Page 39 - AIU Distance Learning Courses - Sample

Study Section 9: Evolution Takes Time! How Old is the Earth, Anyway?

9.1 Connect.

If you think about it, evolution says that random chemicals came together accidently and
formed more complex chemicals, eventually forming amino acids, then forming proteins and
other building block of life, all happening by chance! It is proposturas! It’s like setting all the
parts of a watch in a box and shaking the box, to think a finely tuned watch would eventually
be formed in the box. It would never happen no matter how long you shaked the box. So to
make a “fairy tale” plausable, the scientists have added one key ingredient: TIME, and lots of it. Given
enough time, the impossible may become probable, and the probable may become a certainty. So the
key to believing in evolution is to believe that the universe as we know it is VERY OLD—15 billion years
old. Let see if science supports a very old creation…

9.2 Objectives.

1. The student should be able to explain the basic tenets of what evolutionists believe.

2. You will discover that evolution is built on a foundation called Uniformitarianism. The student
should be able to discuss what that is and why it is a belief by faith system.

3. The student should be able to describe the five evidences from science that demonstrate that the
earth is relatively young – an age in the thousands of years, not billions.

9.3 How Old is the Earth, Anyway?

In Genesis 1, we learned that God created the universe and all that is in it
in six days. He rested from His creative acts on the seventh. All things
were made from nothing (ex nihilo). As Christians, we believe this explains
how we and the earth came into existence.

In our public schools, colleges, and universities, our students are taught
that the universe as we know it came into existence from a colossal explosion (a Big
Bang) between 15 and 17 billion years ago. The earth was “born” some 4.5 billion years ago and over
the eons of time through the process of evolution; all the observable life forms that we see today came
into existence by rote chance. Is what is being taught in schools true? Does this not fly in the face of the
Genesis account of creation?

Let’s look at the basic tenets of evolution and see why it requires a vast amount of time. Then we will
look as some observable evidence that indicates that the earth is actually very young, no more than
10,000 years old.

39