EPS
106 Early estimates of the age of the Earth
August 31st, 1999
The idea of the flood carrying shells onto the land’s surface persisted until the late 18th century, known as diluvialism. The idea that all the Earth’s sedimentary rocks were laid down in the Great Flood.
Most early estimates were based on theologically based ages. Generally a few thousand years.
GEOLOGICAL TIME: Early estimates.
Some of the early estimates rejected a concept of finite time, having instead an infinite, circular history.
· Greeks favored a cyclical time, with no beginning and no end. The Universe is continuously recycling.
· Hindus believed in a cosmic cycle of destruction followed by a period of renewal lasting 4,320,000 years, and there had been 100,000 cycles.
· The Chaldeans, who ruled the Neo-Babylonian Empire said that the Earth emerged from Chaos more than 2 million years ago.
· Zoroaster, the Persian sage, said in the 17th century B.C. that the Earth was 12,000 years old.
Christian calculations:
Differed from previous in that time had a beginning (Genesis). Prior to the age of enlightenment in the mid-18th century, the Church dominated Western thought, not only in matters of the soul, but of nature as well. The scripture was the truth, and the concept of earth having existed for millions or billions of years was unthinkable. In fact, all estimates before 1950 are flawed.
Having nothing else to go on (and bound by the absolute correctness of the Scriptures), estimates were made on the basis of Biblical chronology.
A long line of estimates were made, the first being Theophilus of Antioch (ca. 115-180), a Syrian saint and Christian apologist. He calculated that the Earth had been created 5,698 years ago (5529 B.C.). He states that he may be off, but “even a chronological error of, for example, 50 or 100 or even 200 years, it is not of thousands or tens of thousands, as Plato and Apollonius and other authors have hitherto written”.
Many other chronologies had been written. The method involved determining the time between certain key historical milestones (e.g., the Flood, the birth of Abraham, etc.), by summing generations and the reigns of various rulers.
John Lightfoot (1602-1675) concluded that the Earth formed at 9:00 am, in September at the autumnal equinox in 3928 B.C. A graduate of Christ’s College, Cambridge University, Lightfoot was a distinguished biblical and Greek scholar, eventually becoming Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge. His estimates were based on the ages of individual mentioned in the Old Testament.
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(His estimates were the best that could be made at the
time).
The Biblical age of the Earth that is in place today is from James Ussher (born, 1581). Ussher was educated at Trinity College in Dublin. He became Vice-Chancellor, ordained as a minister in the Irish Anglican Church and became Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland. in 1641 his property was seized during the Irish rebellion. He moved to England and never returned. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Ussher used astronomical calculations, historical accounts and biblical chronologies. For example, he assumed that the lunar cycle (19 years), the solar cycle (28 years) and the Roman indication (15 years) were all at ‘zero’ in the beginning. His conclusion was that Creation began in the year 710 of the Julian calendar (he didn’t mention what happened in those 710 years). This was a two volume work!!
“In the Beginning, God created Heaven and Earth. Which beginning of time, according ot our chronology, fell upon the entrance of the night preceding the twenty third day of October in the year of the Julian calendar, 710”. His results are 6003 years ( in 1999) giving the age of 4004 B.C.
Most interesting is that Ussher’s work has received such prominence. It is due to William Lloyd, Bishop of Winchester. Lloyd entered the date only as a marginal note in the Great (1701) Edition of the English Bible without explanation. It remained (without explanation) until 1900, when Cambridge University Press, followed a decade later by Oxford University Press, removed it from further editions.
Thomas Burnet wrote the Sacred Theory of the Earth in 1681. First published in Latin, Charles II asked him to issue an English version. In 1689 it was doubled in length, first in Latin, and then in English. The sixth edition was printed in 1726, and it is still in print today.
Great authors and scholars of the time praised him. Some called him a peer of Plato and Milton. Some of the philosophes put him on a pedestal along with Descartes and Newton. Others criticized his work. In the end, his works sparked a war between fundamentalist Christianity and natural science.
Burnet went to the University of Cambridge in 1651. He was part of the group called the ‘platonists’, who took a loose interpretation of the scriptures. Burnet wanted to reconcile the new science of the 17th century with Christian teaching. Burnet visited Europe and was fascinated by the grandeur of the Alps and the general irregularity of the Earth’s surface. Considering the Earth as a whole he stated
“t’is a broken and confus’d heap of bodies, plac’d in no order to one another, not with any correspondency or regularity of parts”.
Therefore, he wrote his Sacred Theory to try to reconcile what he saw and the perfect globe of Creation.
What Burnet tried to do was to justify by reason the Scriptural description of Paradise and the Universal Deluge. He would use ‘reason’ as his first guide and, when this fell short, turn to enlightenment from the scriptures. Predicting comments on both sides he said
“no truth concerning the Natural World can be an enemy of religion; for Truth cannot be an enemy to Truth, God is not divided against himself”.
He starts with the assumption that the earth was created around 4,000 B.C. and that the Deluge occurred 1,600 years later. His problem was to come up with so much water.
Burnet interpreted the first chapter of Genesis, which affirms that in the beginning the world was without form. There would be gaseous, liquid and solid particles that would coalesce into a sphere. The heavy solids would sink to the center, with a layer of water and then gas over that. But he was not thinking of the solid earth, ocean and atmosphere that we observe around us.
His liquid shell included not only water, but also oil and fat, the latter floating on top of the water (like oil and vinegar dressing). There were two parts, the water below and oily liquid on top. Dust settling on the oily liquid creating
“a certain slime, or fat, soft, and light Earth, spread upon the face of the Waters”
As these sedimentary particles accumulated, they soaked up the oily liquor, so that the outer shell became firm, suitable for habitation and resting upon the layer of water.
“In this smooth Earth were the first Scenes of the World, and the first Generations of Mankind; it had the beauty of Youth and blooming Nature, fresh and fruitful, and not a wrinkle, scar or fracture in all its body; and uniform all over. . . . the Air was clam and serene; none of those tumultuary motions and conflicts of vapours, which the mountains and winds cause in ours . “
There were no seasons and neither heat nor cold. Then, as a providential act of execution upon a sinful world, the outer shell broke, causing the deluge. When the agitation subsided, the waters retreated back to their lower levels, leaving the world fractured as we see today. Grottos and caves are holes in the outer shell, and volcanoes are
“magazines of combustible materials (that) are treasur’d up in them”.
In the end, these stores of combustible material will lead to the end, where the second world will be consumed by fire.
In the end, Burnet’s attempt to reconcile Christian doctrine and science failed. The scientists felt that his view of modern earth as a shattered ruin was ridiculous, that the modern world was beautiful. On the other side, Burnet’s ‘stretching’ of the creation in Genesis was taken as heterodox and a profane ridicule of God’s word. Once considered as a prime candidate for the Archbishop of Cantebury, he was forced to resign from his more lowly post, and spent the rest of his life reworking his theory.
Burnet’s frontpiece of
his “Sacred Theory” Jesus stands upon two of
seven globes. We see a progression of life. In the
beginning (1:00) we see the formation of the earth, and
confusion. The second shows the perfect Earth. Next
is the great flood with Noah’s Ark. Then the second
destruction of the Earth by fire, followed by a perfect Earth
again. Christ reigning for 1000 years with his saints during this
period. After the final judgment, the Earth becomes a star.
Benoît de Maillet, (1656 to
1738) French diplomat (and traveler) began to devise a theory of
the age of the Earth just about the same time that Burnet’s
Sacred Theory was being published. de Maillet’s
estimate was over 2 billion years! de Maillet traveled all
around the Mediterranean region during his appointments as
various counsuls for Egypt, the French establishment of Levant
(Syria and Lebanon) and the Barbary Coast (Egypt to the Atlantic
Ocean). Combining his readings and observations, he
developed a coherent, unorthodoxy (and incorrect) theory of the
age of the Earth.
Much of his ideas were based on Descartes ideas of vortexes and whirlpools and birth and death of planets and starts. The idea in short, is that the Earth was once a star, which has burned out and that the water (which once covered the earth) is slowly evaporating out into space. de Maillet’s story is presented as a discussion between a French missionary and an Indian philosopher named Telliamed (de Maillet backwards). Telliamed explains his view of the Universe, which the missionary writes down.
Telliamed explains that his grandfather noticed that the seas around his village have retreated since he was a boy. From this, he examined the high hills and noticed shells in them. Thus the sea has retreated. And, because there are different strata, with different shells and colors, it could not have all come from a single flood.
The mountains were formed from undersea currents. The creatures formed as the mountains neared exposure, and the land creatures were modified from those of the sea. On the basis of the heights of mountains, the Earth needed to be millions to billions of years old.
Although de Maillet’s reasoning was not correct, his observations were good, being some of the first to recognize that the rock record is telling us something.
Interestingly, de Maillet would not publish during his lifetime. Even though it was written as a fictional work, and his name was changed, he was concerned about the repercussions. Instead it was 10 years after his death that Abbé J.B. le Mascrier published it. Even he had misgivings about being the editor of such a heretical book! He didn’t use his name as publisher!! And, he took the liberties to change facts, such as moving the decimal place by 3 or 4 places. Millions and Billions came into line with more accepted thinking. Nevertheless, Telliamed was a scandalous book, which made it all the more popular. It was only in 1968 that an authentic version of de Maillet’s work appear in press.
Age determinations from cooling rate experiments.
Sir Isaac Newton, (1642-1727) was one of the first on record for suggesting that the age of the Earth could be calculated from cooling rate experiments. He states
“A globe of iron of an inch in diameter, exposed red hot to the open air, will scarcely lose all its heat in an hour’s time; but a greater globe would retain its heat longer in proportion of its diameter, because the surface (in proportion to which it is cooled by the contact of the ambient air) is in that proportion less in respect of the quantity of the included hot matter; and therefore a globe of red hot iron equal to our earth, that is, about 40,000,000 feet in diameter, would scarcely cool in an equal number of days, or in above 50,000 years. But I suspect that the duration of heat may, on account of some latent causes, increase in a yet less proportion than that of the diameter; and I should be glad that the true proportion was investigated by experiments (1687).
It took George-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon to actually test this idea. Born in 1707, he was quite a guy. Eductated in law in Dijon, he went on to study medicine, botany, and mathematics. In addition to his scientific interests, he managed his family land holdings at Buffon and Montbard, engaged in harvesting timber, established a commercial tree nursery and built and operated an iron foundry.
He wrote Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particulière, a planned 50 volume encyclopedia, of which he completed 35 volumes! 12 on mammals, nine on birds, 5 on minerals. The twentieth volume is Epochs of Nature, published in 1778. He states that there were 7 epochs. In the beginning, the Earth was a molten globe; the final epoch included the advent of man and the world as it is today.
Buffon separated the Earth’s formation into 7 ‘epochs’.
He held that organic matter – life – is inevitable property of chemistry, bound to form once the Earth had cooled to a critical temperature.
He could calculate the age of the Earth on the basis of cooling from a molten iron ball to what it is today. Rather than speculate, he had his foundry fabricate 10 iron balls of diameters from ½ inch to 5 inches. He determined cooling rates from white hot to red heat, to lack of glow, to ‘hot to the touch’ and then to room temperature. He found there to be a linear relation (wrong!), which he extrapolated to the diameter of the Earth.
Conclusion: 42,964 years to cool to below incandescence and 96,670 to cool to present temperature!
He didn’t like his estimates. On the basis of what he had seen of sediments in the Alps and the slow rate of sedimentation in the oceans today, he thought that the time had to be much longer. He proposed (published only after his death!) estimates as long as 3 billion years.
Buffon was one of the first to clearly separate the appropriate roles of theology and science in explaining nature – science was perfectly capable of answering the questions of how and when; the question of why was reserved for theology.
His estimate was not touched further for nearly a century. Then it was taken up by a professor from Glasgow, born William Thomson, later known as Lord Kelvin. Entered the University at age ten, finished several months later and is in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the youngest college graduate. Entered Glasgow University in Oct. 1834. Graduated Nov. 14th, 1834. PhD at Cambridge – highest honors.
He was not to be messed with!!
He wrote
“Within a finite period of time, the earth must have been and within a finite period of time to come the earth must again be, unfit for the habitation of man as at present constituted, unless operations have been, or are to be performed, which are impossible under the laws to which the known operations going on at present in the material world are subject (1852).”
Kelvin started off calculating the age of the Sun. He assumed that it got ‘fuel’ from comets, had to know what was its specific heat (the ability of something to hold heat. A steel ball holds more heat than a styrofoam one) and the temperature of the sun. From additional observations of the changes in the Sun (or lack thereof) and the orbital rates of the earth around the sun, he concluded:
“It seems, therefore, on the whole most probably that the sun has not illuminated the earth for more than 100,000,000 years, and almost certain that he has not done so for 500,000,00- years. As for the future, we may say, with equal certainty, that inhabitants of the earth cannot continue to enjoy the light and heat essential to their life, for many million years longer, unless sources now unknown to us are prepared in the great storehouse of creation (1862).
The discovery of those “sources” was four decades off.
Then he reasoned that he could determine the age of the earth from the temperature profile.
He
could measure the variation today with depth (shown by dots on
curve t3). He could then work backwards
and calculate the original vertical profile. Data existed
from mines and wells.
To make these calculations, he needed three things. 1) The initial T of the Earth; 2) the temperature profile today, 3) the heat capacity of the rocks.
His estimates were between 20 million and 400 million.
The geologists had broken away from Church doctrine, but now they were shackled by Kelvin’s ‘elegant mathematics’.
Clarence King refined this methodology and arrived at 24 million. Kelvin’s last paper supported King’s work, stating “By an elaborate piece of mathematical bookkeeping, I have worked out the problem of the conduction of heat outward from the earth. . . “ (Bookkeeping not specified!).
The only problem was that geologists, who saw the sedimentary rock record, could not reconcile their observations with such a young age. Nevertheless, who would listen to some guy who goes out and looks at rocks – no math!!