Contrary to what many people (including our children) have been told, over 100 different scientific methods exist to date the real age of the earth and most of them provide a rather young age for our planet.
Humans have been on the Earth from the beginning of time.We did not evolve millions of years after creation (Gen, 1:26-27; Exodus 20:11; Mark 10:6; Romans 1:20).In his book, “Convicted: A Scientist Examines the Evidence for Christianity,” Dr. Brad Harrub provides a timeline, based solely on scripture, that shows the lineage of man from creation to approx. 2500 B.C.By calculating how long humans have been on Earth, it is possible to arrive at an approximate age for the planet.Secular history and the Bible indicate that from the present back to the time of Abraham is about 4,000 years.Genesis 5 and 11 provide genealogies that give the ages of the fathers at the time of the sons’ birth.When these ages are added, they yield about 2,000 years, thus giving an age of the Earth of less than 10,000 years.
What other evidence can we use to prove a young Earth?Consider the following:
1)Niagara Falls is a waterfall located on the border between New York and Ontario, Canada.Erosion has pushed the waterfall about 7 miles upstream, forming the Niagara Gorge.Prior to the water-diversion projects in the 1950’s and 1960’s, the falls receded at a rate of more than 3 feet per year.If the Earth were even 4.6 billion years old, and if the falls have been eroding at 3 feet per year, the original location of the waterfall would have been 13.5 BILLION FEET farther upstream!That would be difficult to accomplish since the circumference of the Earth is only 132 MILLION feet!
2)The Mississippi River flows toward the Gulf of Mexico picking up dirt, sediment and other debris along the way.Approx. 300,000,000 cubic yards of sediment are deposited into the Gulf of Mexico each year.If the Earth has been around as long as evolutionists say it has, the math is very straight forward; the sediment deposited from the Mississippi River would have filled in the Gulf of Mexico a long time ago.
3)Evolutionists believe that the Grand Canyon was formed by the Colorado River (a very small river of water) over a long period of time.The major problem with this theory is that there are over 900 cubic MILES of dirt missing from the end of the river!If the tiny Colorado River did form the canyon, what happened to all the dirt?
For the Christian who honors the testimony of the inspired Scriptures, the final word on this matter is the Bible itself.
If it can be demonstrated biblically that humanity and the earth were created at approximately the same time, and if it can be shown that man’s history is to be measured in terms of a few thousand years—rather than millions, even billions—then it logically follows that the earth should be viewed as relatively young.