When Did Creation Occur?
When Did Creation Occur?
How far back in Earth’s history was Creation Week? Non-Christian scientists (and unfortunately some Christians as well) suggest that the “Big Bang” happened about 15-20 billion years ago, and they say that Earth is about 4-5 billion years old. The Bible, however, indicates the universe is much younger. In this chapter we’ll look evidence from nature that back up the testimony of the Bible.
A. Evidence from the Bible
Why does the age of the earth matter? It matters because, from a straight-forward reading of the Bible, we would conclude that Earth and the universe are not billions of years old. The Bible is the revealed and inspired Word of God, and as Christians we must maintain a high regard for the Bible and its contents.
1. Creation Week
The biblical account gives just one week for Creation, not billions of years. God Himself made this definitive statement: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day” (Exodus 20:11).
Right from the beginning of Genesis, the Bible indicates that “the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them” were mature and fully functioning at the end of the six-day Creation Week. The crustal rocks of the Earth and moon were created with their various potential radioactive materials already in sequence. The stars were created with their light beams already visible on earth. The trees and plants that God created already had rings and were already bearing fruit by the sixth day. Adam and Eve didn’t have to wait for several years for a Garden full of baby trees to mature and produce fruit! The animal kingdom was created in ecological balance.
The Bible is quite clear: Adam and Eve were created as mature adults, with adult bodies and adult thought processes. They didn’t need to learn how to walk and talk! God created a mature and fully functioning universe.
Some people attempt to harmonize the Creation account in the Bible with secular scientific theories. They try to stretch out the days of Genesis 1, suggesting that each “day” was actually a “geologic age.” They say, for example, that too many things happened on Day 6, so it couldn’t have been a literal 24-hour day:
Adam was formed.
The Garden of Eden was planted by God.
Adam named the birds and land mammals.
Eve was created.
However, this amount of activity is not a problem for God. How long would God need to create Adam and Eve, or to plant the Garden of Eden? God could have done it instantaneously! What about Adam naming the animals? We can walk through a zoo in an afternoon, and a large zoo contains many more varieties of animals than the animal “kinds” that Adam named in the Garden of Eden. (And remember - in his unfallen state, Adam was a lot sharper than we are!)
The biblical record doesn’t support the notion that the days of Genesis 1 were anything other than literal 24-hour days. Some people may try to present 2 Peter 3:8 as a proof that the “days” of Genesis 1 can be taken as “geologic ages.” Nothing could be farther from the truth! “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” was not written as an equation. 2 Peter 3:8 does not mean that we can substitute “a thousand years” or “a million years” or “a geologic age” any place the word “day” appears in Scripture.
2. The Genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11
Abraham lived around 2,000 BC. When we add up the years between Creation and Abraham’s time (using the family records given in Genesis 5 and 11), it appears that Creation Week occurred approximately 4,000 years before Christ. The genealogies of Genesis are given in years, and they seem to go in chronological order from father to son. Even if we add some years for the possibility of skipped generations (which is not uncommon in biblical genealogies if years are not given), there’s no way we could push Creation Week back farther than a few thousand more years. Pushing it back farther than that would distort the whole biblical chronological framework. When compared to the billions of years of the Big Bang/evolution theories, the biblical records make our earth and universe very young.
B. Evidence from Nature
There are things about our universe that make it appear old, but that’s what we would expect if God created a fully functional and mature universe. However, God has also built into this universe many indications of a young universe. This is a tricky subject to write about because new scientific data constantly emerge. There’s a massive amount of information in this area, so we recommend the websites of the following ministries for a fully up-to-date flow of information in the area of evidence for Creation and a young earth.
With that said, here are just a few very brief evidences in nature for a young earth.
Bent Rock Layers
At least 75% of Earth’s exposed surface is composed of sedimentary rock (layers of rock formed when sediments settled out of water and then hardened into rock). In many places we can see rock layers are uniformly “bent” and “folded” without fracturing! Some of these folded layers are thousands of feet thick. Secular science say that rock layers are proof of millions of years of gradual build-up. However, it’s impossible for rock layers to be smoothly bent if they were laid down over hundreds of millions of years. Why? Rock layers laid down over time would harden and crack, rather than fold or bend. Folded rock layers must all be laid down while the deposits are still soft, and bent rapidly before any of the layers harden.
Comets
Comets have elliptical orbits around the sun. A comet spends most of its time far from the sun in the deep freeze of space. But once each orbit, a comet comes very close to the sun, allowing the sun’s heat to evaporate much of the comet’s ice and dislodge dust to form a beautiful tail. “Short period comets” are those that orbit around the sun in less than 200 years. If our solar system is really 4-5 billion years old, these short-period comets should all be burned up. They would never survive billions of years. Even “long-period comets” would be much smaller than they are.
Soft Tissue in Fossils
Bone slices of a fossilized thigh bone from a Tyrannosaurus Rex found in Montana appeared to be blood vessels of the type seen in bone and marrow, and the bone marrow contained flexible tissue. It would not be possible for these this tissue to be present in a dinosaur bone that is supposedly 68 million years old (as it has been theoretically dated). Meanwhile, studies of Egyptian mummies and other fossilized human bones show similar soft tissue, but they date to only 4-5 thousand years old. The dating for dinosaurs is questionable.
Very Little Sediment on the Sea Floor
Every year, water and wind erode about 20 billion tons of material from the continents, that is deposited on the ocean floor. If these sediments have been accumulating on the bottom of the oceans for three billion years, it should be clogged with sediments many miles deep. (It’s not.)
Faint Sun
The sun’s power comes from the fusion of hydrogen into helium in the sun’s core. As the hydrogen fuses, it should change the composition of the sun’s core, gradually increasing the sun’s temperature. If true, this means that the earth was colder in the past, and the earth would have been below freezing billions of years ago when life supposedly evolved.
Salt in the Seas
The salt content of the sea is constantly increasing. If the world’s oceans are billions of years old, their composition should be much more salty than they are. Every year, 458 million tons of salt are naturally deposited into the ocean, but only 122 million tons are removed.
The Dead Sea has no outlet, so the mineral content is easy to measure. It’s been calculated that at the present rate of mineral deposit and evaporation, the Dead Sea could not possibly be more than 13,000 years old — and, in fact, probably much less!
2. “Evidence” for an “Old Earth” Refuted
Geologic Column questioned: At least 75% of the earth’s exposed surface is sedimentary rock. Geologists have arranged and named the various rock layers in a sequence, showing their idea of the history of the earth. This is called the “geologic column.” Scientists have drawn up a theoretical time scale that they have “imposed” on the various layers of the geologic column (see the diagram).
However, nowhere on earth are all the layers found in the exact sequence proposed by scientists. In fact, some places have been found where “older” layers are on top of “younger” layers! In reality, there are no absolute dates for these layers.
Additionally, if the geologic column really represented millions of years of gradual build-up, there should be at least a few meteorites buried in the column. However, not one has ever been found.
The layers of the geologic column are actually evidence for the sediments that were built up rapidly during the worldwide biblical Flood. The many fossils in the layers are evidence of entrapment and rapid burial during the biblical Flood. (We’ll look at this in our study of evidence for the Flood.)
Rock dating methods questioned
Radiometric dating used for dating rocks involves the decay of radioactive isotopes of elements to the stable condition of another known element (such as radioactive uranium decaying to stable lead). If the rates of decay are known, the date of the rock can be calculated. Radiometric rock-dating methods are not as reliable as the radiocarbon (Carbon-14) method used to date formerly living things. Here are some further problems associated with radiometric rock-dating methods:
Scientists make too many assumptions about the conditions in the past. These assumptions lead to claims of “old” dates for rocks. Two examples:
- Assumptions about initial conditions: Radiometric dating methods assume that more of the original element was present than may actually have been present. This assumption would result in an older rock date.
- Assumptions about decay rates: Decay rates may not always have been the same as they are today. Decay rates can be altered by varying conditions. Testing that assumes that decay rates in the past are the same as today’s rates will result in older rock dates.
Rock dates vary too much. Volcanic flows of the past 200 years have produced igneous rocks that inaccurately date to several millions of years! Basalt rocks from two lava flows in the Grand Canyon have been dated by radiometric techniques. One flow, buried deep in the Canyon, dated younger than the flow near the top of the north rim. Obviously, these dates can’t be correct.
Ice Ages questioned
“Old earth scientists” state that the Earth has been covered with ice several times in its past and that millions of years are needed to produce the results we see. There’s no doubt that extensive ice action (glaciation) occurred at some point in the Earth’s history. However, this can be explained by water action during the Flood, and by the glaciers of one “Ice Age” following the Flood.
This one “Ice Age” would have been brought on by changes in the earth’s climate after the Flood, with much colder climates at the Poles. Ice would not have covered the whole Earth, but glaciers would have extended down from the Poles into Europe, Asia and North America until the carbon dioxide build-up “greenhouse effect” was sufficient enough for the glaciers to recede.
The book of Job seems to indicate that this “Ice Age” lasted several hundred years after the Flood. Job states: “By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen” (37:10), and “From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens... The waters harden like stone and the surface of the deep is frozen” (38:29-30). How did Job, who lived in the warm climate of the Middle East, know about great expanses of ice? Most likely, he lived not long after the Flood, and he knew of (and had possibly even seen) glaciers.
Fossil coral reefs questioned
Coral consists of the skeletal deposits of marine organisms, which, while living, are organically “glued” together and form a coral reef. At present rates, it takes a long time to form a coral reef. Coral reefs found in the geologic column led scientists to assume that the entire geologic column must be millions of years old. However, closer examination shows that the fossil “reefs” are actually limestone deposits that contain coral. They are not true reefs, and they could have been formed relatively quickly by precipitation at the time of the Flood.
Coal dating questioned
It’s assumed that coal beds took thousands of years to form, many millions of years ago. Yet, under the right conditions, coal has been made in the lab in a matter of days! The organic matter needed for coal to form could have been buried under sediments in the worldwide Flood. Fossils of leaves, ferns, tree trunks (pictured) and marine life have been found in coal beds, indicating rapid burial and compression. Boulders have been found in the middle of coal beds, indicating rapid and powerful water movement in the formation of coal. Human artifacts have even been found in coal layers, indicating rapid formation in the not-too-distant past.
3. Evidence for a Young Earth
There are many, many evidences to show that the Earth is young - not billions of years old!
The earth’s core is still too hot.
Pressures in oil and gas reserves are still too high.
Not enough helium exists in the earth’s atmosphere.
No evidence of billions of years accumulation of meteoritic dust on the land or in seas.
The average of only 7-8 inches of top soil around the earth is too low.
Erosion of the continents (even with uplift) would have leveled out the earth millions of years ago.
The depth of sediment build-up in river deltas and on the ocean floors is far too small.
These are just a few of the evidences that point to an Earth that is only thousands, not billions, of years old, just as the Bible indicates. Here are some more in-depth examples of other evidences for a young earth:
Evidence from Earth’s magnetic field: The earth is a magnet, and therefore it has a magnetic “field” around it. Over the last 150 years, accurate worldwide measurements of Earth’s magnetic field have been made. These measurements show that the magnetic field is steadily decreasing. At the rate of decrease, the maximum age of the earth could only be about 10,000 years. If the earth were billions of years old, the heat from the original electric currents in the earth (that are needed to generate a magnetic field) would have been far too great for the earth to exist. A 4-5 billion-year-old earth would be impossible.
Furthermore, there’s no known mechanism to either start the original magnetic field of the earth, or build it up again once it has decayed. Although theories of a cycling magnetic field have been proposed, there is no scientific foundation for these ideas.
Evidence from Radioactive Carbon tests: These tests can be used to date things that contain organic matter — wood, bone, coal, cloth, oil, natural gas, etc. If any organic material remains in a fossil, it can be dated by radioactive carbon to determine if any radioactivity remains. Anything older than 50,000 years should show absolutely no radioactivity, because of the relatively short half life of radioactive carbon (5,700 years). Thousands of radioactive carbon tests have been performed on items such as fossils, dinosaur bones, wood, oil, and coal taken from throughout the geologic column. Every sample that has ever been tested shows radioactivity! This means the age of the sample is only thousands (not millions) of years. Most test samples date within 20,000 years.
The critics attempt to explain this by saying that samples were contaminated, or that “faulty testing techniques” were used. But these objections cannot explain away the overwhelming evidence for a young earth! With corrections for the lower ratio of radioactive carbon in the past, the dates actually become even younger — to only a few thousand years. Radioactive carbon dating is clear evidence for a young Earth!
Evidence from Earth’s rotation: The rotation of the earth is slowing down. The rotation rate can be measured by atomic clocks to the billionth of a second! If the earth were really 4-5 billion years old, its initial “spin” rate would have been so fast that the earth’s shape would be totally distorted. There would be bulges around the equator if a molten earth had been spinning that rapidly while solidifying. The rotation rate indicates that the earth could not have been “born” billions of years ago.
CONCLUSION
Why isn’t the evidence for a young Earth presented in scientific journals and textbooks? Because the “Big Bang” and evolution are the prevailing secular scientific theories. Any evidence that contradicts these theories is pushed aside, ignored, and/or discredited. Scientists and teachers who don’t conform to the secular culture’s expectations actually jeopardize their careers. Promotions and research funds are not granted to scientists who present data to contradict secular science. In order to save their careers, many scientists (even Christians) give in to the overwhelming pressure from their peers.
In an issue of Scientific American (Feb,1992), Dr. Geoffrey Burbidge (a University of California physics professor) wrote: “Big Bang cosmology is probably as widely believed as has been any theory of the universe in the history of Western civilization. It rests, however, on many untested and untestable assumptions… Yet the momentum that this bandwagon enjoys is overwhelming… Powerful mechanisms encourage conformity… It is extraordinarily difficult to get financial support or viewing time on a telescope unless one writes a proposal that follows the party line. Unorthodox papers are often denied publication for years… The same attitude applies to academic positions… This situation is particularly worrisome because there are good reasons to think the big bang model is seriously flawed.”
Christians may be tempted to just conform to this world’s current scientific theories, but the Bible warns us:
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (Romans 12:2).
“Do not love the world or the things in the world… For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away…” (1 John 2:15-17).