How old is the Earth?

[Loki_999]

I don't think you got all of your assumptions down. If you ascribe to Radiometric dating you must first assume that the radiometric decay has been constant. You must then also assume that there were no daughter elements present at the formation of the Earth correct?

How big do you want his post to be?

If you want to discuss radiometric dating in detail then there can be a separate thread created for it same goes for anything else you want to discuss in detail. In this thread you asked for the reasons. Otherwise this could end up a very long and messy thread if you want to start digging into everything.

Things like radiometric dating have been discussed many times before so if this is a sticking point for you then perhaps you can start with some research.

Talk origins has a lot of information which debunks a lot of the YEC bullshit. Of course you are free to evaluate the information provided and choose to reject or accept it, but I suggest you read it first before discussing.

Anyway, you can find the site here: http://www.talkorigins.org/ and the specific stuff about creationists and radiometric dating here: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/dalrympl...ng.html#h8

There are more pages going into it as well.

When done, why not start a separate thread for this topic?

EDIT:

Forgot to give my answer.

1) Believe around 4.5 billion years (i think you will find this rough figure a pretty common answer here because its the scientifically agreed one... at least for the moment).

2) Scientific evidence coming from many many different disciplines. However, i love to talk about Dinosaurs with YECs because that always makes me smile when they start talking about dinosaurs living around the time of the supposed flood. Also how ancient civilizations would actually have already existed when God was supposed to have created the universe wonderfully parodied by The Onion here: http://www.theonion.com/articles/sumeria...worl,2879/

3) Well, i guessed it was older than my Grandparents who were the oldest people i knew, and they talked about their parents etc. Then i started to learn about things like history, and got interested in Dinosaurs and Space at a young age (what young boy isn't interested in these things?) then became quite interested in lots of scientific subjects. Slowly over time the picture filled out.... i think they call it education. ;-)