Disagreeing with CMI on Two Items of Biblical History

Assorted retorts from yahoo boards and elsewhere: Disagreeing with CMI · Creation vs. Evolution: Disagreeing with CMI on Two Items of Biblical History

I agree on the principle in Biblical history and the role of science by Jonathan Sarfati from 2011.

Earth is about 6,000 years old, since Jesus said mankind was there from the ‘beginning of creation’, not billions of years later (Mark 10:6).

This is proof of Biblical chronology, not necessarily Masoretic chronology. I consider Genesis 5 and 11 should have LXX text family readings for chronological purposes, and that Earth is a bit more than 7200 years old.

God then judged the people by confusing their language at Babel—after they had refused to spread out and repopulate the Earth after the Flood (Genesis 10:25; 11:1–9).

This presumes that there was no spread prior to Babel. I would say there was spread, but political and cultural unity. The dispersion meant the élite could no longer band together in one place, not that men in general had previously done so, after the Flood.

I would also not consider that the subject "all the earth" (feminine singular) is identic to the subject "they" (forms for masculine plural) between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis 11.

Genesis 11:1 is a closing remark to table of nations, since "according to their languages" had been mentioned, remarking that this split of languages hadn't occurred yet when the table is mainly from. This means that "they" can be distinct from "all the earth" and be a far less numerous élite. Once post-Babel cities of Nimrod's empire and Peleg were added to the table, the verse became a transition to the Genesis 11 story./HGL