How old is the Earth

Question

Scientists claim that, through carbon-dating, the earth is found to be roughly 4.543 billion years old, whereas the Bible says the earth is roughly 6,000 years old. How can this be explained? Is science correct or the Bible?

Answer

This is the same kind of question as the previous one God created the earth. It all depends on whether you believe the Bible is always literally correct in its older parts, or whether you can find a figurative truth in early Old Testament accounts. I opt for the latter, but I’ll always respect a fundamentalist on such issues, because the really important question is not how old the earth is, but how great a person’s faith in God and Jesus is. My brother-in-law is both a Christian and a geologist and geographer. He always declares his faith to his students and – before they get a chance to ask him how he can reconcile that with what science knows about the age of the earth – he points out that “with the Lord a day is like a thousand years” (2 Peter 3:8), which indicates that the apostles themselves had a tendency to interpret Scripture figuratively. His scientifically minded students don’t bother him after that!