[Junior]

Interestingly, the general concensus (prior to Darwin's theory) as to the age of the earth was around 6,000 years based primarily on average population growth of societies and the number of generation from Adam.

Beep! Circle takes the square. By the end of the 18th century (note, that is about 50 years before the ToE), geologists knew the world was at least several hundred million years old. The whole "6,000 year old Earth" thingy can be traced to Bishop James Ussher and his 1650 chronology (Wikipedia, 2005). Of course, we have records from civilizations extending further back than October 23, 4004 B.C., rendering even conjecture on this point moot.

[Verginius Rufus]

Ussher was not the first to try to calculate the length of time from the creation...in the Middle Ages the Byzantines had a reckoning from the creation, and the Jewish calendar puts the creation in 3761 BC (the current year is 5765). There are discrepancies between different manuscripts for the ages of some of the patriarchs in Genesis, and there is disagreement over the length of the period of the Judges.

[Doctor Stochastic]

James Hutton claimed millions and millions of years were needed to explain the measured results of erosion.

[Doctor Stochastic]

James Hutton claimed millions and millions of years were needed to explain the measured results of erosion.