Is it true that the earth is only 6000 years old?

Answer 1

Great scientists of the past such as Newton and Keppler were often strongly religious and calculated dates that were not very different from the well known 4004 BC date provided by Ussher. Those who hold to a 6000 year age of the earth do so firstly because they believe The Bible to be the only truly reliable record about the past -given to us by a God who was there and who knows what happened. They also recognize that since the world is open to scientific inquiry, evidence can and has indeed been uncovered which puts the earth much more reasonably into the 6000 year age group.

It is also true to say that while many people believe the world to be 4.6 billion years old, this is not known, since there are many problems with dating methods -including not just the three unprovable assumptions on which they rest, but the notable fact that when the dates for rocks which supposedly are absolute age indicators do not agree with what the geologist already thinks is the probable date of the rocks, they are either discarded or explained away.

The finding of significant amounts of data which indicate the earth is actually close to 6000 years old can also support this conclusion in purely scientific terms.

HUMAN POPULATION

Creationists point to the current world population growth rate of 1.7% and contrast this with the 0.5% that would be needed to reach our current world population from Noah and his family after the flood 4,500 years ago, with the creation around 1500 years before that. This would thus include great catastrophes such as the post-flood ice-age and the Great Plague or Black Death which killed a large part of the population of Europe in the Middle Ages.

Creationists also point out that this is a great challenge to evolutionists to explain if their theory were true since there should be, with the much longer time periods involved:

1. A vastly larger human population.

2. A much greater quantity of human remains in the earth than are actually found.

3. Evidence for the alleged catastrophes that repeatedly (allegedly) nearly wiped out the entire human population.

Believing none of the evolutionary explanations can be demonstrated scientifically, creationists suggest they have the better explanation for what we actually find.

Answer 2

Not really, no.

Most credible scientists would state that the evidence is abundant and profound that the Earth is several billion years old.

No, most scientists would not put forth the claim that the Earth is only 6 million years old. A few scientists might, but not many, and not those with the most credibility.

Answer 3

No, it is not true.

At the very least, the history of human civilization suggests that the Earth is older than 6000 years. Various evidence exists - all consistent, all reliable - to suggets Earth is around 4.6 billion years old.

Answer 4

There are two stories of creation in Genesis - at Genesis 1:1-2:4a and 2:4b-2:20 respectively. The two stories are so incompatible that they can not both really be read literally, but pious readers, believing that the text cannot contain contradictions, ignore the major disjunctions between the two creation stories and tend to treat the second story as the fuller, more detailed account of the creation of man (and woman) that the first story simply reported. Leon R. Kass (The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis) says we must scrupulously avoid reading into the second story any facts or notions taken from the first, and vice versa. Thus, Adam and Eve have no place in the first creation story, while the six days of creation have no place in the story of Adam and Eve.

Those who believe that the world is only around six thousand to perhaps ten thousand years old believe they are interpreting the Bible's story of creation literally. They are referred to as "Young Earth creationists" because of the assumption that the world was created so recently.

For more information, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

Answer 5

While science put the age of the Earth at 4.6 billion years, some people believe it to be only about 6,000 years old. This is based on the theological research of James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, who used Old Testament genealogies to calculate that the world was created in 4004 BCE on the evening of 22nd October.

Some modern creationists use people like Isaac Newton to justify their views - though they tend to ignore the alchemy and occultism he practised.

Answer 6

That is based upon the Hebrew Bible. Also:

"Radiometric techniques may not be the absolute dating methods that they are claimed to be. Age-estimates on a given geological stratum by different radiometric methods are often very different. There is no absolutely reliable long-term radiological clock. The uncertainties inherent in radiometric dating are disturbing to geologists and evolutionists." William D. Stansfield, Ph.D., Instructor of Biology, California Polytechnic State University.

"Even total rock systems may be open during metamorphism and may have their isotopic systems changed, making it impossible to determine their geologic age." Prof. Gunter Faure (Department of Geology, The Ohio State University, Columbus.)

a). At current rates of erosion the amount of sea-floor sediments actually found do not support a "billions of years" age for the Earth.
b) The amount of Sodium Chloride in the sea, also, is a small fraction of what the "old Earth" theory would postulate.
c) The Earth's magnetic field is decaying too fast to extrapolate a long age for the Earth.
d) The rate of accumulation of Moon-dust has been measured; and the amount of dust on the Moon was found to be vastly less than what scientists had predicted before the Moon-landings.

See: Problems in Evolutionary astronomy

e) Helium is generated by radioactive elements as they decay. The escape of this helium into the atmosphere can be measured. According to the Evolutionary age of the Earth there should be much more helium in the atmosphere, instead of the 0.05% that is actually there.

See also:

Is there evidence for Creation?

Can you show that God exists?

Seeing God's wisdom