How old is the earth?

Question

According to the Bible, the earth is about 10,000 years old, but according to science, it is about 4.5 billion years old. Who is right?

http://www.nwcreation.net/articles/SCCS2004/borcherdt.htm

http://www.godandscience.org/youngearth/yeclaims.html

http://kids.nineplanets.org/earth.htm

http://gpc.edu/~pgore/geology/geo102/age.htm

Answer 1

4.5 billion years old is correct... this is a fact. We also know that humans have been around for about 200,000 years... this is also fact.

where in the bible does it say the earth is only 10,000?

Answer 2

Hi job_32787. Actually the Bible tells us the earth is a little more than 13,000 years old. Defiantly not billions of years old.

We need to remember that that written history only goes back to about 5,200 years ago. There is no proof of anything older than that.

Some people try to rely on carbon 14 dating, the problem is, if you are using carbon 14 dating, you have to assume that the carbon reservoir remained constant all the way back through history. This cannot be proven. Their conclusion will be a guess at best.

Carbon 14 dating is very accurate up to about 13,000 years. After that it varies, and it varies wildly.

I was at a museum a while back and there was a display of dinosaur bones. The sign said the bones were between 60,000 and 100,000 years old. That's a margin of 40,000 years for mistake. That is not science my friend, that's guess work.

For those who say that days or nights were thousands of hours long, that would be impossible. In Genesis 1:11-13 God tells us He created plants and fruits on the third day:

"Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so...13 So the evening and the morning were the third day."

On the forth day He created day and night. In Genesis 1:14-19 God tells us:

"Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and year...16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth,18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day."

Now, if the days were thousands of hours long all of the vegetation on the earth would have burned up because of all the sunlight. If the nights were thousands of hours long all of the vegetation on the earth would have died because vegetation needs light to grow, but too much sun or too much darkness will kill the vegetation. God created 4 seasons and He created 24 hour days, just like it is now.

Another question that those who believe the earth is billions of years old cannot answer, is sediment in the ocean floor. All rivers and streams have sediment in the water, this comes from the rocks, land and other sources. Rivers and streams empty into the ocean. Every time it rains more sediment is poured into the ocean. Scientists can measure and get a fair estimate of how much sediment goes into the ocean each year, so with this knowledge you should be able to multiply the amount of sediment going into the ocean by say, 100 million, and you could get a close estimate of how old the earth is. This is not the case. Scientists have also taken many core samples from the ocean floor and the sediment level is just not deep enouth to say the earth is billions or even millions of years old.

The sediment level on the floor of the ocean is not that deep. After all if it has been raining for 4 billion years then all of the sediment (soil and rocks) would have washed into the ocean a couple of million years ago and there would be no more soil left.

Answer 3

This is where it gets funny and people start leaning towards the Bible's 6,000 to 10,000 year old earth hypothesis (It doesn't really say it in the book but with all the info mentioned inside of it, it's clearly around that age). Telling us that the book is older than the scientists, therefore the bible must be right... To them, even cavemen, dinosaurs, and fossils like Lucy were put on earth by the devil to convince us that the bible is wrong. There's no way of convincing them. If there was evidence like that for a god then i would definitely start believing him... just any evidence! ahh I wish people would realize that they are only picking what they like from the bible and ignoring all the atrocities and contradictions in there. You would think god would have made a better book if he wrote it himself... oh wait he didn't, people did....

Answer 4

It is about 4.5 billion years old.

Carbon-14 dating is only accurate on samples between 6 000 and 40 000 years old, because Carbon-14 only has a half-life of 5 730 years.

Potassium-Argon dating is accurate to billions of years, and the older a sample, the more accurate it is. This is because potassium-40 has a half-life of 1.3 billion years.

Another dating techinique that is highly accurate is uranium-lead dating on the mineral zircon. This technique has an error rate of less than 0.1%.

Answer 5

The bible says no such thing. It say " in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Period. It didn't sat when . then it says "Now the earth bla bla etc. When it said "now" it meant at that current time. Not necessarily in the ACTUAL beginning referred to in the first verse. The bible agrees that the earth is millions of years old. As alluded to in Job chapter 40. luv y'all

Answer 6

"According to the Bible, the earth is about 10,000 yearls old."

The Bible I read does not date the age of the Earth. Nor does it give when the Earth was created.

Answer 7

Wrong.

From revelation we know that God existed before He created everything we can observe. We know that God created Adam. We do not know how much time passed between when God created everything and when God created Adam.

We also do not know how long were Adam and Eve were in the Garden.

You have provided the time line from Adam to Jesus. Where is the time line from the beginning and Adam?

Answer 8

So far scientists have not found a way to determine the exact age of the Earth directly from Earth rocks because Earth's oldest rocks have been recycled and destroyed by the process of plate tectonics. If there are any of Earth's primordial rocks left in their original state, they have not yet been found. Nevertheless, scientists have been able to determine the probable age of the Solar System and to calculate an age for the Earth by assuming that the Earth and the rest of the solid bodies in the Solar System formed at the same time and are, therefore, of the same age.

The ages of Earth and Moon rocks and of meteorites are measured by the decay of long-lived radioactive isotopes of elements that occur naturally in rocks and minerals and that decay with half lives of 700 million to more than 100 billion years to stable isotopes of other elements. These dating techniques, which are firmly grounded in physics and are known collectively as radiometric dating, are used to measure the last time that the rock being dated was either melted or disturbed sufficiently to rehomogenize its radioactive elements.

The best age for the Earth comes not from dating individual rocks but by considering the Earth and meteorites as part of the same evolving system in which the isotopic composition of lead, specifically the ratio of lead-207 to lead-206 changes over time owing to the decay of radioactive uranium-235 and uranium-238, respectively. Scientists have used this approach to determine the time required for the isotopes in the Earth's oldest lead ores, of which there are only a few, to evolve from its primordial composition, as measured in uranium-free phases of iron meteorites, to its compositions at the time these lead ores separated from their mantle reservoirs. These calculations result in an age for the Earth and meteorites, and hence the Solar System, of 4.54 billion years with an uncertainty of less than 1 percent. To be precise, this age represents the last time that lead isotopes were homogeneous througout the inner Solar System and the time that lead and uranium was incorporated into the solid bodies of the Solar System.

The age of 4.54 billion years found for the Solar System and Earth is consistent with current calculations of 11 to 13 billion years for the age of the Milky Way Galaxy (based on the stage of evolution of globular cluster stars) and the age of 10 to 15 billion years for the age of the Universe (based on the recession of distant galaxies).

Answer 9

The Bible is alway RIGHT... God made the earth look like it has years on it for a reason. Thats why He made fool grown animals to put on it. He didnt make baby animals just like He didnt make Adam a child... (think about it). The earth has its years because it had a purpose... the life cycle.

Answer 10

Only God the Creator knows the true age of the earth and the universe.

Answer 11

The earth is approximately 63 years old.