ageoftheearth

The Age of the Earth––#

THE AGE OF THE EARTH

Introduction
1. Time is a central issue
  1. If earth is young, it seems there is insufficient time for extensive geological and biological evolution
  2. If earth is old, the theories of geological and biological evolution become more plausible
  3. Thus creationists have long sought to discredit old earth arguments knowing how crucial they are to the evolutionist position
2. For many people, the issue of time is an emotionally charged topic
  1. Time provides the framework for important events which seem to lose significance in the context of deep time
    1. 6000 years accounts for only about 80 human life spans
    2. 4.3 billion years accounts for around 57,000,000 life spans
  2. Seventh-day Adventists are particularly time-conscious
    1. Seventh-day Sabbath
    2. Soon Second Coming
    3. Time prophecies
3. Here we examine
  1. History of ideas concerning age of the earth
  2. Evidence bearing on the age of the earth
Early views
1. Many ancient peoples believed in cyclic time––essentially no beginning, no end
  1. Hindus––Multiple cosmic cycles involved destruction and restructuring
  2. Chaldeans––Said earth emerged from chaos 2,000,000 years ago and then began its most recent cycle
2. Early Christian views––linear time
  1. Theophilus of Antioch (ca. 115-180), Bishop of Antioch in 170
    1. World was created about 5529 B.C.
    2. Theophilus didn’t think he could be off by more than 200 years
  2. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
    1. Creation occurred at the summer solstice when the solar apogee was at the head of the constellation Aries
    2. Calculating from known rates of motion, Kepler calculated that the creation occurred in 3993 B.C.
  3. John Lightfoot (1602-1675)
    1. Distinguished biblical and Greek scholar who became Vice- Chancellor of Cambridge University
    2. Using the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 he assigned the time of creation of man at nine a.m., in September at the autumnal equinox, 3928 B.C.
  4. James Ussher (1581-1656)
    1. Distinguished Irish scholar and churchman––Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland in 1625
    2. Assigned day 1 of creation to Sunday evening, October 22, 4004 B.C.
    3. His date was placed as a marginal note in the 1701 edition of the English Bible with no explanation
    4. There it remained until 1900 when Cambridge University Press removed it from the margin
    5. Oxford University Press waited another 10 years before removing this date from its editions
Early scientific attempts to determine the age of the earth
1. Beniot de Maillet (1656-1738)
  1. French diplomat and amateur naturalist
  2. Based on geologic evidence, he concluded that the earth was much older than a few thousand years old
  3. He used contemporary rates of geologic processes to try to predict how long ago things occurred in the past
  4. He believed that the beginning of the earth as we know it occurred over 2 billion years ago
2. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788)
  1. Businessman and scientist
  2. Divided the history of the earth into seven epochs
  3. He assumed that the earth formed when a comet collided with the sun, with the resultant ejected hot liquids and gases forming the planets of the solar system
  4. He did some experiments on the cooling of metal spheres to estimate how long it would take for the earth to cool
  5. Based on these experiments, he calculated the earth to be 74,832 years old, though he thought this estimate was too low
3. William Thomson (1824-1907)––Later known as “Lord Kelvin”
  1. One of the most prominent scientists in English history
  2. Developed the second law of thermodynamics
  3. Estimated the age of the age of the earth to be between 20 and 400 million years––most likely about 98 million years
  4. In 1897 he refined the range of age to be between 20 and 40 million years––and most likely closer to 20
Other evidences used to support an old earth model
1. Gradual increase in percent of extinct types in fossil record
2. Fossil carbonate reef deposits
  1. Slowly growing
  2. Often too large to transport
  3. Frequently occur at multiple levels
3. Extensive biomass
4. Evaporites
5. Varves
6. Annual layers in ice caps
7. Unconformities
8. Deeply weathered levels and fossil soil zones
9. Continental drift
10. Evidence of climate change––e.g., fossil plants in volcanics of Columbia River Plateau––moist tropical at low levels, gradual shift to arid conditions today
11. Recycled fossils
12. Endemism
13. Radiometric dating
Genesis and geology
1. During the past two centuries, many attempts have been made to understand the relationship between Genesis and geology
2. This has usually involved serious respect for both the Bible and for the science of geology
3. It is important to remember, though, that the Bible makes no mention of the main “stuff” of geology
  1. Volcanism
  2. Continental drift
  3. Erosion
  4. Sedimentation
  5. Fossils or fossilization
  6. Meteorite impacts
4. Attempts to harmonize Genesis and geology are not necessarily biblical––they are based on assumptions which may or may not be true, but which in any case are not taught by scripture
5. There is obviously much overlap among these views
6. Also, it is important that some of these models were proposed before 1859 when Darwin published Origin
7. Models of harmonization
  1. Religious-only view
    1. Origin of universe is stated in theological terms only
    2. It is the province of science to determine how it happened
    3. Nature, however, is the creation of a powerful, wise and good God
    4. Genesis is the theologically true view of nature, but scienfitically it is of no value
    5. Therefore it is impossible to harmonize Genesis and geology
    6. The theologian who tries to derive science from Genesis is as in error as the scientist who sees nothing of God in nature
    7. Major proponent: Conrad Hyers in The Meaning of Creation
  2. Theistic evolution
    1. God was responsible for getting the creation started
    2. God placed within organisms the power to undergo change
    3. This change is the evolutionary process evidenced by the fossil record
    4. “God” in this view is often the God of the deists; one who is transcendent
    5. When humankind evolved, God placed within humans souls and they became moral beings
    6. Major proponents: Asa Gray (1810-1888) and Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)––early to mid-20th century
  3. Multiple creations and catastrophes
    1. At various times, God has created diverse types of organisms on earth
    2. Many of these organisms were wiped out by catastrophes which preserved them as fossils
    3. God then created a new world atop the old, etc.
    4. At each successive creation, life became more complex
    5. Major proponent: Georges Cuvier
      1. Believed in series of floods
      2. The last such flood was the Genesis flood
  4. Local creation
    1. Genesis 1:2 should read: “But afterward the earth became waste and desolate”
    2. The word “earth” means that portion of the world assigned for human habitation
    3. Historical geology describes processes that occurred for millions of years outside this specific area
    4. The area for humans was created and populated only a few thousand years ago
    5. This is the history recorded by Genesis
    6. Major proponent: John Pye Smith (1840)
  5. Ideal time view
    1. Nature is a cyclic process
    2. Creation must commence somewhere in the cycle
    3. Created life would appear as though it had already gone through the cycle up to the point at which it was created
    4. Thus, for example
      1. Adam was created with a navel––early paintings
      2. Trees were created with rings
      3. Rocks were created with fossils
    5. Every created object had two times
      1. Every created object had 2 times
        
        Ideal or prochronic time––this was the apparent time
        
        Real or diachronic time––the time that the created objects experience
      2. In ideal time, Adam was created with a 30-yr-old body with a navel
      3. In real time, Adam was 0-yrs-old and was never attached to a mother with an umbilicus
      4. Earth looks like it is millions of years old––its ideal time
      5. Earth is really only about 6000 years old––its real time
    6. Major proponent: Philip Henry Gosse––published Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot (1857)
  6. Gap theory
    1. Early view
      1. God created a perfect world as recorded in Genesis 1:1
      2. World was turned over to Lucifer who conducted temple worship to God in the Garden of Eden
      3. Lucifer’s exalted condition made him proud, and he fell into sin
      4. Earth was left alone by God for countless millions of years
      5. During this time, the geologic formations were formed, including the fossils
      6. The fossils indicate a judgment of God for sin
      7. Around 6000 years ago, God created a second world over the first––our current “biblical” world
      8. Major proponents: Cyrus Scofield (1843-1921) in the Scofield Bible and Presbyterian evangelist Harry Rimmer
    2. An Adventist version of the gap-theory
      1. God cast Lucifer out of heaven when he sinned
      2. Lucifer was given limited power to create on earth
      3. So Lucifer created a world which lasted for millions of years
        
        Death was part of this world
        
        This is when most of the fossils were formed
      4. Lucifer’s “crowning act” of creation was the production of ape men (Australopithicus)
      5. God put a halt to Lucifer’s creations and created his own perfect world, including Homo sapiens , a few thousand years ago
      6. It is this creation that is recorded in the Bible
      7. Proponent: Loma Linda physician and ethicist Jack Provonsha
  7. Age-day theory
    1. Days of Genesis represent in brief the geological and biological history of the earth
    2. Days are metaphorical, not literal
    3. Natural processes are the tool in the Divine hand to shape the earth
    4. Progressive creationism might be considered a type of the age-day theory
    5. Major proponent: Arnold Guyot (1807-1884), Presbyterian geologist
  8. Pictorial Day theory
    1. Main purpose of Genesis is theological and religious
    2. God is the subject––He speaks and it is done
    3. Creation was revealed to the writer of Genesis as occurring in 6 days––they were pictorial-revelatory days, not actual days
    4. The truth about the geological record can only be settled by a combination of geology and theology
    5. Creation was progressive in preparation for the creator’s crowning act––humankind
    6. Major proponent: Bernard Ramm (1950’s)
  9. Flood geology
    1. Bible records a history of only a few thousand years
    2. The geologic column seems to be more complex than can be accounted for in this length of time
    3. Strata are disorderly and must have been laid down catastrophically
    4. The only world-wide catastrophic event in Bible was Noah’s flood
    5. Thus, flood accounts for most of the strata
    6. Major proponents: George McCready Price (early 1900’s), and John Whitcomb and Henry Morris in The Genesis Flood
  10. Ecological zonation theory
    1. A form of flood geology
    2. This view, however, takes into account the apparent order of fossils in the geologic column
    3. Pre-flood world was divided into ecological zones just as it is today
    4. As flood waters rose, progressively different organisms were buried
    5. This has been the most prominent working model for conservative Seventh-day Adventists
    6. Major proponent: Harold W. Clark (1940’s)
  11. Local flood models
    1. When the Bible says that the flood covered the entire earth, this means only the part of earth known to humans
    2. The Flood was a late Pleistocene event
    3. Proponents: William Ryan and Walter Pitman in Noah’s Flood
Conclusion
1. Abundant physical evidence points to the view that the earth is very old
2. Many intelligent people, however, believe that the Bible specifies a young earth and/or life
3. Many others have found ways to accommodate their faith in scripture with acceptance of and old earth and life
4. Whether the earth and life are young or old, however, has no bearing on the question of whether there is a creator