A study of Christianity and Islam (both which are currently fighting over ownership of God’s name in Malaysia) would not be complete without also studying the history of humankind. This is because to believe in Christianity and Islam one has to also believe in the story of the creation of the world followed by the creation of humankind.
In religious studies, they paint a slightly different picture from what the scientists believe. For example, more than 5,000 years before the date that Adam and Eve were supposed to have been evicted from Paradise and came down to earth (near Iraq), the Chinese were already practising agriculture (in 10000 BC).
Furthermore, at that time, there were already an estimated 20-25 million people living all over the world (it was 5 million in 8000 BC and 50 million in 1000 BC and by 500 BC it reached 100 million). In fact, in 10000 BC, there was already a very advanced civilisation in Northern India, long before humans were supposed to have inhabited and populated the world.
And the area that Adam and Eve were supposed to have ‘touched down’ there were already humans there since 100000 BC.
As I have said many times before, to believe in the Gospels one has to do so using faith. If you tried to apply scientific evidence then your faith may be shaken and you would face great difficultly in continuing to believe in what you have been taught in Bible studies (or Quran studies for that matter).
The only way you can continue to have faith would be to believe that the scientists are wrong in spite of the evidence they have. Some may even deduce that the so-called evidence was planted by Satan to confuse and mislead the people and to shake their faith.
I suppose that could be one assumption if you would like to discard the evidence in the interest of keeping your faith intact.
Anyway, this is not my evidence. This is the evidence of scientists. So maybe you can read on and see at the end of this page whether you still believe in the Gospels or you believe in science.
And that would bring us to the million-dollar or billion-year question: what are the Christians and Muslims in Malaysia really fighting about? Ownership of God’s name or ownership of a myth?
I suppose that is a conclusion you will have to make yourself.
A BRIEF TIMELINE OF THE WORLD
13.7 billion BC the universe begins with a big bang.
4.6 billion BC the sun and the planets are formed.
4.5 billion BC the moon is formed.
200 million BC the first mammals evolve.
2.5 million BC the Homo Habilis began using stone tools.
1.7 million BC the Homo Erectus leave Africa.
200000 BC the Homo Sapiens (the modern humans from whom we come from) appear in Africa. This would mean humankind did not start about 6,000 years ago like the Bible says (or some of the Christian scholars say).
Hence if Adam and Eve were the first two humans on earth (as the Bible says) they would be Homo Habilis while we are descendants of Homo Sapiens and, therefore, we cannot be descendants of Adam and Eve. And if we are Homo Sapiens then we are all actually Africans, every one of us.
100000 BC the modern humans (Homo Sapiens) migrate to the Middle East. So Adam and Eve were not the first two humans in the Middle East (meaning Iraq) 6,000 years or so ago.
75000 BC humans arrive in South East Asia and China.
60000 BC humans arrive by boat in New Guinea and Australia. So humans were already a seafaring race more than 60,000 years ago.
14000 BC humans arrive in South America.
10000 BC agriculture develops in China.
8000 BC the world population touches 5 million.
4236 BC the first date of the Egyptian calendar.
3760 BC the first date of the Jewish calendar.
3500 BC the Sumerians (in Iraq) introduce writing and numbering known as cuneiform.
3100 BC the first Egyptian dynasty starts.
2900 BC the Great Flood occurs (as reported in the Bible).
1700 BC the Chinese of the Shang dynasty develop a writing script.
1300 BC Moses leads the Hebrews out of Egypt to Palestine to establish the kingdom of Israel.
1000 BC the world population touches 50 million.
500 BC the world population touches 100 million.
10 BC the Dead Sea Scrolls are produced.
5 BC Jesus is born. In 525 AD, Dionysius Exigus deduces that Jesus was born in 1 AD.
1 AD the world population touches 200 million.
2 AD a census is done in China and it is recorded that China’s population was 57 million.
25 AD John the Baptist baptises Jesus.
30 AD Jesus is crucified (some historians say he was crucified on 3 April 33).
32 AD Saul becomes a Christian and takes the name Paul. So if Jesus was crucified in 33 AD instead of 30 AD then Paul could not have met the supposedly already dead Jesus in the desert.
90 AD the Gospel of John is written.
96 AD the Book of Revelation is written.
100 AD China uses paper (which was invented by the Chinese earlier) as the main medium for written communication.
109 AD the Christian church proclaims itself to be universal (Catholic).
110 AD the Gospel of John is written in Asia Minor.
225 AD the first Christian paintings appear in Rome.
312 AD Emperor Constantine decrees Christianity as the Roman religion.
320 AD December 25 is adopted as the Birthday of Jesus. England later banned this belief in the 1600s and anyone celebrating 25 December would be arrested. Shops were also ordered to remain open on this day and anyone who closes his shop would also get arrested.
356 AD work begins on the first basilica of St Peter in Rome. This later becomes the headquarters of the Roman Christian faith.
367 AD St. Athanasius of Alexandria is the first person to list the 27 books of the New Testament. So this is actually when Christianity finally ‘breaks way’ from the Old Testament of the Jews.
380 AD the Bible is translated into Latin and Christians no longer used the original version of the Bible but the Latin version. Some of the ‘damaging’ parts of the ‘old’ Bible were not translated into the Latin Bible.
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