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from the article: "From the time Earth formed, around 4.56 billion years ago..."

boycott: "wild ass guess."

raygunfan: "EXACTLY"

No, not "exactly" and far from "wild ass guess".
In fact there are multiple data sources confirming such estimates, including this partial list of radio-metric materials:

Parent Isotope	Stable Daughter Product	Est. Half-Life
Uranium-238	Lead-206	4.5 billion years
Uranium-235	Lead-207	704 million years
Thorium-232	Lead-208	14.0 billion years
Rubidium-87	Strontium-87	48.8 billion years
Potassium-40	Argon-40	1.25 billion years
Samarium-147	Neodymium-143	106 billion years
Rhenium-187	Osmium-187	41.6 billion years

Dates from these methods are consistent with each other and with dating from other methods, such as comparing mass & luminosity of the Sun with other stars and measuring Calcium-aluminium-rich inclusions in meteorites.

"Statistics for several meteorites that have undergone isochron dating are as follows":[36]

Item	Meteorite	Radiometric material	Age of Earth
1.	St. Severin (ordinary chondrite)	1. Pb-Pb isochron	4.543 ± 0.019 billion years
		2. Sm-Nd isochron	4.55 ± 0.33 billion years
		3. Rb-Sr isochron	4.51 ± 0.15 billion years
		4. Re-Os isochron	4.68 ± 0.15 billion years
2.	Juvinas (basaltic achondrite)	1. Pb-Pb isochron	4.556 ± 0.012 billion years
		2. Pb-Pb isochron	4.540 ± 0.001 billion years
		3. Sm-Nd isochron	4.56 ± 0.08 billion years
		4. Rb-Sr isochron	4.50 ± 0.07 billion years
3.	Allende (carbonaceous chondrite)	1. Pb-Pb isochron	4.553 ± 0.004 billion years
		2. Ar-Ar age spectrum	4.52 ± 0.02 billion years
		3. Ar-Ar age spectrum	4.55 ± 0.03 billion years
		4. Ar-Ar age spectrum	4.56 ± 0.05 billion years

Of course, by its nature science is never 100% irrefutable, but when evidence piles up from many sources, all pointing to consistent conclusions... well, that's as good as science ever gets.

No, not “exactly” and far from “wild ass guess”.

So the science is settled? Sort of like global warming?

I know there was a man named Jesus that walked this earth about 2000 years ago and I believe in his death, burial, and resurrection. The age of the earth doesn’t really change that belief.

All that said, the age of the earth is still a wild ass guess. There are way too many potential variables to even guess.

Thanks for posting, Joe.

One question...

Since the Earth and meteorites all formed from microscopic dust particles and gas, wouldn’t the rate of radioactive decay measure when the dust and gas was created by a supernova, and NOT the date when the dust and gas coalesced into planets and meteoroids?

Thanks for explaining this.

oh yeah, the all ‘agree’...especially when you start with unprovable assumptions about the starting quantities of argon, etc, et al...and then you throw out the wildly off ages...dismiss them with a wave of your hand...you know, accuracy...etc...

nice try...

now, back to the altar of darwin with you...