The Y2k Hysteria By Richard Landes

We are only a brief second in the long history of the universe; many things have preceded us to make us the most complex creatures that ever walked the Earth. We are a “new level of complexity” which makes us different from all other creatures that have come before us. Our species has only been around for 250,000 years, a short time compared to the formation of the Earth at 4.5 billion years ago and the creation of the Universe at 13.7 billion years ago, but the time we have had on this Earth has greatly affected the outcome of history. In an attempt to provide an overview of human history in his book This Fleeting World, David Christian introduces it in the context of the history of the universe and then systematically breaks it down

“In the Western Hemisphere, no early culture was more remarkable than the Mayans” (Background Essay). The Mayans were an adept civilization and accomplished many exceptional things during their time. Their deeds include things such as a number system, immense cities, and a vast trade network but there is no Mayan achievement more remarkable than their calendars. The Mayans created three calendars: a sacred calendar called tzolkin, a solar calendar called haab, and a long cycle calendar.

| The development of the calendar was based on their observations and studies of the stars, moon, and sky. They also established a number system; a year was cut into 12 months, a month into 30 days, a day into 12 hours, an hour into 60 minutes, and a minute into 60 seconds. They also divided a circle into 360 degrees of the 60 arc minutes. Settlement patterns were based on the environment of the area and the need for a stable water supply.

Celestial bodies - the sun, moon, planets, and stars - have provided us a reference for measuring the passage of time throughout human existence. Ancient civilizations like: China, India, Babylon, and Greece relied upon the apparent motion of these bodies through the sky to record and determine seasons, months, and years. We know little about the details of timekeeping in prehistoric eras. However, records and artifacts usually uncover that in every culture, people were preoccupied with measuring and recording the passage of time. Stonehenge, built over 4000 years ago in England has no written records, but its alignments show its purposes apparently included the determination of seasonal or celestial events, such as lunar

This Fleeting World is a small summary of ‘big history’. David Christian’s book is a mere 92 pages long with an included 9-page prequel (on topics during the first years without humans such as Earth’s creation and more) and 16-page appendix on the book’s use in school, historical periodization, and a 4-page list of sources. With around 120 pages, this short book seems to be the perfect size to represent how our species’ history is only miniscule fraction compared to the history of that around us. In a world that has been around for over four and a half billion years old (6) in a universe that is 13.8 billion years old (1), homo sapiens have been around for only approximately 250,000 of those years (9). It seems impossible, though, to fit those hundreds of thousands of years into the modest text. However, Christian does the impossible and makes a well written short ‘big history’. Where many other historians before him have failed at making one, Christian’s book, This Fleeting World, summarizes history from the big-bang all

Pope Gregory invented an amazing invention during the middle ages. I would not know what day it is if Pope gregory did not make this outstanding invention. When Pope Gregory was making the calendar he had to change it because it was out of sync with the seasons. Julius Caesar was also trying to make a calendar called the Julian calendar. Pope Gregory just changed the Julian calendar a little and then he had the Gregorian calendar. That is how our daily calendar that we check everyday was

In this essay, I shall analyse the problem of “Why didn’t a temporal God create the world sooner?”. This essay shall begin with an exposition of the problem as provided by Leftow, and then explain Leftow’s and Swinburne’s solutions. Furthermore, I shall explain the ineffectiveness of these solutions exposed by Craig, and I shall provide the view that the most effective solution to the problem is that God’s temporal mode of existence changes from timeless prior to creation, and temporal post-creation. However, firstly, we must understand the problem with which we are dealing.

On January 1, 1700, the new calendar came into effect. The Russian people numbered the years from eight days after the birth of Christ. Traditionally the year began in 1699, but with the new calendar the year changed to the 1700 due to the years being counted starting eight days from the birth of Christ, and not from the creation

Finney and Edwards raise concerns over this component of the Anthropocene. The emphasis on the beginning of the Anthropocene ignores the geological strata, which is a major component to its validity as an official epoch. According to Finney and Edwards, the Anthropocene overly emphasizes the beginning of this potential epoch, not its contents. The focus on the start leads to “the opinion that geological time scales are defined solely by their beginnings” (Finney and Edwards, 7). According to the AWG, the suggested start for the Anthropocene is 1945 (Finney and Edwards, 7). An indicator for this date is “the human human-caused atomic detonations” that resulted in the spread of atomic radiation across the planet (Zalasiewicz et al., 2230). In defining the Anthropocene based on its cause and date, and using the definition as grounds for justification as a geological time unit is where Finney and Edwards find fault. Also, the core of the concept centers at being a human caused event, which can be used to socially and politically sway

The concept of axial age was introduced into the sphere of philosophical knowledge by German existentialist philosopher Karl Jaspers for characterizing the period of ancient history during about the 8th to the 3rd century BC. In this period of time we have developed a fundamentally new religious beliefs and doctrines that promoted human and cultural values of the era.

The Mayan calendar has a starting date of 3113BC that is given the year 0. It used their base 20 numbering system to represent periods of time. There

To keep close to the time of the spread of Christianity we want go back to the Europe  and bring up to date the European advancement of the church.

(related to Charles Darwin's ideas of evolution) (change for the better, over time), for example, rests on the idea (you think is true) that the chance processes of natural selection must have very long periods of time in which to develop and to allow (related to studying numbers) advantages to change the shapes of species. Yet not long before Darwin's lifetime--and a little bit during it--it was the majority opinion even among learned men that the Earth was something like six millennia old, a period of very much the same length as known human history. In contrast, modern science classes are given some image or other of human history that pushes it away to the last second of the twenty-four-hour "day" which represents the age of the Earth, or that says, even more (in a way that ignores other people's feelings), that if the age of the Earth were to be measured as a traditional English yard, the distance from nose to outstretched fingertip, then one stroke of a nail file on the middle fingertip would erase the whole time in history of people/(the kindness of

Lasting four million three hundred twenty thousand years, are four ages known as Yugas. The ancients understood time as a circle, not linear.  Each age has distinct themes and spiritual lessons. According to the Hinduism scriptures, all mortal beings are destined to pass through four great epochs in every cycle of creation and destruction. The world has already been through the first three and is currently passing through the fourth Yuga. It is believed that the world will end in a great conflagration after the last Yuga. To some, this appears too unrealistic to be true for the rational mind, so many may wonder: What defines each age? When and

“We must as Gods people stand against the compromise of reinterpreting Genesis to fit in evolution and millions of years, which undermines biblical authority.” Ultimately, what’s at stake in this debate is more than just a magic number of years. This debate’s significance centers on God’s revelation of Himself in Scripture and whether Scripture is relevant today or not. This issue has only become a debate in the last couple hundred years. Before the Enlightenment, people in Western cultures accepted the young earth view because the scriptural account of creation was interpreted literally. Now ideas crashing with other ideas, Hebrew words are being tossed and turned. Moreover with the continued cross-examining of Scripture and with the new discoveries made in science, Christian have begun to question whether or not the earth is young or old? The worst fall-out of the argument has been division in the body of Christ, were many brothers and sisters have held so tightly to their views causing disunity within the church. Many people now feel that they must choose between science and sola scriptura. Actually, the choice is not between science and Scripture. A young earth stance can be both science and Scripture and has more credibility than an old earth because of radioactive testing has proved to be unreliable and history has been in constant support of young earth until the past 200 years. This paper will displaying the two leading positions in the debate, and then support for