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<img src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/12/23/t1larg.pat.robertson.file.gi.jpg" title="Pat Robertson challenges creationism" alt="Pat Robertson challenges creationism" height="360" width="640"><div class="">Pat Robertson: "There was a time when these giant reptiles were on the Earth, and it was before the time of the Bible."</div>
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November 29th, 2012 </div>
<div class="">04:04 PM ET</div>
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<h1 class=""><a href="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/29/pat-robertson-challenges-creationism/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link:Pat Robertson challenges creationism">Pat Robertson challenges creationism</a></h1>
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<p class="">By <strong>Dan Merica</strong>, CNN</p>
<p><strong>Washington (CNN) –</strong> Televangelist Pat Robertson
challenged the idea that Earth is 6,000 years old this week, saying the
man who many credit with conceiving the idea, former Archbishop of
Ireland James Ussher, “wasn’t inspired by the Lord when he said that it
all took 6,000 years.”</p>
<p>The statement was in response to a question Robertson fielded Tuesday
from a viewer on his Christian Broadcasting Network show "The 700
Club.” In a submitted question, the viewer wrote that one of her biggest
fears was that her children and husband would not go to heaven “because
they question why the Bible could not explain the existence of
dinosaurs.”</p>
<p>“You go back in time, you've got radiocarbon dating. You got all
these things, and you've got the carcasses of dinosaurs frozen in time
out in the Dakotas,” <a href="http://www.cbn.com/media/player/index.aspx?s=/archive/club/700Club112712_WS&search=700ClubEpisodes&p=1&parent=0&subnav=false">Robertson said</a>.
“They're out there. So, there was a time when these giant reptiles were
on the Earth, and it was before the time of the Bible. So, don't try
and cover it up and make like everything was 6,000 years. That's not the
Bible.”</p>
<p>Before answering the question, Robertson acknowledged the statement
was controversial by saying, “I know that people will probably try to
lynch me when I say this.”</p>
<p><span id="more-36453"></span>“If you fight science, you are going to lose your children, and I believe in telling them the way it was,” Robertson concluded.</p>
<p>Forty-six percent of Americans believe that God created humans in
their present form at one point within the past 10,000 years, according
to a survey released by Gallup in June. That number has remained
unchanged for the past 30 years, since 1982, when Gallup first asked the
question on creationism versus evolution.</p>
<p>The Gallup poll has not specifically asked about views on the age of the Earth.</p>
<p>Ussher’s work, from the mid-1600s, is widely cited by creationists as
evidence that Earth is only a few thousand years old. Answer in
Genesis, the famed Christian creationist ministry behind the Creation
Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, cites Ussher as proof of Earth’s age.
They <a href="http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v1/n1/world-born-4004-bc">describe the archbishop</a> as “a brilliant scholar who had very good reasons for his conclusions concerning the date of creation.”</p>
<p>For Christians who read the creation account in Genesis literally,
the six days in the account are strictly 24-hour periods and leave no
room for evolution. Young Earth creationists use this construct and
biblical genealogies to determine the age of the Earth, and typically
come up with 6,000 to 10,000 years.</p>
<p>Most scientists, however, agree that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old and the universe is 14.5 billion years old.</p>
<p>The idea of creationism has been scorned by the mainstream scientific
community since shortly after Charles Darwin introduced "The Origin of
Species" in 1859. By 1880, The American Naturalists, a science journal,
reported nearly every major university in America was teaching
evolution.</p>
<p>The question about Earth’s age has been in the news recently. Earlier this month, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida <a href="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/19/rubio-ignites-debate-with-answer-about-creationism/">attempted to walk the line between science and faith-based creationism</a> in remarks that that provoked the ire of liberal blogs and left the door open to creationism.</p>
<p>“I'm not a scientist, man,” Rubio told GQ’s Micheal Hainey. “I can
tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says,
but I think that's a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has
nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the
United States.”</p>
<p><strong>– CNN’s Eric Marrapodi contributed to this report.</strong></p>
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