Young Earth - Old Earth

Dr. Wile, the author of the Apologia science texts (for older students) was asked this specific question when my husband and I sat in on a lecture he presented at our state's Christian homeschooling conference several years ago. He specifically told us that he believes that there is not enough evidence to support either theory (young earth or old earth), or that the scientific facts don't clearly point to a specific age, and that we really just cannot tell how far back it was when God created the earth.However, he does NOT believe in evolution, and I haven't seen anything in his science texts so far that would state a belief in the earth being billions of years old. He is undeniably a creationist, which can be seen all over their website. But, directly from him, he told us that he cannot locate specific evidence in the Bible or in science that absolutely proves without a doubt that the earth is only 6,000 - 12,000 years old vs. hundreds of thousands of years old.Here are the conclusions he presented in a handout he told us to read at his website, back then:Conclusions:• Salt in the ocean leads to a maximum age of 62 million years• Helium in the atmosphere leads to a maximum age of 2 million years• Dendrochronology indicates that the most likely age is several thousand years• The ONLY successful model of planetary magnetic fields indicates a maximum age of 9,000years• The lack of short-lived radioisotopes indicates a minimum age of several hundred millionyears, but this depends on an assumption that does not seem reliable.• Radiometric dating is not reliable, except for the specific case of carbon-14 dating over thepast 3,000 years, assuming the radioactive decay rate is constant over than time period.Here is the link to the article that Dr. Wile wrote:http://www.apologiaonline.com/conf/ageearth.pdfHopefully, that should answer her questions, although you could email or call Apologia and ask them yourself and answer the lady's questions that way. I have a feeling that while Apologia's science texts are unabashedly written from the creationist point of view, I don't think they ever straight out address the issue of which "year" exactly they "think" the earth was created.Hope that makes sense and is helpful.Julieanne