which he "figured out" the age of the earth, based on his reckoning of the time statements in the Bible. But this was one man's view. I can't think of anyone who actually takes his dating of the earth seriously, Creationist or otherwise. And people need to know that among Creationists, there are those who are "old earthers" and "young earther," depending on whether they believe the days of Genesis 1 are literal 24 hour periods, or epochs of time.

I don't usually talk about science vs religion kinds of things in this blog, but the article caught my attention. Therefore, I felt compelled to write.