Where did water come from? How old is water? Scientists claim that water on earth came from icy comets, and the water is dated up to 5 billion years old. That means that the water is older than the sun! This seems to contradict with scripture. Is water on earth really 5 billion years old? Are there studies and methods that they use to date the age of the water reliable?
The cosmos may indeed have lots of water, given that hydrogen is the most abundant element and oxygen the 3rd most abundant. But asking how old water is (at least here on earth) would have to be much trickier. Given that water is always being created (by any combustian processes and by living organisms as they metabolize calories), there would be a whole lot of water that is no older than months or days or minutes. You’re minting brand new water molecules inside your body right now as you’re reading this. And water is being destroyed (recycled) too, in the opposite process (photosynthesis) as it builds carbohydrates, hydrocarbons, and liberates oxygen. So any random glass of water you look at will have a random assortment of molecules in it from recent to ancient.
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Combination of oxygen with primordial hydrogen. Oxygen was produced in early stars via nucleosynthesis and supernovae eruptions spread it throughout space. The earliest we know of oxygen is based on astronomers observing what appears to be signatures of it in extremely distant galaxies 500 million years after the big bang.
Isn’t it absolutely incredible to think that in every breath you take, those oxygen atoms were probably formed in the cores of now extinct stars that met spectacularly explosive deaths spreading it throughout the cosmos. Also, as Michelle Thaller mentioned in her Ted talk, it’s amazing to think that the iron in our blood which makes it red, formed in the hearts of exploding stars. All the pieces of the puzzle come together. Given the vastness of space, the entirety of cosmic history…the universe is just the right size and age for us. We couldn’t have arrived any sooner. Isn’t God’s universe absolutely amazing?!
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Ok, but scientists claim that the water on earth came from Icy comets in space. The Bible suggests that water comes from inside the Earth. Are these methods that scientists used reliable? And if so, does that mean the bible is wrong?
Hello? are you guys there?
“Claim”
Try
" say a possibility is…"
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You know some things in the bible are not accurate.
Why ask.
Great points. Just want to make sure readers understand these are chemical reactions. Existing atoms are simply being rearranged in chemical reactions. Existing oxygen that formed in stars and was spread throughout the Galaxy when they exploded is ultimately where most of it comes time. I can’t remember if anything actually decays into oxygen.
The Bible assumes the cosmogony of the ancient world. Did Jesus go to the center of the earth when he went to hell? Does God live in the tropopause? As I wrote elsewhere:
“There is a number of scientific errors scattered throughout the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. Parts of the Bible refer to the four corners of the earth (Is. 11:12) , think thoughts come from our kidneys (Psalm 16:7), believe there is a solid firmament in the sky (Job 37:18 also Genesis 1), proclaims as Galileo found out, the earth is immutable and does not move (1 Chron 16:30; Ps 93:1, 96:10, 104:5; Is 45:8), that the earth is flat (Mt 4:8, Dan 4:10-11), stars are small and close enough to the earth they can fall from the sky and land on it (Rev 6:13-16, 8:10; Mt 2:10, 24:29; Dan 8:10). A host of problems are also evident if the details of Genesis 1-2 are taken as literal, factual history. A sampling is presented below and all of these texts could be multiplied several times over. We can certainly quibble over some of these potential conflicts and debate their intended meaning but overall, they make a pretty compelling case that God did not intend to leave us a scientific guide to creation nor did he feel the need to override the incorrect scientific and cosmological background knowledge of the Biblical authors. They, unaware of the Scopes Monkey trial, clearly were not concerned with the same scientific issues as us. By proxy it doesn’t seem God was either when inspiring our Sacred Scripture. Maybe we should pattern ourselves after His likeness.”
Ancients thought there were waters above and below. They had a mistaken conception of the cosmos that we also find in the Bible.
You will find that many here will disagree with the basis of your question as it presents a false dilemma. The Bible is not wrong because ancient authors in a prescientific time did not know science. We need to dig deeper to understand what Scripture is actually saying. Scripture is not wrong because literalists confuse its genre. The literalists are wrong for confusing it’s genre. Many here are not concordists that take everything interpreted literally according to modern lenses in the Bible as historical, scientific and theological truth. It’s not an encyclopedia and should not be read or treated as such. Many here believe in accommodation and that the Bible must ust be interpreted in its historical co text (each work separately).
Vinnie
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Does it? Wasn’t the water along with all other matter created by unspecified mechanisms merely glossed over in Genesis 1:1?
I think the first issue is the lens you apply to genesis 1. You are viewing it as is purpose is to be a scientific document versus a theological document. You’re reading it as a historical narrative versus a highly poetic story.
To begin it never says when water was created. The story opens up with the world already there as this for less void of deep waters. Which is interesting because why would water not be frozen in a sunless sky? Even with the sun here now some water freezes over. The reason is because of the tale the story was building into.
It opens up with this watery world. It was not suitable for life. Not good for humans. It was chaotic and dark. But up out of the waters was brought land. Land popped up out of the waters. The land was a ark of sorts that meant safety for those who ended up on it.
This is played out again with Eden. Eden is described in the tale as being surrounded by rivers. It looked almost as if out of the rivers this garden popped up and was good. It was also like a ark for those living on it.
We see this story of arks bringing people safely through water again and again.
Noah is brought safely through the water by a ark.
Moses is brought safely through the water by a small reed basket.
The Hebrews was brought safely through the Red Sea by ark in the form of dry land. Just like how Yahweh originally separated the land from the water. We see this again here.
Jonah jumped into the water knowing he was going to perish. Ultimately he was brought safely through the water by a big fish.
In many of these cases we see the ark preserving Gods chosen ones while the evil doers are destroyed. The waters of the flood washed away the sinful. The crashing in of the Red Sea washed away the sinful. We see this ark making waters safe many times in other ways. Such as the stick tossed into the bitter water in the wilderness taking away its bitterness, taking away its sting and making it refreshing.
All of this culminates in Christ and baptism.
Romans 6 says that in baptism we are United with Christ in his death and burial and through him we have resurrection. Christ brings us safely through death. In acts 2 we read of Peter proclaiming the gospel and when asked what to do by those who believes it he said “ repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and to receive the Holy Spirit “. We see here Christ brings us safely through the waters while our sins are being washed away. 1 Peter 3 even directly links baptism to the waters of the flood.
So in a nutshell the waters of genesis one is mentioned so that we can see Yahweh bringing land up and allowing a safe place for us. He’s bringing us safely through death and chaos into eternal life. But those that reject him are not on the ark. They are destroyed by death and chaos. They perish in their sins because their sins was never washed away.
All of this plays into why revelation states that there is no
Sea in restoration. Again irs a highly poetic and symbolic tale being told in revelation. The sea is brought up in revelation to show that in restoration we will no longer need to fear chaos and death because we are not saved by Christ forever. We heard our name in the book of life, we eat of the tree of life and we have eternal life through Christ.
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Is Jesus not there if the ancient Jews made up a foundation myth ?
You mean they knew really - by inspiration of course as they couldn’t do the science - that the Earth is billions of years old? But thought they’d spare us the details? Or rather God did?
The Bible doesn’t teach chemistry or astrophysics. If you want to learn those disciplines, you should study science and believe what scientists say when they are talking about their areas of expertise. If you want to talk about theology and Bible interpretation, you should learn from Bible scholars about what the Scriptures have meant to believers in their ancient context and throughout Judeo-Christian history. You should not keep assuming that the Christians here share the overly literal “plain meaning of the English” interpretations that you were taught in your fundamentalist upbringing. None of those creationist assertions are required to be true for people to believe the message of the Bible or put their faith in Christ.
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Scientists that I have heard claim that the water is a mix of internal-origin hydrate mineral-derived water, and cosmogenic from either icy bodies or hydrate-rich asteroids.
The " claim …came from comets" is whats wrong.
Speaking scientifically, water on earth has at least two “primordial” sources (depending on how you count it), along with the continuous reacting and re-forming of water in various chemical reactions such as those involving living things. Some water would have been trapped in the earth as part of the initial building of the planet. There is a lot of water trapped deep inside the earth within rocks and minerals. Many sources (especially the popular headline versions, but in a specific technical sense, there is legitimacy to the use) include hydroxide ions, part of crystal structures, in the amount of water inside the earth, so determining the amount requires a careful examination of references. Water is one of the most common gases released by volcanic activity, though of course some of that water is what trickled down from the surface not too long before.
Other water has come from comets and asteroids impacting over time, later than the initial formation. Isotopically, asteroids are suspected of being the main source.
Hydrogen is produced by many isotopes in radioactive decay, and that hydrogen can react with oxygen to produce water.
The Bible identifies water as part of God’s creation, but it does not specify the source. Some of the water for Noah’s flood is portrayed as coming from the earth, but that is not talking about initial creation. It is using the general ancient Near Eastern imagery of a layer of water under the earth (though not explicitly endorsing it as scientific fact). The focus in Genesis 1 is on the fact that the sea and the waters are not some sort of chaos monster or rival god, not under God’s control; instead, they are parts of His good creation.
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The flood of Noah undoes the order God imposes on the earth in Genesis.
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