God created the world, at least according to Archbishop James Ussher of Armagh.
In the 17th century, scientists weren’t the only ones starting to ponder the beginnings of the universe. Ussher, the head of the Anglican Church of Ireland at the time, attempted to calculate the dates of many important events described in the Old Testament. His calculations, which he published in 1650, were not that far off from many other estimates made at the time. Sir Isaac Newton, for example, believed that the world was created in 4000 BC.