AOJ and RTB Creation Days Comparison

The chart below attempts to accurately represent the way in which Ages of Joy and Reasons To Believe identify the historical periods corresponding to the creation timeline provided in Genesis 1.

As you can see, AOJ and RTB each identify different periods of time with the Creation Days of Genesis 1.  Both models attempt to identify a sequential series with RTB identifying broad ranges and AOJ identifying terminus conditions between the Days.

Both models are useful and represent different ways of interpreting both the Biblical text and the important events in the history of life on Earth.

Reasons to Believe is an evangelical, apologetic, old-earth creationism ministry that promotes the concepts of day-age creationism, progressive creationism, scientific concordism.

In my Ages of Joy writings, I have derived much inspiration from RTB, and share the evangelical, apologetic, old-earth, day-age, and progressive creationism perspectives.  I am exploring the concepts focused on day-age creationism and historical concordism (where ancient history is discovered through scientific analysis), and Genesis 1 as a functional creation account inspired in part by concepts from John H. Walton's Lost World book series.  In short, I combine concepts from both RTB and John Walton. Since John Walton rejects scientific concordism outright, there is an apparent conflict between positions held by RTB and Walton. However, I see value brought by both positions and explore a synthesis in what I am calling historical concordism.

ICS Formal Names	AOJ Dates (Ma)	AOJ Timespan	RTB Time span		Habitability For (scientific)	Creation Habitat Work (biblical)	AOJ Name	Habitability Score
Hadean Eon	4600- 3950	Beginning	Beginning	1	pre-life molecules	Spirit of God hovering over the deep	Hadean Yom	0
Terminus: Late Heavy Bombardment; Orgin of DNA-based Life
Archean Eon (extended to include proposed Oxygenian Period)	3950- 2420	Day 1	Day 2		simple single-celled life; Photosynthetic life; 11 hrs/day	light; regions of light and dark; days and nights	Archean Yom	1
	2420- 2250
Terminus: Snowball Earth Conditions: Huronian Glaciation
Proterozoic Eon (extended to include early Ediacaran Period)	2250- 1200	Day 2	Day 3		Oxygenic and Eukaryotic life; possible early, tiny plants on land	protective firmament; atmospheric changes	Protero zoic Yom	2
	1200- 580		Day 4		Transparent atmosphere; 22 hrs/day; 400 days/year	sun, moon, stars occasionally visible
Terminus: Snowball Earth Conditions: Cryogenian to Gaskiers Glaciation
Paleozoic & Mesozoic Eras (excluding Late Cretaceous Epoch)	580-100	Day 3	Day 5		True Land-based plants and animals; ocean animals	continents, rivers, seas; seed plants; woody angiosperms	Paleo Meso  zoic Yom	3
Terminus: Onset of Seasonal Climate and Rapid Proliferation of Fruit Trees
Late Cretaceous Epoch of Mesozoic Era	100-66	Day 4			24-hour circadian rhythm and seasonal climates; 23.8 hrs/day; 368 days/year	function of sun, moon, stars to consistently mark days, years, seasons tuned for human benefit	Neozoic Yom	4
Terminus: K-Pg Extinction Event-comet strike that wiped out the dinosaurs
Paleogene Period (shortened to excluded Oligocene Epoch)	66-34	Day 5	Day 6		telost fish radiation, modern birds, bats, marine mammals including whales	great sea creatures, living creatures that swarm in the water, winged birds	Paleo gene  Yom	5
Terminus: E-O Extinction & Faunal Turnover;Transition from Hot/Warm to Cool/Cold Global Climate
Neogene Period (extended to include Oligocene Epoch)	34-0	Day 6			C4 fruit trees and grains; cattle; humans; pets; small game	livestock, creeping things, beasts; mankind; blessing of seed plants and fruit trees	Neo gene Yom	6
	10-0
Terminus: Creation of Mankind-emergence of modern human behavior during the last ice age
Late Pleistocene & Holocene Epochs	0-now	Day 7 and beyond			human habitation and thriving	providence; human stewardship	Anthropogene Yom	6+

For more information on the Reasons To Believe Creation Days see What are the Scientific Dates for the Starts and Ends of the Six Creation Days? (October 2020) by Hugh Ross