Age of the earth
Did You Know?
Most scientists today believe the earth to be about 4.6 billion years old. The Bible, however, after tracing the genealogies to Adam, brings the date of the earth’s creation to approximately 4,000 BC. Occasionally there are minor gaps in the Bible’s genealogies, but even in the most extreme scenario, the planet’s date of birth couldn’t be more than 10,000 years according to Genesis. Obviously there is a great chasm between evolutionary thought and biblical documentation.
Though many believe the concept of a young earth is preposterous – adhered to only by mindless right-wing Christians – it must be noted that there is nothing truly scientific about an old earth philosophy. In evolutionary thought the earth is assumed to be old, and this bias is what determines most of the conclusions we read about and/or hear about regularly. It is important, however, to understand that most rock strata “dates” were actually assigned long before the first use of radioactive age estimating methods in 1911.
Consider the dating techniques. The first technique for date determination is the Carbon 14 method. At best this method is only useful for estimating the age of clothing, wood, and other non-fossilized organic materials that are less than 5,000 years old. The two dating methods used for rocks are the potassium-argon method and uranium-lead method. These methods observe a radioactive form of potassium that is found in minute quantities in some rocks. It disintegrates at an exact rate into calcium and argon. Similarly, the radioactive element uranium decomposes into lead and other elements. The speed of the disintegration process is measured when some of the material is ground up to determine the ratio of radioactive “parent” atoms to the decayed products. Unfortunately, age estimates are often inconclusive and contradictory. For example, following a volcanic eruption in Hawaii in 1949 new rocks were formed after the lava hardened. Even though these rocks were known to be recently formed rocks, they were dated at 3 to 10 billion years old! Recently, a new “foolproof” dating method was used on two lava flows in the Grand Canyon. What did it find? Only that young basalt rock at the top of the Canyon was said to be 270 million years older than ancient basalt rock at the Canyon's bottom.
Another case in point is the human population. Currently, the annual population growth rate is 2%. However, if man evolved 2 million years ago and increased at only 1/10 of the present rate there would be 5 quintillion people on the earth (currently 6 billion). Even if each two people produced, on the average, 2.6 children in their lifetime, the earth’s population would double each year. If that process began in 4,000 BC, the earth’s present population would come just short of 10 trillion! Man simply couldn’t have originated that long ago. Population observations show that man is a recent creation of God just like Genesis teaches.
Remember that God created Adam as a man. He created trees, the sun, stars, and mountains with maturity. They were created with the appearance of age. Be careful adhering to evolution’s “conclusions.” All of their “facts” are negated with each new find.
If you’d like to know more about the Bible, the people of Harvest Bible Church invite you to join us on Sunday mornings. Adult Bible Fellowship begins at 9:15, and the worship service starts at 10:30. We meet at Ault Elementary. Call our church office at 281-304-1441, or you can consult our website at www.harvestbiblechurch.net