Happy Birthday, Dear Earth: Six Thousand Years since Creation, Some Still Believe

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THE EARTH WILL be 6,000 years old on Oct. 22.

The anniversary may get scant notice from most Anglicans, but there really are people who believe this - despite all the scientific evidence of a four billion-year-old universe. In conservative evangelical circles they are known as "young earth" people.

They claim the earth was created in the year 4004 BC. There was no year "0" between 1 BC and AD 1, which makes 1997 the 6,000th anniversary of creation.

Moreover, they want this view taught in schools as having equal status with Darwin's theory of evolution and scientific dating of geological and palaeotological samples that show the earth to be billions of years …