How old is the earth?
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). The question of the age of the earth has produced heated discussions on debate boards, classrooms, TV, radio, and in many churches, Christian colleges, and seminaries. The primary sides are: • Young earth proponents (biblical age of the earth and universe of about 6,000 years)1 • Old earth proponents (secular age of the earth of about 4.5 billion years and a universe about 14 billion years old)2 The difference is immense! Let’s give a little history of where these two basic calculations came from and which worldview is more reasonable.
By Merle Hertzler Last night, light arrived at your house from the distant stars. It must have taken a long time for that light to reach your house, for the stars are very far away, and light travels at only 186,000 miles per second. Scientists tell us it would have taken billions of years for the light to have made that journey from the distant stars. If the light did indeed come from those stars, then the light left those stars billions of years ago. And if the light was traveling for billions of years, than the stars must be very old, and the universe is very old. evolve1.jpg – 12262 Bytes Some people will object to this conclusion, and will tell me the universe is only 6000 years old, based on a literal interpretation of the Bible. But if the universe and the stars are only 6000 years old, and light appears to have taken billions of years to make that journey, how did that light manage to reach the earth? Creationists have made several attempts to explain this problem. Some have qu
Man seems to possess an untiring preoccupation regarding the globe on which he resides. Some of this interest is beneficial to man, enhancing his lifestyle. However, some of the preoccupation is indicative of arrogance on man’s part. Those who are obsessed with teaching that the earth, man, and every living thing on earth naturally began and through natural selection evolved are engaging in the zenith of gall (Gen. 1; 2). There is particular interest today relative to the age of the earth. Some geophysicists tell us the earth is 4.7 billions years old. Some theologians say the earth is only 6, 000 years old. Beloved, the simple answer regarding the age of the earth is, no man knows the exact age. The earth is 6,000 years old position. The date 4004 B.C. is found in the marginal notes (Genesis one) of many King James Versions. This date was first placed in the King James Version by James Ussher in 1701. He arrived at this date by adding the lengths of the lives of the patriarchs as give
Traditional Thought How old is the Earth? Good question. The Earth was thought to be fairly young (thousands of years old) until the 19th and 20th centuries, when uniformitarianism (which assumes an Old Earth) and evolutionary thought (which demands an Old Earth) became popular in mainstream society. How Old is the Earth? Recent Consideration So, how old is the Earth? In the 19th century, it was proposed that the Earth may be as much as 70 million years old. Then, certain evidence was brought to light indicating that evolution was not possible in so short a time. So, the age of the Earth was pushed back. During the 20th century, it was thought that the age of the Earth was as much as 1 billion years old. Now, with the development of radiometric dating and the application of that technique on the meteorite “Allende”, it is thought that the world is up to 4.6 billion years old. However, this is not conclusive. The assumptions that are fundamental to radiometric dating are extremely contr
