Is there absolute indisputable scientific evidence of Earth's age?

1 Answer
Dec 10, 2015

There is no such thing as indisputable scientific evidence.

Explanation:

All natural sciences are based on observations and models. The models we have may match our observations closely and provide good predictions, checked by further observations, etc. Such models help us to make sense of the world around us, but there is no way of telling that they are true.

In practice scientific models are often refined as more precise observations are made. Consider Newton's Laws of Motion for example. They are still useful, but are no longer thought to be 'true' in the sense of absolutely accurate - especially at speeds approaching the speed of light, etc.

That having been said, the age of the Earth has been assessed by various radiometric measurements which are in good agreement, placing the age of the Earth at #4.54+-0.05 xx 10^9# years.

On another tack, consider also the proposition that the universe was created 10 years ago. You might point to all sorts of evidence that it has been around longer, including your own memories, objects that appear to be older than 10 years, the richness of culture, light from stars that appear to be more than 10 light years away, etc. I could claim that all of those are artificial constructions, made to fool you into thinking that the universe is older than 10 years.

This may seem absurd, but by so arguing I have disputed your evidence.