Yes, many scripture authorities have come forward and identified Ussher as being wrong, but his theses still have great influence, even among those that dismiss the whole of his actual works..
Not to hijack this thread, but...
While I have several times noted my strong belief in an Old Earth Creationist view, I long for getting past that.
If, as I believe, one purpose of creation is to bring us to a greater understanding of God, than I should be able to gain a fuller understanding of the Lord through His creation.
There are a few writings about what Old Earth Creationism can teach us about the nature of God, but so far the ones I have found mostly stop with stating their position and why it should be accepted.
I wish to get past differential apologetics between Old Earth Creationism and Young Earth Creation and get to extracting principles and finally to application. There are a few writings here, but they seem to expound a greater departure in terms of the nature of God from the core Christian beliefs than I am ready to accept.
I don't think that that is an indication of a wrong basic assumption as much as it is an indication of how controversial it is among many of the believing community, and that we have not had centuries to work out the spiritual meaning of modern cosmology.
What is knowledge? is the question of this week's philosophy class I'm taking. Philosophy is just Greek for "love wisdom." Except for Kant, every one of them, in one shape or form wanted to do away with God. Some claim they wanted to prove God like Decartes but the paper was all but rejected by his peers. I find it funny that each of them had a piece of the truth - what is good, what is moral, what is knowledge, we live in an unknowable universe, we are what we think, "I think, therefore, I am," "to be is to be perceived," we don't exist in a true reality, etc. all their conclusion are found in the scriptures but they either didn't know that or didn't care. My point is, thinkers and scientists have been trying to figure out everything, solving a mystery here or there, of which the sole solution is always ultimately God. Everyone in history has had a desire to solve mysteries. That's God's way of playing hide and seek, which children just love. So God has put clues everywhere about everything if we just look. My chronology study is solely based on the scriptures and not on historical accounts. If you start, like I did, that the word of God is without error (in the originals), then you can begin your search. God talks about 6 days of work to create the universe and the heavens (always plural in the Hebrew), and science and the fossil record agrees with it - except the meaning of "yom" - day. Even the Jews can't agree among themselves.
Tonight is the last day of 2017 and tomorrow starts 2018. Time. It's a very interesting thing. Perspective is also an interesting thing. If I had a soap bubble and I could blow it up, what would it be like in it if every atom in the air was a universe? What would the border be like? How would the center be different from the outer edge? How is the bubble different when it was flat across the wicket compared to it floating in the air as a ball? Is a day define from within the bubble or from without? Is time the same inside and outside the bubble? A mouse lives 2-3 years. Does it perceive time differently? Does it feel 50 years old at 1.5 years? Until we are a mouse, we can only speculate through observation.
My point is, the perception of time might be different as time passes by. That is, today's rate of existence might be vastly different than at the beginning. We sense the change but we can't prove it. "Time flies" used to be an aged event, now kids are saying the same thing. The controversy about the speed of light is quickly ignored because of its implications. In other words, the flood happened between creation and today which means the data is skewed when applying earthbound findings without factoring in the flood. The real issue is that the information needed is being rejected by those that don't want where the evidence points: to God. So just like the philosophers, scientists won't or can't share the whole truth. I love the atheist scientists because they don't know they're proving the word of God correct when they make a discovery and publish it.
First, believe the word of God is true and every man a liar, and begin your search. You will find the answer you're looking for.
