ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 24, 1996 TAG: 9610240023
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
Exactly when "In the Beginning" occurred has been a matter of debate for a very long time, from papal decrees to Internet chat lines.
Science and religion use different criteria in the quest to establish the date of creation. Depending on which school of thought you attend, the making of the Earth took somewhere between six days and 4 billion years.
On Wednesday, Radford University geology students attempted to bridge this yawning gap by celebrating one early scholar's attempt to establish the birthday of the universe.
In 1650, Irish archbishop James Ussher reasoned that the Earth was formed in 4,004 B.C. The moment of creation, he added, was equivalent to high noon on the modern-day equivalent of Oct. 23.
So Professor Ernst Kastning and his students celebrated the Earth's 6,000th birthday with a party of sorts on Reed Hall's lawn. They placed signs marking geologic epochs along the sidewalk, spaced in intervals that corresponded to the passage of time.
The timeline was about 151 feet long, but Kastning held his thumb and forefinger barely apart. "That's how long modern man has been here," he told the students.
Ussher has often been depicted as a naive speculator for his attempt to determine the Earth's age. He reached his conclusion by adding the ages of Biblical characters and comparing events recorded in the Bible with historical happenings in other ancient societies.
However, prominent anthropologist Stephen Jay Gould has called Ussher's attempt "an honorable effort," one that employed the best data available for his time.
Making a good estimate is all a scientist can do, geologist Kastning said. It's just that the data has become more sophisticated, such as the radioactive dating that pinpoints the most venerable Earth rocks at 3.8 billion years old.
"A hundred years from now, people may be laughing at us for what we thought was true," said April Teaford, president of Radford University's geologic society.
Teaford, a senior from Fincastle, said that in her mind there's no automatic conflict between science and religion when it comes to creation.
"We're not totally disagreeing. It's just that we're using a different timeline."
Ussher's methodology to pinpoint Oct. 23 as the Earth's birthday may also not stand the test of time. But who is honest about birthdays?
Not letting skepticism get in the way of a good birthday celebration, the Radford students had cupcakes with green and blue icing, like a space-view of the Western hemisphere, when the big clock on Muse Hall boinged 12 times at noon.
Then they staged Geology Games on the lawn, the events including rock hammer toss and geode bowling. The winner got the coveted Golden Hammer award.
So the philosophical issue of creation was left unresolved, but it was much more fun than the notorious Scopes monkey trial of the 1920s. All the event lacked was 6,000 candles.
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