I don’t spend too much time contemplating the age or origin of the the earth and universe. However I do recognize overwhelming evidence (radiometric dating) that the age of the earth is measured in billions of years by very smart people who study it. In the last 100 years or so man’s knowledge has taken huge leaps. These knowledge leaps have ushered in the computer age and dispelled many old beliefs. But many people just like to believe dumb things, and there is really no harm in you thinking the earth is 6000 years old. Just like there is no harm in believing in Big Foot.
I believe there is a god, and I can believe there is a god while also believing the earth is billions of years old.
Most people don't think about it. I believed Earth and the universe was billions of years old because it was taught to me. It was taught along with how radiometric dating and how uranium decay or radioactive decay works. The latter is testable and we observe a
constant decay. What started my questioning it was if it was a fact that the Earth was 4.5 billion years old, then why does the news articles about it always have to mention it. It's a fact. Today, they have bumped it up a skosh to 4.6 billion years old. They will bump it up again in a few years when the James Webb telescope comes online.
That's when I started questioning it because this decay works similar to an hourglass. An hourglass has a constant rate of sand falling down from the top to the bottom. If we know where the sand was when it was flipped over started, then we could figure out how long time had elapsed since it was turned over. The problem with radiometric dating is that no one knows how much sand there was when the hourglass was turned over. Whatever the assumption was made for the presence of uranium and lead, i.e. the parent-daughter isotopes of uranium, then it would affect the results of the age. Thus, assumptions were made over uranium decay so that it would fit a much longer time. If you are wrong with your assumption, then the results become garbage in, garbage out.
As to your last comment about believing in dumb things, it does make a difference of what you believe. For example, if you believe that the Earth is 4.5 or 4.6 B years old, then you may believe wrong things like rock layers bend over long-time with enough heat, pressure, and long-time. No experiment can show that. The experiments do show that rock breaks with enough heat and pressure over short-time. Conclusion: Rocks do not bend?
I was reading about Bigfoot and the FBI this morning. I suppose if you believed in BF, then it's more evidence for your belief. The same if you didn't believe in it. We still do not have a definitive conclusion from the evidence. All we have is the film of it and what type of hairs were found. I suppose it detracts from those who thought it was an ape-type creature, but who knows what that camp will now say.
