I am curious where this notion of a 6 thousand year old Earth comes from or is derived from. Can you explain?
I’m not the best person to explain it (I only mock it), but the way I understand it, the 6,000+ number comes from a literal reading of the Bible, and using its stories of generations of Jews from Adam on to calculate the passage of time from Creation to Christ’s age.
Actually, it’s six thousands years or the abouts since the creation of Adam. Not the earth. Since the earth itself was created before Adam, and even the sun, you cannot count the “days” before Adam as “days” as they would appear to Adam (and us), a 24 hr period.
It comes from Archbishop Ussher's works in the mid-17th Century (Annales veteris testamenti, a prima mundi origine deducti and Annalium pars postierior), in which he calculated that Creation occurred on the night preceding October 23, 4004 BC ([proleptic] Julian calendar), or September 21, 4004 BC (Gregorian).
Bedes, Kepler, Newton, and Scaliger (sp?) came up with similar estimates.
Also, there was the belief that the six days of creation represented the life of the earth, and since "[...] with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8), it would mean the lifespan of the earth is only 6,000 years. We're a decade past that now. :-)
Nathan Zachary> Actually, it’s six thousands years or the abouts since the creation of Adam. Not the earth. [...]
In his own words, Archbishop Ussher's date was to the first day of Creation, prior to Man. Perhaps you are agreeing with his entire reasoning up to the point of Man's arrival, but then saying he's wrong before that?