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Encyclopedia > Omphalos hypothesis

The omphalos hypothesis was named after the title of an 1857 book by Philip Henry Gosse in which he argued that in order for the world to be "functional", God must have created the Earth with mountains, canyons, trees with growth rings, Adam and Eve with hair, fingernails, and navels (omphalos is Greek for "navel"), and that therefore no evidence we can see of the presumed age of the world can be taken as reliable. The idea has seen some revival in the twentieth century by modern creationists who have extended the argument to light which appears to originate in far-off stars and galaxies.


The Omphalos hypothesis contains a powerful philosophic problem, one that troubles even those who have applied it in recent times. Since the hypothesis is based on the idea that apparent age is an illusion, it is perfectly resonable to suggest that world was created ten minutes ago. Any memories you have of times before this were created in-situ, in exactly the same fashion that the fossils were. This idea is sometimes called "Last-Tuesdayism" by its opponents, as in "the world might as well have been created last Tuesday."


This view is not popular for various reasons:

  1. It is unverifiable and unfalsifiable;
  2. It can be interpreted as God having 'created a fake', which does not sit well with most benevolent theistic theologies;
  3. This philosophical approach, extended to other areas, has serious negative implications for science as a whole

  Results from FactBites:
 
omphalos - Search Results - MSN Encarta (171 words)
Omphalos, in classical antiquity, a conical stone, thought to mark the center of the world, notably that in the temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece.
An omphalos is a religious stone artifact in the ancient world.
The omphalos hypothesis was named after the title of an 1857 book, Creation (Omphalos) by Philip Henry Gosse, in which Gosse argued that in order for the world to be functional, God must have created...
omphalos - definition of omphalos in Encyclopedia (131 words)
Omphalos stones to denote this point were erected in several areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, the most famous of those at the oracle in Delphi.
Omphalos stones were said to allow direct communication with the gods.
Omphalos is also a place in Crete on the borders of the river Triton sacred to Zeus.
  More results at FactBites »


 
 

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