How old is the Earth?

1. 85

   Buildrepsposted 9 years ago

   How old is the Earth?
   
   Are there still people who think Earth is 6,000 years old? And if you believe it actually is 6,000 years old, can you explain it, and refute scientific explanations without my eyes getting wet (laughing or crying or both)?
   
   

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2. 86

   gmwilliamsposted 9 years ago

   
   
   Egad, unfortunately and oh so sadly, there are still people who contend that the earth is 6,000 years old against all logic.  There has been countless scientific data and proof that the earth is billions of years old.  The bible has metaphorically explained this; however, there are those souls who take the bible quite literally in that regard.  The earth is beyond 6,000 years old, it is billions of years old.

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   1. 0

      Yesyoucan2015posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The moon is moving away from the earth at 3.81cm per year, that's a measured fact. This posses a bit of a problem for the theory that the earth is billions of years old? Where would this put the moon billions of years ago? Interesting thought?

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3. 69

   Larry Fieldsposted 9 years ago

   I am not a religious person. That said, my understanding is that Bible chronology is based partially up the number of "begats." X number of years is assigned as an average time between begats.
   
   Supposedly, some people in early Bible history lived for hundreds of years. If so, early men may have fathered children at advanced ages. Of course, I'm assuming that the aging process was much slower in those days.
   
   All measurements have uncertainty. (Counting the number of jelly beans in a jar does not count as measurement.) Even if we assume that other info in the Bible is reasonably accurate, the Biblical estimate for the age of our fair planet has a lot of uncertainty associated with it.

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   1. 71

      dashingscorpioposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Larry, Do you really believe Adam lived to be 930 years old?Noah had his first son after he was 500? or God created foreign languages to "confuse people" and stop them from building a tower from earth to heaven? Seriously?

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   2. 69

      Larry Fieldsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hello, Dashing. Please reread the 1st sentence of my comment.
      I am a scientist. I can entertain an idea, without necessarily buying into it.
      My point? The 6000 year figure should be dodgy, even from a Fundamentalist perspective.

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4. 87

   Austinstarposted 9 years ago

   According to Space.com,
   "Since the planet Earth doesn't have a birth certificate to record its formation, scientists have spent hundreds of years struggling to determine the age of the planet. By dating the rocks in the ever changing crust, as well as neighbors such as the moon and visiting meteorites, scientists have calculated that Earth is 4.54 billion years old, with an error range of 50 million years."
   This incorporates the studies of geology and astrophysics as well as a few other studies of various scientific inquiry.
   The problem most people have is actually imagining vast amounts of time. Mankind only lives an average of 50-100 years give or take and no one verified has lived past 120 years.
   Our homo sapient existence is just a small blip of time and that is why most people cannot imagine large numbers.
   Remember when primitive people couldn't count past the number of fingers and toes? It's like that. Some people never learn to visualize vast numbers, distances, or times.

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5. 61

   James Powerposted 9 years ago

   I have debated this many times with religious people and you can never win (even though winning is not really the point of a debate). They will always come to either one of two conclusions:
   
   1. The Devil created all of the 'Scientific' evidence to lure people away from god
   
   2. 6,000 years ago god created everything and used recycled 'atoms' from earlier creations (someone actually said this to me once) to create our planet and he settled with us because we were his most perfect creations. Any fossils are just failed creations made from older projects.
   
   Not sure where the second one came from, I have not read the bible but I am pretty sure it doesn't mention that god created things over and over again.

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   1. 87

      Austinstarposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Well, it does mention that god committed genocide to get rid of his first attempt at creating humans, but it didn't take because we still have imperfect humans everywhere you look.

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6. 71

   dashingscorpioposted 9 years ago

   
   
   Unfortunately there will always be people who view the stories and parables in the bible as literal "historical facts". Faith & facts are often strangers. It's even more foolish when people attempt to "explain".
   The world was created in 6 days
   Adam lived to be 930 years old
   Noah had his first son after age 500
   God created foreign languages to keep man from building a tower from earth to heaven. (Even though they lacked machinery or space suits to contend without oxygen in outer space)
   Samson killed (1000 men) with a donkey jaw bone
   The immaculate conception
   God and the Devil made a wager regarding Job's love of God
   Jesus was killed on a Friday and rose on Sunday
   (And that's 3 days)? 72 hours? Was math different too?
   In the end people believe what (they) want to believe.

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   1. 87

      Austinstarposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yep, you can slap people in the face with facts and math, but they still hang on to that blind faith stuff.

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