It also used to be PROVEN that the earth flat. There is no real proof that the earth is 4.5 billion years old. Lets take a look at some real evidence for a young earth ( taken from here): 1) The continents are eroding too quickly. If the continents were billions of years old, they would have eroded by wind and water many times over. Mountain uplift and other ̢̢̮ââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâ¹Ãârecycling̢̢̮ââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢ processes are nowhere near capable of compensating for this. 2) There is not enough helium in the atmosphere. Helium, a light gas, is formed during radioactive alpha decay in rock minerals. It rapidly escapes and enters the atmosphere much faster than it can escape Eartḫ̢̢ââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢s gravity.2 Even if God had created the world with no helium to begin with, the small amount in the atmosphere would have taken at most around two million years to accumulate. This is far less than the assumed 3,000-million-year age of the atmosphere. 4) Many fossils indicate that they must have formed quickly, and could not have taken long time-spans. 5) The oceans are nowhere near salty enough. Each year, the world̢̢̮ââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢s rivers and underground streams add millions of tonnes of salt to the sea, and only a fraction of this goes back onto the land. Using the most favorable possible assumptions for long-agers, the absolute maximum age of the oceans is only a tiny fraction of their assumed billions-of-years age. __________________________________ How do scientists prove the earth's age, carbon dating you say? Lets have a look at carbon dating (taken from here) The man who invented Carbon dating knew that atmospheric carbon would reach equilibrium in 30,000 years. He assumed that the earth was millions of years old, and that it was already at equilibrium. However each time they test it, they find more c14 in the atmosphere, and have realized that we are only 1/3 the way to equilibrium. - What does this mean? It means that based on c14 formation, the earth has to be less than 1/3 of 30,000 years old. This would make the earth less than 10,000 years old! Carbon dating is based on the assumption that the amount of C14 in the atmosphere has always been the same. But there is more carbon in the atmosphere now than there was 4 thousand years ago. ___________________________ I entirely believe the earth is only about 6000 years old. I take the bible literally, which is how it should be. It is not just a "moral book", it is absolute truth. People often laugh at these beliefs, but more often then not they only rant and know next to nothing on the subject.