The "age of rocks" discussion is really a red herring because the issue is not the age of the earth but the origin of living things.
However, for the subject of the age of the earth, check out "The Gap Theory" if you haven't already. I believe it to be the best biblical explanation for the earth being as old as science discovers. All true science can do is uncover what's been in the Bible all along.
One of the issues I see is how our culture and even the Church interprets our scientific discoveries.
The “Scientific” Community is very proud to say that they are always learning and the beauty is that they can correct for previous errors. In the meantime, trust us and what we know so far.
This has led generations of people to be either indifferent on one end, to being completely absurd on the other. The absurdity comes by way of the popularity of shows like “Ancient Aliens” and from other more critically thinking scientists that promote theories that are wholly unprovable. String theory, multi-verse etc...
All these seem like desperate attempts to avoid God.
Yes, Darwinism has failed, and I get the sense that most of the critical scientists know this. This IMHO, is why we are seeing greater acceptance of the absurd. They are looking for an out. Something they can sell to the public while they work on resolving the conflicts within their theories.
Carbon dating is notoriously inconsistent.
The Geologic Column is not uniform.
The birth of new stars should not be seen.
Comets should have burned out long ago.
So-called living fossils.
The Cambrian explosion.
And the list goes on...
In the meantime, Bill Nye decided that he would try to convince people there is no difference between “Observational” science and “Historical”.
What I see is an effort among secularists, an attempt to convince us that we must embrace uncertainty.
This “embrace” is destroying the moral fabric of God and is attempting to replace him with the “knowledge of man”.
Gap theory is foolishness.
Quantum Physics proves the age of the Earth at 6-10 thousand years in a general sense. One has to account for the expansion of the universe, which expands time in proportion to space, and fits perfectly.
Barry Setterfield has several papers on this http://www.setterfield.org/
God reveals Himself through the Word and also through His Creation. If the study of Creation reveals facts that seem to contradict the Word we must reexamine our assumptions about Scripture.