Bible Accuracy Series - Part 2: Age of the Earth

Here is Part 2 of the series of mini-essays on the Bible.

Age of the Earth

By tracking the lives of individuals in the Old Testament (many of which live to be several hundred years old), the Bible dates the age of the Earth at approximately 6,000 years old, give or take 2,000 years.

Our most advanced radiometric dating techniques place the Earth’s age at about 4.5 billion years old. This has been tested and verified using multiple types of dating systems, and is more or less undisputed within the scientific community. Even if someone wishes to argue about the inaccuracy and inconsistency of these radiometric dating techniques, I think most could agree that the planet has been around for more than 6,000 years. That date is flagrantly inaccurate, it is 750,000 times smaller than the actual age of the Earth, as we know it. That’s not a small miscalculation or a rough estimate. That’s completely and utterly incorrect.

For comparison, the Sumerian culture not only predates the Bible’s suggested age of the Earth, but their empire lasted longer than the entire reported age of the Earth. The Sumerian culture dates back to over 20,000 BCE. By about 5,000 BCE (around when the time of Creation), the Sumerians had already developed a system of writing, as well as agriculture and legal systems.