Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article by Bart J. Kowallis originally appeared in Science & Mormonism Series 1: Cosmos, Earth, and Man (2016).

Abstract: Geology professor Bart J. Kowallis takes readers to the realm of “deep time,” referring to that vast length of time it took for the earth and heavens to reach their current form and station. On the way, he discusses three myths about time and creation:

Myth 1. Scientific theories are just speculation; since they are not facts, I don’t need to believe or worry about them;
Myth 2. Official Church doctrine is that the earth is only a few thousand years old;Myth 3. The earth is old because it was made from pieces of older planets.

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About the Interpreter Foundation Book Chapter Reprint Series

The purpose of this reprint series is to make individual chapters from books published by The Interpreter Foundation more accessible to readers. Chapters from large format books will be made available as pdf files, while chapters from smaller format books will appear within the Interpreter journal, making this content available in a form suitable for many popular digital readers.

Although in some instances the formatting and pagination may have been changed, the content of this chapter, like others in this reprint series, is identical to what appeared in its original book publication. It has not been updated to incorporate research that has appeared subsequently nor to reflect the current practice of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to use the full name of the Church and to avoid terms such as “Mormon” and “LDS.”