Why should I believe that the earth is millions of years old?

Question

I know this might sound like a dumb question but I was wondering why some religious people reject the fact that the earth is millions of years old and I would like to know if the science behind this is compelling enough to put it beyond reasonable doubt.

Answer 1

Some very good and detailed answers, but unfortunately the religions you encounter that refute this age have a creationist view of the Earth and they will simply reply that God created it to look approximately 4.5 billion years old, but our religion tells us otherwise.

ps. you can refute this by saying 'well if god wanted the Earth to look this old why propagate something different then' you will of course get the catch all argument that 'its written in our religious books, the very word of God'.

Answer 2

Skymaster -
Perhaps you can clarify one aspect for me. Given the half-life of an isotope, you still need to know the initial parent/daughter ratio to compute an age. For the age of the Earth, this seems to be done with meteorites (this is mentioned on the wiki page), but the explanation I've seen doesn't clarify how.

Thank you asgspifs, the isochron dating was the piece of the puzzle I hadn't come across yet.

I feel the need to point out:
"---indeed, some modern experiments have slowed it down to a few feet per second"
You do not understand the experiment. Basically, they get the photons locked up in electronic excitations of atoms so that it takes longer to go come out from the other side - the light itself is not slown down. Please read the actual paper on the experiment, not just the headlines in newspapers.


Also:
"The basic flaw with evolution is that life cannot start on it's own either here or anywhere else in the universe"
Evolution says nothing about the origin of life itself, only how it changes over time. Please, learn what you are talking about before you try to debunk it. And FYI, some researchers estimate that we are within a decate of artificially constructing living bacterial cells. (Which admitedly is not the same as creating them in a chaotic environment, but it is a step in that direction).

Answer 3

The Earth, in fact is calculated to be 4.5 billion years old, which is a lot older than you believe. The age of the earth
is similar to that of the Sun, but slightly younger as the earth formed from elements and materials surrounding the Sun which were drawn together by gravitational attraction. In fact we can still see star and planet formation taking place today in our own galaxy, so we are fairly typical in that respect.

Nether is the sun special in terms of its composition, it is a yellow dwarf star. Our galaxy contains about10^11 stars at which almost all can harbour planets. The Sun formed at temperatures of abouy 15x10^6K and the sun itself has pressureof 3x10^11 atmospheres. At there forces,nuclear reactions occur turning Hydrogen nuclei into Helium nuculei releasing energy. This energy has kept t he sun shining for the last 4.5 billion years (4.5X10^9) and will do so for another 4.5 billion. It is this energy that brings forth the conditions for life to flourish, just as it does on an infinite number of other planets ensewhere in the universe. The age of the universe is about 14-15 billion years since it formed.

All of this has been calculated by astro physicists since the early 20th century and is accepted as the science behind the calculations. It was this theoretical nuclear work which produced the atomic bomb in the 2nd World War and it fits all the observed facts.

The age of the earth can be obtained by dating the radioactive content of the rocks, since each radioactive element decays over very long periods of time (sometimes in billions of years) so the radiactive decay indicates time lapsed since formation. This age of 4.5 billion years is accepted by almost all scientists the world over and is taught in school and is most compelling. There is no other theory which explains the observed facts, and is unquestionably beyond any reasonable doubt.

Also remember, when we observe the universe we see into the past, so we can actually see the conditions which gave rise to planets such as the earth, and in some cases can observe the planets themselves forming out of proto planets.

You do not serously belive that religion has anything at all to do with it.... do you?. These guys are looking for an easy answer so they do not have to think about difficult concepts, perhaps they will have us all burnt at the stake for heresy.

Answer 4

Many religious types accept Bishop Ushers calculation of the age of the earth based on the length of lifespans mentioned in the Bible as being Biblical and infallible.
The Annales veteris testamenti, a prima mundi origine deducti ("Annals of the Old Testament, deduced from the first origins of the world"), which appeared in 1650, and its continuation, Annalium pars postierior, was published in 1654. In this work, Usher calculated the date of the Creation to have been nightfall preceding 23 October 4004 BC.

Various scientific dating techniques make a mockery of this figure. There are trees older than this. You can count their growth rings. Carbon 14 dating can reasonably date biological materials back about 60,000 years. There are other radioactive dating techniques that can obtain dates of certain rocks with reasonable accuracy that are MUCH older.

Unless you are one of those Christians who like to believe that god created fake light to fool us, simple geometry proves the universe is older than 6000 years old. We have light coming from stars in our own galaxy that are more than 6000 light years distant. And there are a gadzillion of other galaxies that we can see who are FAR more distant than 6000 Light years.

Anyone who wishes to ignore reality is free to believe Bishop Ushers calculation. But prepare to be laughed at by people who can count past the number 20.

Answer 5

It's not millions of years old, It is approximately 4.2 billion years old, we know this because of carbon-14 testings and radiometric testings on rocks from the time period which is buried under miles worth of sediment. The first hominid appeared 4.5 million years ago, Australopithecus. We have even been able to recreate the atmosphere of earth during it's birth where organic compounds and amino acids have formed to create the building blocks of uni cellular and complex organisms.

To recreate the early atmosphere, scientists tried to create organic compounds in an atmosphere consisting of harsh elements like sulfur, phosphorous, ammonia and methane and many others. And surely enough, organic compounds formed themselves with an electrical current running through the "goop" of these elements.

Answer 6

Radioactive dating of terrestrial rocks.
Radioactive dating of meteorites.
Also, the time it takes for natural biologic and geologic processes to operate agrees with this age.

If you are worried about the "initial ratios" issue, don't be.
Check out isochron dating:

Answer 7

You are all wrong! The Earth is 4.6 Billion years old! Another theory how the earth was created was; long ago When the sun was orbiting around our galaxy, it picked up lost of gases and rocks and put them into orbit around the sun. and then one big rock put lots of small rocks and gases into a gravitational pull. when this happened the rocks started going together to form earth.

Answer 8

The Bible states that God created the universe and earth roughly 6000 years ago...there is no way to accurately---key word accurately--- date earth history farther back than that. There are many scientfic observations that correlate to a young age for the earth and our solar system and many sites that explain them...not always by Christians either. All known dating methods are flawed in some way or another, can't account for exact sample data and usually are concluded with a preset mentality of miilions or billions of years of time...not very scientific or unbiased.
The age of the universe is debated about because of the fact that we can see light and other energy from other solar systems far in excess of 6000 light years away but no one can demonstrate that the speed of light has always been constant in the past---indeed, some modern experiments have slowed it down to a few feet per second--since the universe is winding down, one could argue that the speed of light is too and may have been much, much faster in the past which would alter the figures for distance of other stars or galaxies. The light or energy we see today may have been put into rays, instantly, already in place 6000 years ago by God. He created Adam and Eve as adults and arguably all the animals as well as the earth itself being formed---why could he not have created all the stars, planets and galaxies with the light rays or energy rays already in place from them. The Bible states that there was light in the first three days before the Sun, moon and stars were created so it's probable that God can create light itself without a source which, I admit, is very hard to understand but God can do anything. We cannot always explain how God does things through his creative power and God has created laws of nature that are constant, testable, observable and understandable but that does not mean he is not able to change then periodically for his purposes...God caused the sun to stand still and even go backwards, Jesus walked on water, he raised Lazarus from the grave after being dead three days and starting to decompose, he turned water into wine, he caused the wind to cease blowing, he healed lepers and more---all of which show his power over nature and natural laws. We need to know that there are some things which we cannot fully understand but we should keep seeking out that which we can.
The basic flaw with evolution is that life cannot start on it's own either here or anywhere else in the universe---it's impossible and goes contrary to known laws of nature like biogenesis. The Miller-Urey experiments of the 50's in trying to produce the "building blocks of life " by sparking electricity in a soup of various chemicals failed miserably, producing 85 percent tar, which is fatal to biological growth and it also produced no left-handed amino acids which are found in all life forms---exclusively. You cannot start life in an oxygen atmosphere because it oxidizes or breaks down chemicals and you can't start it in a non-oxygen atmosphere because you need oxygen to produce ozone which protects us from ultra-violet rays from the sun or else life would be destroyed. You can't start it in water because of hydrolysis which breaks apart chemical bonds....there's no solution to it. And the makeup and structure of even the most simplest form of life---a bacteria--- is more complex than most major cities....it's statisically impossible for it to have developed on it's own.
There are simply too many flaws in evidence and reasoning to give a date of the universe or earth as being 4.5 billion years old and the belief that life started on it's own is impossible so there must have been a Creator-- which Christians accept as God of the Bible.

Answer 9

believe anything you please.

If you want to make assertions about the physical world, you will look less stupid if you consider the evidence.

Answer 10

hindu religion got all calculations correct