Chapter 23

How Old Is the Earth?

This is an ancient question which has occasioned much controversy. There are at least three prevailing answers among faithful Bible-believing Latter-day Saints. The fact appears to be that no man knows the age of the earth.

The first group believe that the earth was created in six days of twenty-four hours each. That is, the earth was six days old at the coming of Adam. This view is based upon the literal acceptance of the story of creation as given in King James’ translation of Genesis. (Gen., Chapter 1; Exodus 20:11.) According to this belief there was a succession of sudden or catastrophic creative events during this short period of time which led to the formation of the earth. The catastrophists contend that the Lord is able through His divine power, if He so desires, to form an earth or many earths in short moments of time. They also quote the words of Moses, as revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith, which follow closely the wording of King James’ translation. (Pearl of Great Price, Moses, 2:1-31.)

The second group hold that each day of creation was really one thousand years, and that the earth therefore was six thousand years old at the coming of Adam. Those who uphold this view quote as their support the statement of the Apostle Peter, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter, 3:8.) In defense of this view the statement made by Abraham is also quoted: “The Lord said unto me, by the Urim and Thummim, that Kolob was after the manner of the Lord, according to its times and seasons in the revolutions thereof; that one revolution was a day unto the Lord, after his manner of reckoning, it being one thousand years according to the time appointed unto that whereon thou standest. This is the reckoning of the Lord’s time according to the reckoning of Kolob.” (Pearl of Great Price, Abraham, 3:4.)

The third group believe that the creation of the earth extended over immensely long periods of time, not yet correctly established by revelation or by man’s scientific advance, and that the earth therefore is very old. In support of this view they marshal several arguments:

First. It is admitted that the Lord has power to accomplish His work in His own way and time. “But nature and scripture both teach us that it has pleased the Lord to work gradually. His purpose was to fill the earth with inhabitants, and yet only a single pair was created. … It is His will that the whole earth shall be filled with knowledge of Himself; but the diffusion of the knowledge has been left to gradual preaching and human instrumentality. So in nature, trees, animals, and men have small beginnings, and require time to attain to perfection.” (A. McCaul, “The Mosaic Record of Creation,” p. 213 in Aids to Faith.)

Second. The word translated “day” in Genesis really means, in the original, an age or undefined period of time, and iis so rendered in several translations of the Bible. Further, the first three “days” could not have been days such as we have, for the sun and the moon had not yet placed in the firmament. (Genesis, 1:5-19.) Moreover, the word ‘day” is used frequently throughout the Bible in a general sense, as ‘the day of the Lord,” “the day of vengeance,” “the night is far spent, the day is at hand.”

Third. Scripture revealed in modern days to the Prophet Joseph Smith indicates that the word “day” should be understood to mean periods of time, for in the Abrahamic record of creation, each creative act is followed by the statement “This was the first or the beginning of that which they called night and day,” “and this was the second time that they called night and day,” and so on until “and they numbered the sixth time.” (Pearl of Great Price, Abraham, Chapter 4.) Then, “And the Gods concluded upon the seventh time.” (Ibid, 5:3.)

Fourth. Genesis opens with the phrase “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” It is quite agreed by students that the word “beginning” is indefinite in its significance and may mean previous time or even previous eternity, according to subject—as in John’s gospel “Before the world was.” (John 17:5.) This is placed by the side of Alma’s words “All is as one day with God and time only is measured unto men,” (Alma, 40:8) as indicating that our measurement of time, with its short days and hours came only with man.

Fifth. The slow processes of nature, as known to man, must long have been in operation to lift the mountains from lake and sea bottoms, and to carve out the valleys. All human experience points to the need of periods of time far beyond six thousand years, to fashion the earth as it appears today, or as it seems to have been throughout recorded history.

Sixth. Recent discoveries in the field of radioactivity have furnished a “time-clock” which compels the belief that the earth is very old, far beyond the former, accepted limits.

Those who upon the above and other views hold that the earth is very old, have attempted to estimate the age of the earth in years. The method is always based on a common principle. The rate at which some process is going on at the present day is measured as accurately as possible, and the average change produced in say one year, is compared with the total effect produced by that process during the interval that has elapsed since its commencement. (See Arthur Holmes, The Age of the Earth, p. 29.)

The earliest method of estimating geological time was to discover the maximum thickness of the stratified formations in the earth’s crust and to determine the amount of sediment carried annually into the ocean. Geological study indicates that the thickness of the earth’s stratified formations is at least 360,000 feet (Holmes, p. 79), and that the annual discharge of sediments into the ocean is such as to require millions of years tor the deposition of the strata in question. It is admitted that this method can indicate only long periods of time, and not definite measurements in years.

A somewhat more satisfactory method deals with the salt in ocean water. It is assumed that the first ocean water was fresh. The sodium chloride or salt that it now contains has been dissolved from the sediments brought down into the ocean by the rivers. The water has been evaporated and condensed into rain over and over again, but the salt which is not volatile has remained to increase the saltiness of the ocean. Estimates have been made of the annual discharge in the rivers of earth, their load of materials, and the probable amount of salt in the water and the sediments. Similar estimates have been made of the amount of salt in the ocean. Then by simply dividing the annual addition or salt into the total amount of salt in the oceans, the number of years of the accumulation is obtained. By this method, acknowledged to be subject to many corrections, salt has been added to the oceans or a period of about 330 million years. According to this calculation, the earth must be at least that old.

The discovery of radioactivity and the element radium, furnished an unexpectedly accurate geological hour-glass that has been used in estimating the age of the earth.

The element uranium is radioactive. That is, it emits spontaneously, continuously, and uniformly various radiations. As it does so it is degraded, passing from one form to another, including radium, until the final residue is lead. That is, there is a life-limit to uranium, radium, and several other elements. Methods have been developed by which the rate of this degradation may be measured accurately. The amount of lead, or radium in association with uranium will then point to the length of time since the uranium was formed.

It has been found that the age of uranium, determined as above suggested, is lowest in the more recent rocks and highest in the oldest rocks. This is a confirmation of much previous geological work on the relative ages of rock deposits. The age of the oldest rock approaches, by this method, 2,000 million years. The earth must then, by this form of study, be at least that old.

It is a curious act that studies by modern methods of the age of the solar system have yielded similar results, that is, about 2,000 million years. It is a most interesting chapter in modern exploration. (See, The Age of the Earth, Arthur Holmes, 1937; also F. J. Pack, Science and Belief in God.) Those who hold to the long-time age of the earth point out that present scientific data indicate “an epoch of creation,” 2,000 million years ago.

Every person must decide for himself, on the basis of the evidence produced, which of these three opinions as to the age of the earth, before Adam, seems most reasonable to him, whether (1 ) six days, or (2) six thousand years, or (3) many millions of years. Clearly it does not matter to one’s daily welfare or salvation which view he adopts, except that every Latter-day Saint must seek and cherish truth above all else.

QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS

1. How does science arrive at its facts?

2. How does science arrive at its inferences?

3. Why do scientific inferences change?

4. What is the meaning of the Book of Mormon statement that “time is measured only to man”?

5. What observations have you made in your travels as to the age of the earth?

6. What is your own position relative to the age of the Earth? Explain.