How old is the universe? How long has the earth been here? The Bible says that “in the __________________________ God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). When was this beginning? When did this wonderful work of creation take place? Hundreds of years ago? Thousands of years ago? Millions of years ago? Billions of years ago (as the evolutionists now believe)? What does the Bible teach about the age of the heavens and the earth?
You might be curious about how old your school building is. When was that school built? Your Grandfather might say, “I remember when that school was built. I was 18 years old when that building was constructed.” Grandfather could tell you the very year that your school was built. He was a witness.
The problem with determining the age of the earth is that no one was alive to witness this great event. A scientist might say, “The earth is four or five billion years old.” This is what he believes, but does he really know this? Was he there when it happened? Does he know anyone who witnessed this event?
The Lord Jesus was present when the world was first made because He was the Creator (John 1:3; Col. 1:16; Eph. 3:9). We can fully trust what He says about the creation of the world. The angels also witnessed the creation of the earth (Job 38:4-7). But there were no people to witness this event.
Suppose you were to enter an abandoned house (no one is home) and you see a candle burning on the table.
The candle is 5 inches tall. As you watch this candle, you notice that it is burning at a rate of 1 inch every hour. HOW LONG HAS THAT CANDLE BEEN BURNING? _________________________________________________________
Suppose that someone told you that the candle was originally10 inches tall. HOW LONG HAS THE CANDLE BEEN BURNING? _______
To answer how long the candle was burning, you must know the starting point. You must know how tall the candle stood in the beginning. [Note: you also must assume that the candle has always burned at the same rate from the time it was first lit. If the candle was made so that it was thinner at the top, then it would have probably burned at a faster rate at the beginning, perhaps at a rate of 2 inches per hour. These factors are difficult to determine if you did not see the candle when it was first lit.]
In this same house you also notice a clock on the wall. It is an 8-day windup clock (if you wind it up all the way, it will run for 8 days). Soon after you enter the house this clock stops ticking. How long has the clock been ticking? You might think that the clock has been ticking for 8 days, but this may not be the case. Perhaps someone entered the house the day before and wound it up only partially. If so, then it has only been running for one day! Here again, you need to know the starting point. You need to know when the clock was first wound up and whether or not the clock was wound up all the way. If you assume that the clock was wound up all the way you might be making the wrong assumption.
How can we learn about the beginning or the starting point of the universe? “Through F_______________ we U_______________________________” (Hebrews 11:3). Faith is simply taking God at His Word and believing what He has said. Our faith is in the Almighty CREATOR who was there at the starting point. Also God has given us the book of Genesis which tells us what the heavens and the earth were like when He created them in the beginning (when God “wound them up” and started them ticking!) We were not there when everything started (see Job 38:4), but God the Creator was! Let’s believe what He tells us about the origin of our planet.
In our study of the DAYS OF CREATION (chapter 4) we learned that the earth was created on Day _______, the sun, moon and stars were created on Day ______ , and man was created on Day ______. The earth, the sun, the moon, the stars and man were all created in the same week (Exodus 20:11), and so they are really all the same age! The sun and earth are not billions of years older than man, as evolutionists teach. Actually the earth is only five days older than Adam was! If we know how old the earth is, then we know how old the sun is and we know how long man has lived on the earth. If we know when Adam was created, then we also know how old the earth, sun and moon are! They were all made at the same time, during the six days of the creation week. How long ago was this week of creation? BILLIONS of years? MILLIONS of years? THOUSANDS of years? This is the question we will seek to answer in this lesson.
When something is created, it may look like it is old, but it is not really old at all. It was just created! Let’s look at some examples:
When God created Adam, did He create a baby and then wait 25 or 30 years for the baby to grow up) or did He create a full grown man (Genesis 2:7,15,20,23,25)? _________________________________ If it were possible for you to see a picture of Adam on DAY 6 of creation, he would probably look like a 25
or 30 year old man! Was he really 25 or 30 years old? ________ He was really less than one day old! This seems very strange to us. When we have a birthday party for a one year old, we expect to see a small baby. But when Adam had his first birthday, he was a full grown man even though he was only a year old! Adam was created with an APPEARANCE OF AGE! He seemed to be much older than he really was.
When God created the trees, did He first create a seed and then plant it in the ground and wait for it to grow or did He create a full grown tree (see Genesis 1:11)? ________________________________ If a scientist were to observe this tree 5 minutes after creation, without knowing anything about how that tree started, he might guess that the tree was 100 years old or older. Was it really this old? _____ How old was it? ______________________________________ It seemed to be 100 years old because it was created full grown and thus it has an APPEARANCE OF AGE. The same is true with the mountains. If a scientist were brought to the scene one day after the mountains were created, he might look at those majestic peaks and assume that those mountains had been there for centuries. But his assumption would be wrong because they had just been created. Those mountains were really only one day old even though they looked much older.
Which came first, the hen or the egg (Genesis 1:21)? This question has puzzled many people but the Bible gives a clear answer. All the animals were created fully mature. God first made the hen, and then the hen laid the eggs! The person who does not believe the Bible has a problem answering this question! If the egg came first, who laid it? If the hen came first, who hatched it? But if the CREATOR created it as a full grown adult hen, then there is no problem! The Bible gives us the STARTING POINT. God started with THE CHICKEN. The first eggs came later!
Think of a star that is 80 million light years away! That means that the light now being produced or radiated by that star would take 80 million years to reach the earth so we could see it through our giant telescopes. Even the light from the sun, our nearest star, takes several minutes to reach the earth.
Today we can see the light from stars that are millions of light years away. Does this mean that the earth must be millions of years old? Not at all. First, we must remember that a LIGHT YEAR is a measurement of DISTANCE, not a measurement of TIME. When an astronomer tells us that a star is a certain number of light years away, he is telling us how far away the star is (DISTANCE), not how old the star is or how long the star has existed (TIME). Second, the Bible tells us in Genesis 1:17 that God set the stars in the sky to give light upon ______ ______________. Do you think the Creator made the stars and then waited millions of years for their light to reach the earth? No, He not only created the stars, but He also made it possible for the light from these far-away suns to shine upon the earth as soon as they were created. When Adam looked up at the heavens at night, he could see the stars and all the wonders of the heavens (Psalm 19:1). Later we are told that Abraham also had a clear view of the heavenly bodies (Genesis 15:5).
Trees and plants need soil in which to grow. If we were to look at soil today, we would assume that the soil had a past history! The soil was probably once hard rock and through the years the forces of nature (erosion, weathering, the addition of decaying organic matter, etc.) broke up the rock into smaller pieces until finally we have soil! Do you think God created soil for the first trees and plants, or did He just create rocks and then wait thousands of years for the rocks to break down into soil? Did God create sand, or did He wait thousands of years for the action of the waves and weather to produce sand? [Most sand consists of quartz grains derived from the weathering of granite or other siliceous igneous rocks.] God equipped the early earth with some wonderful sand beaches right from the beginning!
What if you had the power and ability to create a rock! Of course, we know that only the Almighty Creator can do this, but let us suppose that you were able to create a rock out of nothing. Suppose you were to take this newly created rock to a geologist. He would study the rock and analyze it and probably tell you that it was millions of years old! Was he correct in saying it was that old? _______ The rock was just created!!
If you could look at the earth immediately after it was created, it would
have an appearance of age, and it would seem that the trees and the mountains
and the oceans and the beaches and the rocks and the sun had all been around for
a long time! But the fact is, they all were just created. Is God trying to trick
us and deceive us by creating things with an appearance of age? No! God has told
us all about His methods of creation, and anyone (including scientists) can read
the book of Genesis and learn the truth about Creation! God is not deceiving
men, but men are deceiving themselves when they refuse to take the Bible
seriously. They refuse to believe God and take Him at His Word. Just as a
magician would not be tricking anyone if he carefully told his audience how he
did his tricks, so God is not deceiving anyone since He has fully explained how
He created the world.
Many years ago (approximately 2000 years ago) the CREATOR actually walked on this earth and people were able to see a public demonstration of His creation methods as they watched His amazing miracles! Let us consider some of these miracles:
In John 2 we learn about our Lord’s first miracle which took place at a wedding feast. The Lord told them to fill 6 waterpots with water (verses 6-7). Each waterpot held about 20 or 30 gallons of water! So by His creative power the Son of God transformed about 150 gallons of water into unfermented wine.
Soon after this the ruler of the feast tasted the wine. Did he know that a miracle had just taken place (see verse 9)? _______ He probably assumed that the wine had been kept and stored somewhere and that it had come from the juice of grapes that had once been on a grapevine. These grapes grew on the vine and then one day when they were ripe, men picked them and then squeezed the juice out of them. But the ruler of the feast was wrongl This wine had never come from grapes and there was never any vine! This wine was produced by the Word of an omnipotent CREATOR! Do you think that Jesus really needed water to perform this miracle? _______ By His creative power, the Lord Jesus changed the water into the best grape juice ever tasted by human tongues.
Read Luke 8:22-25. Here is another miracle performed by the CREATOR. Instantly the Sea of Galilee was calmed and the storm ceased (verse 24). Suppose a man were to fly over this lake in his helicopter soon after the seas were calmed (of course we know that there were no helicopters in those days). He would look down and see this calm, peaceful lake. Do you think he would ever guess that just minutes before there had been a raging storm on this lake? _____ Even the winds and the waters obeyed their Creator!
Read Matthew 14:15-21. Suppose that you came along during the middle of this meal, not knowing that a tremendous miracle had just taken place. One of the men holds up a fish for you to look at and he asks, "Do you think you can give me the life history of this fish?" You would probably think that this was an odd question, but you do your best to answer, "Well, as far as I can tell this fish must have been hatched from eggs and was swimming around in the Sea of Galilee. One day a fishermen must have caught it in his net and then it was prepared for eating." But the man would then say, "No, I’m sorry, but you are wrong. This fish was never hatched, it was never in the water, it was never caught—it is a fish that was never even wet! Jesus the Creator just made this fish! Not only that, but these barley loaves which we are eating were made of barley which never grew in a field, was never harvested and was never gathered or processed or baked in ovens. These loaves have an appearance of history which they never really had!" [Only the two fish and the five loaves had any real history; the rest of the fish and loaves were created for the occasion.]
Every diseased and crippled and leprous person that Jesus ever healed instantly took on the appearance of previous health which he never really had. Because of their miraculous healings, these people were perfectly healthy and if you did not know about their healing you would assume that they had enjoyed such health for quite some time. Consider the man in John 9 who was blind from his birth. Jesus healed him completely and instantly. Imagine if this man were to go to an eye doctor for an eye examination:
BLIND MAN: "How are my eyes, doctor?"
DOCTOR: "Sir, you have 20-20 vision. You really have been blessed
with good vision!"
BLIND MAN: "No, doctor, you do not understand. I was blind all my
life until yesterday, but the Creator healed me!"
[The doctor would normally assume that this man had always had good vision, but this assumption would have been wrong].
The same is true with the man in Acts 3 who was _________________ from his _________________ (Acts 3:2). God healed him (verses 6-7) and all the people were amazed as they saw him walking and LEAPING (verses 9-11), because they knew he had a history of lameness, but he was acting as if he never had such a history at all. If you had met this man after his healing you never would have guessed that he had been lame from birth.
Read John 11 (the miracle of Lazarus being raised from the dead). Just suppose Lazarus were to go to a doctor for a physical examination:
DOCTOR: "Well, Lazarus, you pass the test, you seem to be in very
good health! Your physical condition is excellent"
LAZARUS: "Doctor, from your experience, what would you say my past
history has been?"
DOCTOR: "Well, I’m sure you must have been getting plenty of
good exercise and eating well and enjoying overall good health for quite some time."
LAZARUS: "Doctor, this may be a surprise to you, but I recently was
DEAD and my body was decomposing and rotting away for 4 days in a tomb (even to the point
where it was starting to smell–John 11:39), but my CREATOR and my SAVIOUR brought me
back to life!"
There were not millions of years of pre-human history on planet Earth. How do
we know this? Because the Lord Jesus said so. “And He [Jesus] answered and said
unto them, Have ye not read, that He which made them at the
_________________________ made them male and female” (Matthew 19:4). This verse
is very significant as it pertains to the age of the earth. When did God make
man? He made him “at the beginning” (Matt. 19:4). This rules out long geological
periods prior to man’s arrival on earth since man was there at the very
beginning. You see, evolution teaches that man did not come along at the
beginning but that he appeared many millions of years after the beginning.
Evolution teaches that there were millions and millions of years which preceded
the arrival of man. There were numerous geological ages that unfolded before man
ever came along. Man arrived on the scene very late in earth’s history. Most of
earth history took place before man ever evolved, they would claim.
The Biblical position is clear. At the very beginning man was here. Indeed, man
was made and placed on the earth just five days after the earth was created
(Genesis 1)! Did dinosaurs roam the earth millions of years before man arrived?
No, the land dinosaurs were created on the very same day as man, Day 6, and the
water dinosaurs (sea reptiles) were created one day earlier, on Day 5. The Lord
Jesus made it very clear that man was made at the beginning.
According to the evolutionary view, for most of earth history man was not present. Evolution teaches that the earth was formed about 4.6 billion years ago and man did not appear until about 2.8 million years ago. The number 2.8 million may seem like a large number, but it’s actually a very small number compared with 4.6 billion. If the evolutionary age of the earth is represented by a year, humans would have been living on it for only 5 hours and 20 minutes (less than a day).
Using a distance analogy: if the evolutionary age of the earth is represented by the distance from San Diego to Middletown, Connecticut (about 2500 miles), then the time humans have supposedly been on earth would be only about 1.5 miles. According to evolutionary theory, during most of earth history man is not there.
Let an 80 year old man represent the evolutionary age of the earth. Eighteen days would represent the time man has been on earth. According to evolution, the earth is so very much older than man. The evolutionary age of the earth can also be represented by a giant sequoia tree which is over 3000 years old; the time man is on earth is so short it would be represented by a 2 year old pine.
Let the evolutionary age of the earth be represented by the height of the World Trade Center One building (1792 feet). If that is the time scale, then man has only been here for 13 inches, according to evolution.
All of these illustrations merely point out that if you believe in long earth ages, then there is no way you can say that man was made at the beginning. On the contrary, according to the old earth view, man did not arrive until very recently. But the Lord Jesus clearly taught that man was made at the beginning (Matt. 19:4). There cannot be two more different world views. The Biblical view is that man has been on this earth for all of earth history, minus only five days. He only missed the first five days and then was created on Day 6 (Genesis 1).
Why is Jesus the ultimate Authority on who was here at the beginning? One
reason is because He was here in the beginning, and therefore He knows what
happened!. "In the beginning was the Word!" In fact, He was the One who created
man at the beginning. "All things were made by [through] Him (John 1:3; see also
Colossians 1:16). May we humbly take God at His Word in these days of rampant
unbelief. Remember, evolution needs long ages for their theory to work.
Creationists say, "With God all things are possible" (compare Luke 1:37).
Evolutionists believe, "With time and chance, all things are possible." If you
have enough time and if you are lucky enough, then anything can happen!
The Bible has much to tell us about the age of the earth and the age of man. Remember, the age of the earth and the age of man are basically the same (the earth is five days older than man, according to Genesis chapter 1). The earth was not here millions or billions of years before Adam.
The Bible, in different places, gives us detailed genealogies which help us to determine the approximate age of mankind (the length of time man has been on the earth starting with Adam). For example, in Luke chapter 3 we have a lengthy genealogy. This genealogy begins with J_______________ (see verse 23) and goes all the way back to A_______________ (see verse 38).
We know that from the time of Christ to the present is approximately 2000 years (Christ died approximately 30 A.D.). We also know that from the time of Abraham to the time of Christ was about 2000 years (Abraham lived on earth approximately 2000 B.C.). There are two other periods of time which help to complete our understanding of man’s history on earth:
1) The Period from the Creation of Adam to the Flood (Noah).
2) The Period from the Flood to Abraham.
For each of these periods God does give us a GENEALOGY. In Genesis chapter 5 we have a genealogy covering the time from Adam to Noah (from Creation to the Flood). In Genesis chapter 11 we have a genealogy covering the time from Shem (Noah’s son) to Abraham (from the Flood to Abraham).
Thus to determine the age of the earth and the age of man, there are four main period of time that we must add up:
| From Creation to the Flood | 650 years or more |
| From the Flood to Abraham | 450 years or more |
| From Abraham to Christ | About 2000 years |
| From Christ to the Present | About 2000 years |
| Therefore, the total time man has been on earth is 6000 years or more. | |
The reason we can not be sure about the length of time represented in the first two categories is because of the possibility that there could have been some (not many) gaps in the genealogies. A gap occurs when one or more generations are skipped.
One example of a genealogical gap is the gap between Joram and Uzziah. In Matthew 1:8 (KJV) we read that J_____________________ begat Ozias (who is also called Uzziah or Azariah). Does this mean that Joram was the father of Uzziah? Actually as we study the Old Testament carefully we discover that Joram was actually the great, great grandfather of Uzziah.
Who was the son of Joram (2 Kings 8:24)? ______________________
Who was the son of Ahaziah (2 Kings 11:2)? _______________________
Who was the son of Joash (2 Kings 12:19-21)? __________________________
Who was the son of Amaziah (2 Kings 14:21)? __________________________
Azariah is the same person as Uzziah. So we see that in Matthew’s genealogy,
several generations were skipped.
As we study the genealogies in the Bible, we discover that the Bible writers seemed to be more concerned about symmetry (having a regular and balanced arrangement of names) than they were about completeness (listing every father and every son without any gaps). As we compare the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 we find that they are in perfect balance and symmetry. In each case there are 10 patriarchs (fathers) with the 10th patriarch having 3 important sons. In Genesis 5 Noah was the 10th patriarch and his sons were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. In Genesis 11, Terah was the 10th patriarch, and his sons were Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Matthew’s genealogy contains three symmetrical divisions of 14 generations each (Matt. 1:17), even though we know that Matthew’s genealogy contained some gaps. Perhaps the genealogies were given in such a symmetrical way in order to help the readers in memorizing these family trees.
Note: Genesis 11 in the KJV has only nine patriarchs, but in Luke 3:35-36 the name "Cainan" appears before "Shelah" (KJV, "Sala") and "Arphaxad." The Septuagint translation of Genesis 11 also includes the name "Cainan" in agreement with Luke, indicating that this name could have been part of the original Hebrew text.
The earth and man are the same age. Man was made at the very beginning of
earth history, as were all the plants and animals and sea creatures. The earth
is not millions or billions of years old as evolutionists believe. The earth is
very young, less than 10,000 years old. May God help us to take Him at His Word
and believe what He says, even when it comes to matters of history, chronology
and science. God’s Word is truth (John 17:17), and this includes the
God-inspired book of Genesis.
For a discussion of the possibility of gaps especially in Genesis 11 see The Genesis Flood by John Whitcomb and Henry Morris (Appendix II). See also Chart of the Period from the Creation to Abraham by John C. Whitcomb.
There is much scientific evidence that points in the direction of a young earth. This evidence points to the fact that the earth is only thousands of years old, not millions or billions of years old. Much of this evidence is ignored by the scientific community which is dominated by evolutionists.
Scientists are aware of over 70 methods that can give us the earth’s age, all of which are based on the reality that natural processes occurring steadily through time produce cumulative and measurable results. Since many of these “clocks” do not agree with the billions of years the evolutionary theory needs, they are often ignored by the scientific community. Let us look at some of them:
Interplanetary dust - the earth and the moon are collecting dust from the cosmos. On the moon erosion is very limited and there is no wind or precipitation of any kind. Evolutionists expected to find a significant layer of dust (many feet thick!) on the moon, due to its supposed 4 or 5 billion year age. What the astronauts did find was 2 to 4 inches of dust or less, about what could be expected to accumulate in 10,000 years or less.
Juvenile water - when volcanoes erupt they bring to the surface of the earth water that has never before been there. The estimated output of all volcanoes per year is one cubic mile of juvenile water. At that rate, it would have taken only 340 million years to produce all the water on our earth today, leading one to conclude that there were no oceans on the earth 340 million years ago. Unfortunately, this was right in the middle of the evolutionary chart’s “age of fishes.” If the earth is 5 billion years old, what has happened to all the excess water that would have been produced by volcanoes?
Where has all the lava gone? - If only 1000 volcanoes were producing lava, then the entire earth’s crust would have taken just 20 million years to be formed by volcanic action alone. There are about 600 active volcanoes today and 10,000 dormant ones (sleeping ones), not including the ones under the ocean. Most scientists believe that volcanic activity was much greater in the past than in the present. But when we examine the crust of the earth, we do not find huge amounts of lava which we would certainly expect to find if the world were as ancient as evolutionists teach. Only a small percentage of crustal rocks are formed from volcanoes.
Where have all the meteors gone? - If the earth has really been around for over 4 billion years, then during this time it would have been bombarded by meteors. One scientist from the Swedish Oceanographic Institute calculated that about 14.3 million tons of meteoritic dust settle to the earth each year (dust that is rich in nickel content). If the earth were 4 billion years old, then we would expect to be buried in about 54 feet of meteoritic dust. However, “the amount of meteorites accumulated in the strata and meteoritic dust in the crust, in relation to amounts reaching the earth at present, would indicate an age in thousands of years, not millions or billions” (What is Creation Science?, by Henry Morris and Gary Parker, page 250).
Comets - are very fragile structures. Each time a comet circles the sun the solar wind blasts matter from its surface to become part of its tail. Measuring the observable rate of comet disintegration, evolutionists realize that all the comets would be gone in as little as 10,000 years. Yet there are up to 5 million comets still orbiting in our solar system. Unwilling to admit that the earth might not be that young, evolutionists theorize that there is a huge “nest” of comets far in the outer reaches of the solar system that every once in a while kicks some new comets out into orbit. But there is no evidence of this. The real reason that the comets have not all been destroyed is that the universe is not millions or billions of years old.
Oil deposit pressure - the pressure that sends a gusher of oil spouting into the air when a well is drilled is gradually being dissipated through the porosity of the rocks containing the pocket of oil. This dissipation of pressure can be measured. Dr. Melvin Cook (a chemist who earned the Nitro Nobel Gold Medal in 1968) has concluded that it is impossible for oil to be contained in these deposits for periods greater than 10,000 to 100,000 years (this is because the great pressure would cause the oil to leak out after a certain number of years). If the oil deposits have been there more than 5,000 years, in many cases there would be no pressure left. Obviously these oil deposits were suddenly encased in these layers just a few thousand years ago (probably at the time of Noah’s Flood). Evolutionists believe oil was formed 25 million years ago, but how could the pressure be contained for such a long period?
Erosion - at the present rate of soil erosion all the continents on earth would be worn down to sea level in just 14 million years. There should have accumulated at least 150 times more sediment in the ocean than there actually is, if the earth is 4 or 5 billion years old.
Top soil - scientists estimate that the combination of plant growth, bacterial decay, and erosion produces six inches of top soil in 5,000 to 20,000 years. The average depth of top soil over the earth is 7-8 inches. If the earth has been here 5 billion years, why isn’t it buried in top soil?
Mississippi River delta - at present erosion rates the entire Mississippi River delta would have accumulated in only 5,000 years. If the earth is really as old as evolutionists teach, then we would expect that delta to be much, much, much larger and more massive than it is.
Niagara Falls - because the rim of the falls is wearing back at a known rate every year, geologists recognize that it has taken only about 5,000 years to erode from its original precipice.
Stalactite growth in caves - under the Lincoln Memorial stalactites have grown to five feet long in less than 50 years. Evidence shows that all cave formations could easily be formed in a few thousand years, not the 100,000 that evolutionists claim. Indeed, the discovery was made of a bat cemented inside a stalagmite at Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico. The process occurred so rapidly that the bat was entombed before the action of bacterial decay and/or predators could take their effect (Speak to the Earth–Creation Studies in Geoscience, George Howe, ed., chapter XVIII, pages 324-326).
Receding moon - the moon’s distance from the earth is increasing two inches a year. Working back, it would mean the moon and earth would have been touching only two billion years ago. If the earth is five billion years old, the moon should be out of sight by now. How do evolutionists explain this?
Population Statistics - If the rate of population growth has been the same throughout man’s history, then man could not have been on earth for a million years, as evolution teaches. “The traditional Biblical chronology is infinitely more realistic than is the million-year history of mankind assumed by the evolutionist. For the over 28,600 generations assumed in a supposed million years of man’s life on earth, the world population should now be over 105000 people! This number, which could be written as ‘one’ followed by 5000 zeros, is inconceivably large. Even if we eventually are able to colonize other worlds and to build space cities everywhere in the inter-stellar spaces, it can be shown that a maximum of no more than 10100 people could be crammed into the entire known universe!” (Henry Morris, hydraulic engineer). Evolutionists suggest that the rate of growth during man’s first 990,000 years (about 99 percent of his history) was exceedingly small, the annual rate of increase being only 15 additional persons per million of population. But are we really to believe that after one year 1,000,000 people would only increase to 1,000,015? (Think of families you know that have increased by one person in the last year!). This is even more difficult to believe when we realize that the annual rate of increase today is about 20,000 additional persons per million of population! Why would the world’s population increase so slowly during man’s first 990,000 years and increase so rapidly during man’s last 10,000 years? If the earth is really as old as evolutionists say, then why aren’t there more people?
The Decay of the Earth’s Magnetic Field - the earth has a magnet in it, a very strong magnet! The strength of the earth’s magnetic field has been measured accurately for over 100 years. Scientists have learned that this magnetic field has been decaying and losing strength. This great magnet is much weaker now than it was in the past. Indeed, if the trend continues, in a few thousand years the earth’s magnetic field will be gone. The earth’s magnetic field has a half-life of 1400 years. This means that 1400 years from now the magnetic field will be only half as strong as it is today; 1400 years ago it was twice as strong as it is today. Dr. Thomas Barnes, Professor of Physics at the University of Texas in El Paso has concluded that due to the rapid decay of the earth’s magnetic field, the age of the earth itself is less than 10,000 years. Evolutionists believe that there have been reversals in the earth’s magnetic field.
Amount of Minerals in the Ocean - Suppose a man constructed a man-made pond on his property. Every year he throws 5 quarters into the pond. After the man’s death the pond is drained and 110 quarters are found. How old is the pond? _________________ The age of the pond is easily determined. Likewise we can determine the age of the ocean. Rivers empty into the ocean and deposit chemicals and minerals and sediment into the oceans of the world. Take nickel for example. It is possible to calculate how much nickel is being deposited into the oceans today and it is possible to measure how much nickel is in the ocean today. We can then figure out how long it took for the ocean to reach its present level of nickel (assuming that the rate of deposit has always been the same and assuming that the ocean had no nickel at the beginning). The conclusion: the nickel content of the ocean would argue for an age of the ocean of 8,000 years! Similar studies have been done with respect to ocean levels of carbonate, sulphate, chlorine, calcium, uranium, sodium, magnesium, silicon, potassium, copper, gold, silver, mercury, lead, tin, aluminum and many others. The results of each of these show that the age of the ocean is much younger than evolutionists believe [see Chemical Oceanography, Ed. By J.P. Riley and G. Skirrow (New York, Academic Press, Vol. 1, 1965)].
Amount of Helium in the Atmosphere - Helium 4 is the most abundant isotope of helium. Scientists know that Helium 4 is being fed into the atmosphere and if the earth were really 4 billion years old then we should expect to find much higher levels of Helium 4 in the atmosphere (100,000 times as much Helium 4 as we find today). Evolutionists assume that much of the Helium 4 somehow escaped from the atmosphere but this is doubtful. The main reason why there is not much Helium 4 in the atmosphere is because the earth is very young.
For Further Study
1. What is Creation Science? by Henry Morris and Gary Parker (Creation Life Publishers, 1982), chapter 6.
2. Biblical Cosmology and Modern Science by Henry Morris (Baker Book House, 1970), chapter 6.
3. Scientific Creationism by the technical staff and consultants of the Institute for Creation Research (Creation-Life Publishers, 1974), chapter 6.
4. Speak to the Earth–Creation Studies in Geoscience edited by George F. Howe (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1975), chapters 16-23.
5. The Biblical Basis of Modern Science by Henry Morris (Baker Book House, 1984), appendix 6.
The Modern Creation Trilogy, Volume Two (Science & Creation) by Henry M. Morris and John D. Morris (Master Books, 1996), chapter 12.
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