Before I discuss the age of the earth, we need to decide whether or not its important to know such a fact. Does it matter whether God created the world with the appearance of being 4.8 billion years old or if he actually created it that long ago? Probably not, but the perfection of Scripture and God is that even if we do examine such a question we will able to see that the Bible and reality are in not in discord.

Part I: Redshift

Cosmological redshift is the result of the velocity at which other galaxies are moving away from our own. The wave mechanicss of the light of the stars and galaxies far away reach us in slower intervals than the wave mechanicslength of the light emitted that those stars and galaxies would emit if motionless relative to the earth. This slower interval results in a higher frequency and therefore a lower wave mechanicslength according to the laws defining the speed of light. The color red, which lies on the lower wave mechanicslength (higher frequency) end of the visible spectrum, is seen to be reaching Earth from distant stars. The conclusion is that the universe is expanding because galaxies have a velocity away from Earth.

Such information tells us that the universe is expanding and has been expanding for quite a long time. Other evidence has shown the the universe is even expanding at an increasing rate. That is, the velocities of galaxies as they move away from us is a function of the distance they already are from earth. It is not acceleration in the classical sense (in that it depends on distance instead of time) but we can still conclude that the earth has been around for a very long time unless God created the world with the appearance of being very old instead of actually sustaining it for billions of years before man was created.

Part II: Fossil Record

Few, if any, useful (that is, containing data beyond affirmation of existence) fossils existed in the Hadean Eon, which ranged from 4.8 to 3.6 billion years ago.

The same holds for the Archean Eon, which ran until 2.5 billion years ago. Scientists have found only evidence of bacteria cells during this time period.

Scientists believe that the beginning of multi-celled life began during the Proterozoic Age, which lasted until 520 million years ago. They believe that the oxygen necessary to support the complex life we see now began to accumulate during this time. Again, very few fossils have been found correlating to this time period.

We currently exist in the Phanerozoic Eon in which complex life dominates and the structure and chemical makeup of the earth is stable.

What does this mean for our belief as Christians? While we should not set dates for the days during which God created the different aspects of the world and should be hesitant to simply “fit God” into the creation account, we can easily take this information and understand that it in no way denies the existence of an active God. Ages ago, the world moved from a state of disorder to order in order to accommodate more complex life, contrary to the second law of thermodynamics, in a way that can only be described as “creation.”

Part III: The Anthropic Principle

The anthropic principle, which encompasses the “fine-tuning” argument, says that the physical order we see in the world fits too well with too high a degree of accuracy to not have been designed. Some argue (circularly) that the world exists with such a degree of accuracy because the world would not exist without such a degree of accuracy. This, however, does nothing to help their argument that the world occurred by chance because they are no nearer to proving how accuracy to the levels we see originated. I believe that’s they key word: originated. How do laws of physics theory originate? Forget galaxies and dark holes and the results of physics theory. Where do the rules that govern these results come from?

Truly these levels of accuracy* can come from nothing but a designer. There is nothing to give significance to the existence of the universe if there is nothing outside of the universe to bestow significance upon it. But when a Designer, desiring to bring himself glory, perfectly and accurately creates a universe in which life is possible, he bestows significance upon the universe and all that is in it.

*Data is not cited because I don’t have access to what I need, but I will come back to this when I get the information.