Does anyone here believe the world is roughly 6000 years old?

Are you quoting the Hebrew calendar? Even ultra-religious Jews do not think that calendar date refers to the beginning of the world. It is just considered the quaint thinking of early Hebrews.

Gee, I thought according to the Bible it was 10.000 years old.

I certainly do not believe this anymore, but when I was 5 years old I was taught this. In a nutshell they believe this because that is what the Bible says.

They believe the Bible to be the word of God and because the Bible is so heavy on genealogical "begats" it allows you to count the years it reports till a recorded point in history that we have somewhat reliable dates for.

People who believe the Bible literally often do believe in the yound-earth creation theory. Those who stray a bit from the literal version of creationism and say that God created the world through the process of evolution, and that the 7 days it reportedly took are metaphorical, are at odds with the literalists who really have a trump card up their sleeve since plants were made the day before the sun, so if they are metaphorical days and actually eons then they spent a lot of time without sun, though in the non-literalist camp's favor God apparently made light and day even before that, without the sun.

Anyway, I think many people try not to think about the conflicts between their religion and reality too much but I know plenty of people who believe in the literal story of creation and the young-earth creationism theory. Those who fight evolution and the modernization of Christian beliefs to be compatible with it really do believe the literal 7-day creation theory. And if you take that literally and count up the begats till you get to recorded history it is less than 10,000 years.

Obviously the Bible is wrong, but that is a tough sell for many of those to whom it is the scripture of their religion.

So, you have actually met people that believe this then? That the Earth is roughly 6000 years old?

I've never met someone, or at least I've not to the best of my knowledge anyways. There was a comment on another thread that made it seem as though these believers were commonplace and abundant.

But, I've never met one. So, I was actually hoping someone on A2K would fess up so I could find out more about it.

Are their specific churches that teach this? Specific sects of Christianity or Judaism? Is it learned from elders and passed down or through a literal interpretation of the bible?

I enjoy the stories from the bible. They fascinate me. I watch the first episode of "Of Kings and Prophets" last night and I thought it was good. I've not read about Saul in ages and the David story is a good one.

I have a coworker who believes this.

We ran into a problem when we went to a local pottery museum with her family -with some artifacts labelled as being older than they believe the earth is. They did a lot of whispering in the corners as they discussed it with their kids. It was a very short museum visit.

Seriously, how can you have pottery tagged as being 7800 BCE when you don't believe that time period existed.

I decided it was best not to suggest meeting the abuzzer/a2ker who studies the pre-pottery Neolithic at the ROM.

I live in a small town and it's loaded with people that believe just that. Some Christian preacher back in the 1600's added up all the ages of the genealogies and came up with a date for the creation: Saturday, October 23, 4004 B.C., around 6:00pm. I personally don't but my wife's family who are Baptists and a lot of my coworkers do. Even my father (RIP) did, although he was an old school Roman Catholic.

Interesting, would you be up for answering some questions?

Shoot!

Hasn't anyone seen the Flintstones? It's quite obvious that Barney Rubble lived in the dinosaur age. Why are people such Doubting Thomases?

Rumor has it there are people who believe the earth is flat as well, but I've never actually met one.

My biggest questions revolve around education interfering with faith. Unless home schooled, I can see many conflicts between faith and science and how is that handled?

How strong is the faith in the age of Earth? Is it more of a "story" level faith, or a hard coded, deep faith? I know many people how are "religious" and that constitutes going to church every week and participating in church activities, but not much beyond that. No "practicing what you preach" type stuff. Does that happen in your wife's family?

How are the children being raised? My wife is Roman Catholic and I am not, but religion was important to her so we agreed to raise the children as Roman Catholic through confirmation after which they would be free to choose. Any conflicts with your wife's family in that regard?

Some of the people I mentioned absolutely reject scientific concepts in the schools. They tell their children to do the work but they see it as a necessary evil. I think they see themselves as the "faithful children of God suffering in this savage land". When I've made the mistake of engaging such people in conversation on the subject, they humor me as if I was mentally ill. Sometimes they pity my ignorance and try to show me the path to salvation.
I think the majority of American Christians are as you described; the watered down version. They're not so rapped up in it that they dismiss common sense and science, they are not really noteworthy. The extreme Christians are the real freak show. My father was born in Poland before WWII, raised VERY strict Roman Catholic and only got a third grade education. I give him a pass for his ignorance. I'd like to think that if he had been better educated he would have been able to separate scientific reality from religious traditional teachings. Christians born in this country in modern times who ARE exposed to science through the public school system have no excuses, they CHOOSE ignorance.
Let me be clear, both my wife and I have rejected superstition in favor of reason. We are raising our children to be rational, thinking, reasonable people. This does not sit well with our families.
I think you're asking these questions for the sake of your children's education. I think that if you talk to your children you can make them understand that science is reality and religion is kind of a balm for the spirit. The very young won't understand this; kids are pretty literal. Be careful. If they think you've lied to them it could damage your relationship with them for life. One way or the other the realization that what they've been taught is wrong will be painful for them, more so if they believe their parents were complicit in the deception.
I'll tell you how it was for me. I was raised as a Roman Catholic. I went to a Catholic school up to eighth grade, then a public high school. Somewhere along the line I realized that there was a conflict between what I was being taught in science class and what the Church was teaching me. I decided at quite a young age that science was right, but it took a few years of investigating and asking questions to figure out why the Church (and my parents) were lying to me. I asked questions in school, at home, and even went to see a priest at his home. I was always put off with standard platitudes: "It's important to keep the faith, my son." "This is what we believe." "Pray to God and he will guide your thoughts." I was probably fifteen or sixteen when I finally cornered a priest into answering my questions. He saw that I wasn't satisfied and wanted real answers and I guess he figured I was old enough to understand. He told me that the Garden of Eden story (that was the specific subject) was allegorical and not to be taken as literal fact, but that the majority of people couldn't handle that. Priests of course are educated men and sophisticated in their beliefs, but the unwashed masses must be patronized. (My words, not his). I finished out my Confirmation only because my parents expected it, and then I stopped going to church. I've spent the intervening years purging myself of the Roman Catholic conditioning. I've studied and learned all I could on the subject of religion and how it influences our lives, and I strive to not let it. I have pity for those who are caught up in religion through no fault of their own and only contempt for those who choose it willingly.
I hope I answered your questions, sorry it's so long!

I mean, I grew up in a nutty cult full of them so I don't have your average experience with this but yeah, I've met these people and they do exist.

Still amazed at the idea people can be filed in one of three boxes.

1. Young earth nut cases.
2. Religious 'balm' users who are more pragmatic.
3. Rational people who recognize the balm as poison.

I guess It does make the choice of which to get in easier if you limit the number.

True. But, of course, the begats trace back only to the creation of Adam, sometime in the sixth creative 'day'. Many religionists fail to understand the Hebrew word yom, translated 'day' refers to an indefinite period of time, much like our expression in my grandfather's day. Anyone reading Genesis 2:4 can readily understand this, as the first six are summed as one.
Additionally, there is another unspecified time in Genesis 1:1, before the first day.
And . . .
While the first six days have been recorded as having ended, the seventh day has not. So the earth could be a kazillion years old. . . I like that word.

Yeah I grew up with those silly beliefs and am familiar with them. I also addressed them in my post. According to the Bible plants were created before the sun, so if those days are metaphorical eons then we are back to just having to believe in magic anyway and that god the gardener kept the plants alive (we also have to ignore that light and night and day somehow appear before the sun, in an obvious nod to the ancients not knowing how the sun works but we can pretend he had a magic lamp for that too for some reason and wanted to make night and day separately from making the sun for some reason other than the astronomical ignorance of human authors).

I appreciate and actually applaud the Christians who try to reconcile their beliefs with science, it's a lot better than the people who just plug their ears and take a literal interpretation but quite frankly any interpretation of the story of creation that takes it seriously is quite a stretch.

The obvious alternative is to not take any of the story of creation seriously but that has religious implications that not all adherents are going to be comfortable with.

I bet Neologist believes there are some deep sea plants on the Marianas trench so that sorts it out Roberto !

Don't you miss your believer's days Roberto ?

Can't say I miss it, but I do remember how much more cognitive load critical thinking represented vs blind faith. I clearly remember the moment as a child when I realized that adults could be wrong and that I could not believe all I was told. It was a lot easier to just blindly believe what I was taught than to try to think about each bit of information I received and evaluate it for myself.

Going to school in Scandinavia we learned in religion about how old world was according to the Bible and in natural history how old the world is according to sience.I have never ever met anyone believing the world is 6000 years old
until....we had visitors from USA and I read the morningpaper and said something about something which had been found in Finland and it is 10 000 years old.
The American lady asked me how thy could now the age,so I explained how they now do it in a sientificly way.
Her facecial expression change and she told me rather hard that it cannot be done.
It turned out she believed the world is 6000 years old - she was a teacher and married to a Lutheran pastor.I did not knwo what to say as no Lutheran pastor would have maintained anything like that.
As she was a guest in my house I did not say any more.