Age of the Earth
The earth is widely believed to be billions of years old, but only God was there in the beginning. Since history can’t repeat itself and time machines haven’t been invented yet, determining the age of the earth relies upon assumptions. For example, people who believe in evolution assume matter is all there is. Naturally, they think the earth is billions of years old, because the universe would need a lot of time to create itself. Of course, they rule out an infinite, eternal Creator creating the universe in six days, because they have faith that God doesn’t exist. On the other hand, people who believe in the biblical account of creation maintain that the earth is young (about 6,000 years old). There are very detailed genealogies in the Bible, and they show that Adam was created about 4000 B.C. on the sixth day of creation (Genesis 5; 11:10-32; Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38). Are scientific observations more consistent with a young earth, or an old earth?
Dinosaurs
It’s popular to believe that dinosaurs went extinct about 65 million years ago. Yet, if this assumption is true, why have scientists discovered dinosaur bones with red blood cells, blood vessels and soft tissue? Dr. Mary Schweitzer, a part of a team that found dinosaur bones with red blood cells, pointed out “If you take a blood sample, and you stick it on a shelf, you have nothing recognizable in about a week. So why would there be anything left in dinosaurs?” (Yeoman, B., Schweitzer’s Dangerous Discovery, Discover 27(4):37–41, 77, 2006)
Now, the Bible doesn’t have the word ‘dinosaur’ in it, but that word wasn’t around until 1841. The Bible was translated into English in the 16th and 17th centuries, so it makes sense that the word dinosaur isn’t found in English translations of the Bible. That said, the Bible gives a description of an animal that sounds like a Brachiosaurus or a Diplodocus (Job 40:15-24). An animal called “behemoth” is described as eating grass, having bones like rods of iron and a tail that sways like a cedar (Job 40:15, 17-18). Although some people have claimed “behemoth” was a hippo or an elephant, both animals have tiny tails.
In addition, while the Bible doesn’t have the word dinosaur in it, the earliest English translations mention dragons several times. There are a number of other references to dragons throughout history and across different cultures. The Chinese lunar calendar, the flag of Wales, brass engravings in Carlisle Cathedral of England and countless stories of heroic dragon-slayers such as Beowulf and St. George are a few of these references. Why don’t we encounter dinosaurs more often today then? Well, many animals have gone extinct. Usually, genetic mutations, growing human settlement and environmental changes are the main factors. Why would dinosaurs be any different?
Regardless, for people who don’t trust accounts of dragons from the past, the discovery of dinosaur bones with red blood cells in them is far more difficult to dismiss. It takes more faith to believe red blood cells can be preserved in natural environments for 65 million years than it does to believe dinosaurs lived alongside human beings.
Geology
Most people think that natural processes take long periods of time, but the eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1980 blows that theory away. After Mount Saint Helens erupted, the Toutle River was blocked by deposits of volcanic ash and debris. A couple of years later, a mudflow breached the area and eroded a canyon system up to 140 feet deep in the Toutle River Valley. This took place on a single day, March 19th, 1982. Let’s be real. If someone who believed in evolution walked up to the canyon and didn’t know what happened, they would assume it took lots of time for it to be slowly carved out. After all, evolutionists claim that this is how the Grand Canyon was formed.
Supposedly, a little bit of water over a long period of time carved out the Grand Canyon. People who believe in the biblical account of creation maintain that the Grand Canyon was carved out by a lot of water over a short period of time. The Bible, an eyewitness account of world history, records that a worldwide flood occurred which involved a lot of volcanic and seismic activity (Genesis 7-8). This definitely could’ve carved out a large canyon system very quickly. Besides, since we’ve seen canyons form in a short amount of time, why not assume the same for canyons whose formation hasn’t been observed? In addition, we’ve never seen a canyon form slowly with a small amount of water. Why would we assume this happened with canyons whose formation hasn’t been observed?
Genetic Entropy
Genetic mutations corrupt existing genetic information, and that’s obviously bad news for evolution. It’s also bad news for individuals who think the earth is old. Why? Well, genetic mutations can create new traits, such as sickle-shaped red blood cells in sickle-cell anemia, but they don’t create new information. As a result, the genetic information in the human population has been breaking down over time. This process is called genetic entropy. Every generation, more genetic mistakes accumulate in the human population. With more mutations, there is less usable genetic information because more genes have been corrupted. So, if humans have been around for hundreds of thousands of years, we should be near extinction or extinct already.
Radiometric Dating
Contrary to popular belief, scientists can’t plug ‘age-meters’ into rocks. Dating a fossil requires a lot of assumptions. For example, let’s say you came into a room that had a burning candle. How would you estimate how long it had been burning before you found it? You could take the current height of the candle and the rate at which the candle is burning, but you’d have to assume the candle had always burned at the same rate and what the starting height of the candle was. Simply put, your answer would depend on the assumptions you make. This is kind of how it works with radiometric dating. Naturally, scientists who believe in evolution make assumptions which give them older ages. What about carbon dating?
Well, carbon-14 forms from cosmic rays acting on nitrogen in the atmosphere. All living things have carbon-14 in them, and when they die, the carbon-14 begins to break down. Scientists assume the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere has always been constant and that its decay rate hasn’t changed. With their starting assumptions made, they estimate an age. Now, about every 5,730 years, half of the carbon-14 in a dead organism decays away. Anything over approximately 50,000 years old shouldn’t have any measurable carbon-14 left in it. Put differently, if something has carbon-14 in it, it isn’t millions of years old.