We can answer the question “How old is Earth?” by turning to science and the Bible. In both cases, faith plays a part.
“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.” - Exodus 20:11
When we ask how old Earth is, we’re really asking a history question. What is our planet’s history? How long has it been here? How was it formed? Unfortunately, no human being was around to see it happen. The best we can do is look at clues, test them with modern science and technology, and draw conclusions based on the results. What does Genesis say about Earth’s age, and how do scientists estimate it?
Age of Mystery?
The age of Earth is a fundamental question. All scientists work with the same data or “evidence”: the same chemical, biological, and physical clues. The key is how researchers interpret the information they get.
All scientists start with certain assumptions about the past and then use faith in those assumptions, together with geology, physics, and chemistry, to make certain calculations about Earth’s age, or, more specifically, its rocks. This is called geochronology. There are several different ways to do this, and we sometimes get different results.
The clocks that many scientists use to estimate the age of rocks have things in common. They all assume, by faith, a constant process rate, like the sand falling in an hourglass. We assume the sand will always fall at a constant rate. Next, scientists need to have what’s called a closed process system, like the hourglass; nothing can get in there and interfere with the measurements.
And finally, scientists have to begin with a known initial process component, again, like the sand. When we use an hourglass, we know how much sand we started with, so we know how much time has passed as it falls.
The secular dates for rocks like the ones in Grand Canyon depend on one thing: uniformitarianism. Has everything always happened at a uniform rate? Like the sand falling in an hourglass, have processes always happened at a constant speed? Or have they sometimes gone very fast?
Because of the Mount St. Helen’s eruption in 1980, we know that sediment layers can form really fast. We know that carbon-14 is often found in fossils that secular scientists have dated as being millions of years old—it should be long gone by now. This implies that the fossils (and the sediment-bearing rocks they are found in) aren’t millions of years old but only thousands. We also know that radioactive elements like uranium have not always decayed at the same rate.
If geologic processes haven’t been constant, then that’s a huge problem for the uniformitarian outlook. If the rate of change in the earth wasn’t constant and if strata didn’t form slowly over millions of years, then the assumptions scientists have been using to estimate our planet’s age aren’t reliable. Earth could really be much younger than secular scientists say.
Think Tank
All scientists look at chemical, biological, and physical clues to evaluate the age of Earth.
“Clock” scientists use the finally three assumptions when dating the Earth: (1) a constant process rate, (2) a closed process system, (3) a known initial process component.
What is one assumption secular scientists make about the decay rate of uranium to end up with ages of millions of years for Grand Canyon? They assume that the decay rate of uranium has always been the same.
What problems do fossils containing carbon-14, soft tissue, and DNA create for secular dating? There should be no detectable carbon-14 in fossils that are older than 100,000 years. And there should not be soft tissue or DNA in fossils dated at millions of years, but we still find it. Soft tissue and DNA can’t survive for long periods of time. This suggests that those fossils were formed only thousands of years ago, not millions. Finds like these indicate Earth’s layers might have been laid down quickly and recently by Noah’s Flood.
What are the two main views about how Grand Canyon formed? Catastrophism, which says that it was formed fast by the watery catastrophe of Noah’s Flood, and uniformitarianism, which says that it was carved gradually by the Colorado River over millions of years.
What specific Grand Canyon feature supports the reality of Noah’s Flood? The Tapeats Sandstone occurs across North America and contains huge boulders that could only have been moved and deposited by a force like the Global Flood.
What do you think is the most compelling evidence that you could present to support that the Earth and its rock layers did not form over long ages?
Why does the age of the Earth matter for us today? If the Bible is wrong or misleading in its opening chapters, then where else is it wrong?
Further Extraordinary Evidence
All Measurement “Clocks” Depend on Unprovable Assumptions
Many Strata Are Too Tightly Bent
Diamonds Have Too Much Carbon-14
The Sea Does Not Have Enough Minerals: Every year, more salt enters the ocean from rivers and accumulates. At present rates, seawater is not as salty as it should be if the oceans were ancient. Looking at the present rate the salt content is increasing per year, the current 3.5% salinity of seawater is much too low if this process has been going on for a very long time.
Back to the Bible
Read Genesis 1:4-5; Exodus 20:11; Exodus 31:16-17; 1 Corinthians 14:33.
What details do you observe about the description of creation and what makes a day a “day”? Day is connected to light. The evening and the morning make one day. God created in six days and rested on the seventh.
What clues indicate that the Bible is actually talking about 24-hour days? The Bible tells us there was an “evening” and “morning” that made up each of the days. Exodus 20:11 and Exodus 31:17 also say that the creation work took six days.
Why is an understanding of how a day is defined so important to how we read Genesis? If we cannot trust God’s definition of a day in the opening chapter of His word, then how can we trust anything else the Bible says?
Taking an exhaustive analytical Bible concordance, look up the Hebrew word yom and cross-check it with the word “day.” How many times is yom translated as “day” in the Bible? 1,167 times (the plural form is spelled yamim) In the book of Genesis? 127 times How many times is it used in Genesis to refer to the creation account? 16 times Can you find any use in Genesis of the word “day” (as a translation of yom) where it does not make sense if it is interpreted as a literal 24-hour day? No.
This was based on Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible.
What does 1 Corinthians 14:33 tell us about God? How does this apply to His work of creation and our understanding of origins? It tell us that God is logical and orderly and does not work in a way that would cause confusion. Because of this, we can trust that the Genesis account is accurate. God told us how He made the universe in plain words that are clear and understandable.
Takeaway
Scientific evidence supports the Bible and suggests that Earth’s age can be accurately counted in thousands, not millions, of years.