Date: October 6, 2025
Host: Jim Schneider
​Guest: Dr. Terry Mortenson
MP3 | Order

How old is the earth?  According to The Planetary Society it’s 4.54 billion years old and we’re told that the evidence for that age is overwhelming.  On the other hand, creationists that hold to the literal teachings of the Bible believe that the earth is roughly 6,000 years old.  They, too, will say that the evidence is overwhelming for their position.

What is the reason for this massive discrepancy and what exactly does the evidence show?   

Joining Jim to answer that question was Dr. Terry Mortenson.  Dr. Mortenson has a PhD in history of geology from Coventry University in England.  Since the late 1970’s he’s lectured on the creation/evolution controversy in 37 countries and has had 7 formal university debates with PHD evolutionary scientists in four countries.  He is a speaker, writer, and researcher with Answers in Genesis.  He has written many scholarly articles and has authored the book, The Great Turning Point: the Church’s Catastrophic Mistake on Geology Before Darwin.  He also co-edited and contributed to the book, Coming to Grips with Genesis and Searching for Adam: Genesis and the Truth about Man’s Origin.

How could there be such a drastic difference in opinions regarding the age of the earth?  Are both sides looking at the same evidence?  Dr. Mortenson noted that both sides are looking at the same rocks and fossils, the same radioactive isotopes, the same erosional features and more.  The problem is that each side is interpreting the evidence through two different sets of assumptions.

Evolution stems from a uniformitarian worldview.  This assumes that nature is all that exists and everything must be explained via time plus chance plus the laws of nature working on matter.  Finally, they assume that the processes of geological change continue at the same rate, frequency and power as they always have.  Evolutionists use this as their starting assumption.

From there the program moves to discussion concerning the fossil evidence and how they form, the Grand Canyon, the gap theory, what the Bible’s genealogies tell us about the age of the earth, why 2 Peter 3:8 is not proof of an old earth, and more.  

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