How old is the Earth?

[bobthebandit]

How old is the Earth?

[Aotearoa]

340,000,000 years.

[Aotearoa]

^ I made that up :)

[tigerlily11]

I thought it was about 4 billion years old.

[spacechimp]

It's over 9000.

[Huderon]

The usually accepted age is around 4.5 billion years. This is besed on dating rocks on earth itself (the oldest are about 3.8 billion years old) and dating of rock samples from meteorites. Oh yes, that billion is not the UK one, so thats 4,500,000,000 years old.

[bobthebandit]

I read a MENSA publication a few years ago. Apparently a group of the top brains in MENSA got together and did some serious research on how old the Earth was.
Their conclusion was that it was not more than 10,000 years old.
I cant remember the full details, but this came about through studying the Earths atmosphere and the amount of a certain chemical that had been released from rocks into the atmosphere.
Through the measurements of this chemical, they concluded it was impossible for the Earth to be any older than 10,000 years.
This is interesting because it is more or less the exact age that Creationists believe the age of the Earth to be as well.
Also it is strongly believed by many, that Human Beings have only been around for 10,000 years too.

[beso]

Sounds like a myth to me. Moreover regardless of who comes up with a hypothesis, if it does not concur with other observations it is rejected. Millions of pieces of evidence show an age over 4 billion years.

Incidentally the term UK billions is not appropriate. Indeed all countries with English as their official language converted to the 10^9 billion many years ago. The UK changed officially in 1973.

The 10^12 billion is still used in several European languages. Correct translation to English necessitates conversion of the figure. Variations on the word "milliard" are often used to designate 10^9 in these languages.

Lookup Billion on wikipedia and explore the links. It is actually quite fascinating with a debarcle where much of Europe converted to the larger billion only for the Commonwealth countries to subsequently change to the smaller unit.

[bobthebandit]

I dont think it is a myth because it was published in a serious Mensa publication.
Another thing to take into consideration is how ordinary scientists can conclude the earth is millions/billions of years old by dating rocks..
In simple terms, no rock would have survived this long ie due to constant rain, wind and sun erosion,as well as constant volcanic, and seismic activity.

[naomi24]

The Great Pyramid is over 4000 years old. Are you seriously suggesting that human beings evolved sufficiently in just 6000 years to be capable of building something like that?

And just a thought about rocks being exposed to the elements. Take a pickaxe to a mountain and you'll find plenty of rock beneath the outer layer.

[naomi24]

Incidentally, top brains at Mensa do contain a high IQ, but they don't necessarily contain a lot of common sense. Believe me - I know. ;o)

[Hawkwalk]

Are these Mensa guys forgetting about Dinosaurs? there is plenty of evidence of their existence and they are dated back to around 230 million years ago.

[jno]

Christian dating, based on the lifespans mentioned in the Bible, is 4004 BC.

[Huderon]

OK, so a group of Mensa members are young earthers. That doesn't make them right !

Have a look at this Wikipedia article which includes details of how the 4.5 billion figure is arrived at..

This page also tells you about the dating methods used to arrive at the 4.5 billion year figure, and also includes a summary of some of the young earther arguments for a more recent date.

In the end, you'll believe what you want to believe. But you'll still find that the majority view goes with the 4.5 billion year figure.

[bobthebandit]

Much of the so called dating techniques of past and present archaelogists, scientists etc are known to be widely unreliable or seriously flawed.

I quote from Paul Abramson-Origins The Genesis:-

"If an archaeologist successfully bolsters a claim that a few one-of-a-kind bone fragments somehow fit right into ancient human lineage, rather than just another unsuccessful "spur" out there, then long term research grants are a lot more forthcoming. Debate, counter-claims, political wrangling; "Survival of the fittest" at its finest.
One thing that most average people don�t know is how wildly the radio-active dates can fluctuate within different samples of the exact same specimen. It's not scientific to ignore the values which don't match current beliefs and to keep testing till they find a date they like"

[Huderon]

A long time ago, Harry Nilsson wrote a piece called The Point. In one character tells the hero that "You see what you want to see, you hear what you want to hear".

Now, as I'm not a scientist (and certainly not a geologist), I cannot comment on the validity or otherwise of various dating methods. The 4.5 billion year figure has been around since the 50's and is the majority view, so I'll go with that.

You obviously disagree with that figure, and I, for one, am more than happy for you to do so. I'm sure there are people out there who firmly believe that the earth was created last week, complete with everyone alive today, their memories, our historical memories and all the supporting evidence that exists for them. That belief doesn't make them right though.

[TCL-MUMPING]

If you accept the earth is only 10,000 years old, that means Man has been here for no more that 10,000 years. If you think that in that period we have evolved from a blob to where we are now, would we not be a lot different from say the Romans who invaded 2,000 year ago?

[rov1200]

If you believe the Earth was a discarded piece of the Sun then that would really put the age at 4.5 billion years. However when the Sun totally disintegrates in another 4.5 billion years the Earth will still be in solid form. As we are attracted to the Sun through gravity the Earth will lose its orbit and go careering off into space.