Very true, and that's why I believe it's not important. What is important is that we are here right now, and have a life to live. Studying different cultures from the past, different events in the past, and things like that are informative and good to know. Worrying about how old the earth is has no benefit whatsoever. In my opinion anyway.
Very false!
The Bible does give an exact number of years from Adam to Christ, through the geneologies, and we know the number of years from the birth of Christ (Sept 29, 2BC by our calendar) and the fact that God made it a point to tell us is proof enough that it is important.
Well said. There is another Augustine quote where he takes scientists to task for being able to count the leaves on the trees yet never once lifting their thoughts to Him who made the tree.
Although, I should say that as many atheists and others are using this issue as a wedge to lead people away from God, we should do our homework to have good answers in response. And be careful, as Augustine says, not to be caught with our pants down by foolish interpretations that were later disproven.