Neither I nor the Bible says that the Earth is 6000 years old.
4081 posted on 01/09/2003 9:00 AM EST by gore3000
Contrast that with the opinion of Ken Ham at the Institute for Creation Research: HERE.
Why do we at ICR believe in a young age for the earth? Firstly, if we take God at His Word, it is obvious from Scripture, that when one adds up all the dates from the first day of creation onwards, the world could only be in the order of thousands of years old. In many of our publications, we have also shown that the days of creation have to be ordinary days of 24 hours in length. From my experience, the major reason many Christians don't accept this is not because of what the Hebrew word for “day,” in its context in Genesis means, but because they believe scientists have proved that the earth is billions of years old; therefore they have to insist that the days of creation are long periods of time.Secondly, there is much overwhelming scientific evidence that fits with the earth being young. This cannot fit into an earth billions of years old. ICR books, such as Scientific Creationism [link in original], What is Creation Science? [link in original], and Science, Scripture and the Young Earth [link in original], document these evidences.
IMHO, your question cannot be explored without the definition of the terms and the scope of the inquiry.
For instance, some creationists of the Judeo-Christian stripe hold to the young earth view, i.e. the literal interpretation of Genesis from man's point of view. That would put the age of the earth at about 6000 years. But among this group are those who see an old universe preceding a young earth and others who see both as young.
Other Judeo-Christians look at Genesis as a metaphor and thus do not have an issue with the age of the universe or earth. Some who are not Judeo-Christians believe that God initiated it all and then withdrew and thus do not have an issue with the age of the universe. Both of these may be loathe to be considered under the umbrella of intelligent design, their belief in a Designer notwithstanding.
I suspect there are creationists who are not Judeo-Christian and have some other theory (ravens, turtles or whatever.) They may or may not have an issue with the age of the universe.
The directed panspermia crowd would likely agree on the dating of the universe and earth but would place the origin of life much earlier in a galaxy far, far away.
And then there's my view, that due to the inflationary model and relativity - and because God is not "in" time, the only observer of creation and the author of Genesis - that both statements are true. The universe is approximately 6000 years old (the Adamic age plus creation week from God's point of view as observer) - and is also approximately 15 billion years old from our space/time coordinates as observer.
So, shall we find agreement on the terms and scope and pursue the inquiry - or shall we agree to disagree and table it?