Unfortunately it looks like some heated discussion has occurred. I didn't start the post to provoke people to anger.
The topic of Creation vs Evolution is one of those topics that will go on until the end of time, and maybe this is the wrong place to discuss issues as these, or is it? It seems that most people confuse the issue of religion in discussions such as these. Religion does not equal Christianity. Religion is something you believe in. For people who believe that the Theory of Evolution is correct, that is their religion.
Now, if we get back to initial question of how evolutionists determine the age of the earth, most people can agree that Carbon dating is not accurate. If you use science to prove or disprove science, then science has disproven the use of Carbon dating to accurately determine the age of anything. (Just out of curiosity, I wonder how old I would be if Carbon dating was used?)
So if evolutionist use the fossil record to determine life, what do the Creationists use? The Bible. Some say the Bible is a history book. It does have a lot of history in it. It mentions actual kings and other events in history so that with some research one can determine the time when certain events occurred. This is how and why Creationist believe the earth is only thousands of years old. Some say the Bible contradicts itself. I personally have never been shown any proof that the Bible contradicts itself. So if you have some examples I would like to see them. Some say the Bible isn't complete and that some things were left out. Well, if you view the Bible as a history book, I challenge you to look through your school history books, there are a lot of things that are left out. School history books have to leave out things because they would be too big. Some say the Bible is all figurative. I agree that some of the descriptions in the book of Revelation are figurative. You try to explain something you have never seen before using only words that you know and tell me how figurative your language will become.
In the book of Genesis, the creation of the world is explained. It is hard to imagine an all power and all knowing God simply because our minds are too limited. But the Bible says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and that the earth was formless and void. Then God created the light and divided it from the darkness and this was the first day. (Obviously I am paraphrasing). It goes on to say how He divided the lands from the seas and created the plants and then the animals and finally man.
Now I realize it takes a lot of faith to believe the Biblical account of Creation, but you know, it takes a heck of a lot of faith to believe the Theory of Evolution too. It's just me, but I would rather believe that God created the human race than to believe that the human race evolved from some muck.
I guess the biggest problem for me when it comes to dating is all of the assumptions that have to be made. How much of this radioactive element was present at certain times is almost impossible to discover. But, if one uses all of the events in the Bible and counts them up as far as age of people, kings reigns and so forth I think it can easily provide the answer to how old the earth is.
