The purpose of this page is to debunk the belief that the Earth and Universe are only 6000 years old.
Evidence
Light from Stars: When we look at the stars and galaxies, we are seeing light that took millions or billions of years to reach us. If the universe is only 6000 years old, then that light would have to have been created already in transit with the appearance of having originated millions or billions of years ago.
Radiometric Dating: Sedimentary rock is not usually directly dated. Instead, it is easier to directly date igneous (originating from molten rock) rock. The science behind radiometric dating is conclusive. It can accurately date rocks that are billions of years old with an accuracy of 2%. This has nothing to do with Carbon dating, which has a much shorter half life and is subject to interpretation.
Sedimentary Dating: Using the absolute dates of igneous rocks as reference points, sedimentary rock can be clearly dated. Those sedimentary rocks also happen to be full of fossils. Those fossils provide very rich correlative support for the radiometric dates. The geology of sedimentary rock is discussed in much greater detail on the next page.
Tree Rings: The age of a living tree can be absolutely dated by using its rings. A dead tree has what's known as a floating chronology. It can be anchored by cross-matching either the beginning or end sections of another tree ring chronology. A fully anchored chronology extends back more than 10,000 years for river oak trees from South Germany. Another fully anchored chronology extends back 8500 years for the bristlecone pine in the Southwest US.
Plate tectonics: Discussed on the next page.
Lake sediments : In certain lakes that freeze over every winter, the sediments form distinctive pairs of banding due to summer silt and winter clay. Each pair is about 2cm thick. These annual pairs can be easily counted. Good chronologies have been established that go back 12,000 years, and less certain ones extend to 20,000 years.
Milankovitch cycles: There are well known periodic variations in the orbit of the earth. The cyclical variations occur in orbital shape, axial tilt, precession (wobble), and orbital plane. There is overwhelming support for a cause and effect relationship between the 100,000 year Milankovitch cycles and the corresponding ice ages. Oxygen isotope ratios in skeletons from deep-sea cores record such climactic fluctuations and allow an independent time calibration going back about 800,000 years.
Fission Tracks: When a uranium 238 atom spontaneously fissions, it leaves a microscopic trail of destruction in zircon crystals. The more tracks, the older the material. It's a simple technique that gives an accuracy of about 3% going back as far as about 100 million years. It is another form of radiometric dating.
Ice Cores: The annual layers of snow are clearly visible, very similar to tree rings. In addition to the visible layers, there are trapped air bubbles which contain chemical species that vary seasonally. Ice cores are routinely obtained that show tens of thousands of years worth of layers. There are also many that show hundreds of thousands of years. Multiple cores have been drilled which show about 760,000 years worth of layers. Those cores are over 3 km in length, with each year being about 4mm in thickness. They can take over 10 years to drill. Those cores cover the last 8 ice ages.
Summary
Science clearly proves that the earth is more than 6000 years old. The only hope of someone who adheres to the belief in a 6000 year old earth is to completely disregard all the scientific evidence and resort to supernatural claims. The common supernatural claim is that God, in his wisdom, created the earth and universe in an already old state, complete with the complex and totally false histories listed above and the light from the stars already in transit. That's very convenient.
The problem with this convenient escape from the argument is that it invalidates nearly every subsequent argument that the person could possibly make regarding life on earth. The age of the earth establishes the foundation upon which vast amounts of other scientific knowledge rest. There is absolutely no science in "creation science" as long as a 4.5 billion year old earth is not a fundamental part of its foundation.
My goal is not to attack the Bible nor to mock its account of creation. Notice that I did not at all try to debunk specific passages in the Bible. I simply want to make it very clear that the earth is very definitely more than 6000 years old. And as a result, the creation story in the Bible cannot be taken literally. The Bible is full of parables, metaphors, and allegory. You cannot possibly know which passages the original authors intended to be strictly literal.
After reading and fully understanding this page, it is appropriate to move on to geology.