How old is the Earth?

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How old is the Earth?

Evolution requires an old Earth, an old solar system, and an old universe.Nearly all informed evolutionists will admit that without billions of years their theory is dead. Yet, by hiding the “origins question” behind a vast veil of time, the unsolvable problems of evolution become difficult for scientists to see and laymen to imagine. Our media and textbooks have implied for over a century that this almost unimaginable age is correct, but rarely do they examine the shaky assumptions and growing body of contrary evidence. Therefore, most people instinctively believe the Earth and universe are old. Sometimes, these people are disturbed, at least initially, when they see the evidence.

POINTS OF EVIDENCE:

[THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES]

Moon Recession
As tidal friction gradually slows Earth’s spin, the laws of physics require the Moon to recede from Earth. This recession was first observed in 1695 by Edmond Halley. Even if the Moon began orbiting near Earth’s surface, the Moon should have moved to its present distance from Earth in several billion years less time than the 4.6 billion-year age evolutionists assume for the Earth and Moon. So the Earth-Moon system must be much younger than evolutionists assume.

What implication would a 1.2-billion-year-old Moon have for organic evolution and the age of Earth? If the Moon somehow began orbiting Earth 1.2 billion years ago, its close proximity to Earth would have created extreme tides many miles high. They would have eroded mountains and smoothed the Earth, especially at low latitudes. Little, if any, geological evidence supports this and much opposes it. Evolutionists claim that certain fossils are 2.8–3.5 billion years old. Had the Moon begun orbiting Earth 1.2 billion years ago, such fossils would have been pulverized by the havoc of gigantic tides. Tides exceeding a mile in height would have swept our planet twice a day for millions of years. Evidently the Moon did not originate near Earth. This further reduces the maximum age of the Moon.

Moon Dust and Debris
If the Moon were billions of years old, it should have accumulated a thick layer of dust and debris from meteoritic bombardment. Before instruments were placed on the Moon, some scientists were very concerned that astronauts would sink into a sea of dust—possibly a mile in thickness.a This did not happen. Very little meteoritic debris is on the Moon. In fact, after examining rocks and dust brought back from the Moon, scientists learned that only about 1/67th of the dust and debris came from outer space. Recent measurements of the influx rate of meteoritic material on the Moon also do not support an old Moon.

Volcanic Debris
Volcanoes eject almost a cubic mile of material into the atmosphere each year. At this rapid rate, about 10 times the entire volume of the earth’s sedimentary rock should be produced in 4.6 billion years. Actually, only about 25% of the earth’s sediments are of volcanic origin, and much greater volcanic activity existed in the past. No means have been proposed which can remove or transform all these volcanic sediments. Earth’s sediments, therefore, appear to be much younger than 4.6 billion years old

River Sediments
More than 27 billion tons of river sediments enter the oceans each year. Probably the rate of sediment transport was even greater in the past as the looser topsoil was removed and as erosion smoothed out the earth’s terrain. Even if erosion has been constant, the sediments now on the ocean floor would have accumulated in only 30 million years. No process has been proposed which can remove 27 billion tons of ocean sediments each year. Consequently, the oceans cannot be hundreds of millions of years old.

Continental Erosion
The continents are eroding at a rate that would level them in much less than 25 million years. However, evolutionists believe fossils of animals and plants at high elevations have somehow avoided this erosion for more than 300 million years. Something is wrong.

Magnetic Decay
Over the past 140 years, direct measurements of Earth’s magnetic field show its steady and rapid decline in strength. This decay pattern is consistent with the theoretical view that there is a decaying electrical current inside Earth which produces the magnetic field. If this is correct, then just 20,000 years ago the electrical current would have been so vast that Earth’s structure could not have survived the heat produced. This implies Earth could not be older than 20,000 years

Solar Wind
The Sun’s radiation applies an outward force on extremely small particles orbiting the Sun. Particles less than 100,000th of a centimeter in diameter should have been “blown out” of the solar system if it were billions of years old. Yet these particles are still orbiting the Sun. Conclusion: the solar system is young.

Shrinking Sun
Since 1836, more than 100 different observers at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and U.S. Naval Observatory have made direct, visual measurements that suggest the Sun’s diameter is shrinking at a rate of about 0.1% each century, or about five feet per hour! Furthermore, records of solar eclipses indicate this rapid shrinking has been going on for at least the past 400 years. Several indirect techniques also confirm the Sun is shrinking, although these inferred rates are only about 1/7th as fast. Using the most conservative data, one must conclude that had the Sun existed several million years ago, it would have been so large that its heat would have destroyed life on Earth. Yet, evolutionists say that a million years ago all present forms of life were essentially as they are now, having completed their evolution that began a thousand million years ago.

All dating techniques, especially the few that suggest vast ages, presume that a process observed today has always proceeded at its present rate. This assumption may be grossly inaccurate. Projecting presently known processes far back in time is more likely to be in error than extrapolation over a much shorter time. For the many dating “clocks” that show a young Earth and a young universe, a much better understanding usually exists for how the dating techniques work.

This contrary evidence understandably disturbs those who have always been told that the Earth is billions of years old. Can you imagine how disturbing this evidence is to confirmed evolutionists?

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