How old is the Earth?
The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. This age is deduced by radiometric dating (Carbon-14 dating is one form of radiometric dating, suitable for archaeogical timespans. Other isotopes are needed to measure really long periods of time) — the oldest rocks anybody has found on Earth are about four and a half billion years old. Extreme ages of the planet are backed up by the times required for geological features to form, life to evolve, the age of the Sun, the age of the Universe, and more. There are many people who believe the universe to be only 6000 years old. They are quite welcome to their beliefs, and I will not try to argue with them beyond explaining my own beliefs and then leaving it alone. I have put my thoughts on the issue (mainly why, as a Christian, I do NOT believe in a young Earth) in this article: Six Thousand Years, or 13.7 Billion?. Please note that I am not prepared to get into an argument about this. I will probably ignore any emails on the subject, unless they’re really interesting!
Comments? Questions? Why not mail me at [email protected]