Let Us Do the Math
  by Groff Schroeder

Many want all public schools to teach that the earth is about 10,000 years old, a scriptural interpretation. These people reject five hundred years of scientific observations, experiments and predictive models that suggest earth is 3.5 to 4.5 billion years old. Genesis 1:1-2:3 states God created earth in six days with humans the last creation in a series of living things, matching the fossil record and scientific deductions. However, in Genesis 2:4-25, God creates humans before other living things, contradicting physical evidence and Genesis 1.

In science, an observer forms a hypothesis and tests it by experiment and/or subsequent observations. The scientist then records and publishes the data and conclusions, thereby stimulating competitors who attempt to confirm or refute the hypothesis. When enough experiments corroborate the hypothesis (perhaps after 100 years), it becomes a scientific theory. Even more verification, such as a defining mathematical equation, can convert the theory into a scientific law - like Ohm's Law. Although scientific laws (also known as physical laws or principles) can evolve in response to newly verified observations or experiments, they are highly accurate, precise, isotropically functional models of creation itself.

The scientific interpretation of the physical evidence left by the creation of life on earth begins about 13 billion years ago, when a process of expansion that continues today began (the Big Bang). After about 300,000 years, protons captured electrons, forming hydrogen atoms, which gravity eventually clumped together. As clumps got larger, gravitational forces triggered the nuclear fusion of two hydrogen atoms into a helium atom, releasing immense energy. Clumps with enough gravity and hydrogen for self-sustaining fusion birthed stars. Over billions of years, extreme cosmological processes like supernovae formed heavier elements like carbon, oxygen, platinum and uranium; and distributed them throughout the universe.

Eventually, somewhere in infinity, orbiting stellar debris formed a pre-earth planet around a particular star in a particular galaxy. About 3.5 - 4.5 billion years ago, an object about the size of Mars collided with the planet, shattering both into rubble, which gravity shaped into our current earth moon system. After cooling, a spontaneous, repeatable process of chemical and biological self-assembly apparently led first to amino acids, sugars and other "chemical building blocks of life," then to single-celled organisms, multi-cellular organisms and finally, us.

Mathematical equations that define scientific law accurately and precisely predict future observations, validating hypotheses, theory and law. Although mathematics is the cornerstone of science, mistakes are always possible. Those who use the American measurement system instead of the world-standard metric system often employ tedious conversion factors, and an omitted conversion factor destroyed the Mars Climate Orbiter.

Biblical scholars, too, might miss important conversion factors. II Peter 3:8 states, "…a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day..." Applying this factor once, a 10,000-year-old earth yields an age of 3.6525 billion years (365.25 days/year x 10,000 years = 3,652,500 days x 1,000 years). Alternatively, since the conversion factor appears twice, standard deity time calculates as 365,000,000 years per day (one day = 1000 years * 1000 years/day), suggesting God's six days lasted approximately 2.19 billion years. Applying Biblical conversion factors appears to enhance Genesis 1's agreement with physical evidence but Genesis 2 still contradicts both.

Both science and scripture invite interpretation, but science competitively tests creation itself.

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