The earth is probably less than 10,000 years old.

Thanks for the great explanation, Con. Now on to my arguments. 1. Bible This argument's for those who don't need convincing the Bible's a credible source. Many scholars have, using the Bible, independently determined the origin of earth to have been ~4k BC, which means the earth's about 6kyr, adding the 2k years since Christ. Isaac Newton, for example, got a date of 3998 BC.(1) For those who doubt Genesis reads literally, I point out Jesus and Peter referenced it as historical fact; Jesus challenged the Pharisees, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female( … )?”(2) Peter said, “[God] did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah( … )”(3) 2. Helium Zircon crystals taken from a New Mexico borehole in 1974 were U-Pb dated at 1.5byrs.(Zartman, 1979) It was determined 58% of the Helium produced by radioactive decay, which should have escaped by 1.5byrs, was still present.(Gentry et al., 1982) In 2000, scientists predicted the Helium diffusion rate required to produce Gentry's results while assuming the crystals were 1.5byrs old, and the rate necessary when they were assumed 6kyrs old. Both predictions were published before the actual rate of diffusion was known. The results of a later experiment confirmed the prediction made under the 6kyr model, and showed the prediction based on the 1.5byr model to be off by a factor of over 100k: “[The] data strongly support [the] hypothesis of episodes of highly accelerated nuclear decay occurring within thousands of years ago. Such accelerations shrink the radioisotopic “billions of years” down to [a] 6000-year timescale( … ).”(Humphreys, 2005) For clarification of the results: The implications of these results are two-fold: it substantiates my claim of an earth younger than 10k years, and preemptively refutes any radiometric argument for an older earth. 3. Trees No tree with over 5k rings exists.(4)(5) If earth were over 10kyrs old, you'd expect to find at least one tree with more than 5k rings. 4. Supernovas Our galaxy experiences ~3 supernovas per year.(6) There are ~200 supernova remnants in the Milky Way. Extrapolating this data back in time reveals a maximum age of the galaxy of less than 10kyrs.(Davies, 1994) Were the Milky Way billions of years old, there'd be many more supernova remnants. Because it assumes an unrealistically older age for the galaxy, NASA calls these hypothetical supernovas “mysteriously missing”.(7) 5. Mutations There is “an unexpected lack of diversity within human mtDNA worldwide,” as 83% of mtDNA is shared among all people.(Carter et al., 2008) Extrapolating observed mtDNA mutation rates back in time reveals the first woman lived ~6kyrs ago, accounting for the fact mtDNA's maternally inherited.(Gibbons, 1998) 6. Population There's 7 billion people in the world.(8) If one assumes the population doubles every 150yrs, extrapolation back in time reveals the first human couple lived less than 10kyrs ago. The assumption the population doubles every 150yrs is actually an extremely conservative estimate. If one plugs in the current rate of growth, doubling the population every 40yrs, the math demonstrates the first human couple lived less than 6kyrs ago. 7. Magnetic Field The maximum possible energy of earth's magnetic field, at origin, couldn't have exceeded ~1023 joules.(Barnes, 1975) Extrapolation back in time of this data and the current decay rate reveals an origin of less than 9kyrs.(Humprheys, 1990) (1) http://geofaculty.uwyo.edu... (2) Matthew 19:4 (3) 2 Peter 2:5 (4) http://digitalarts.ucsd.edu... (5) http://cos.arizona.edu... (6) http://www.nasa.gov... (7) http://science1.nasa.gov... (metadata) (8) http://www.census.gov...