Originally Posted by TheKentuckian

The Bible doesn't state the age of the earth. The 6,000 years thing is based on counting the generations in the Bible and counting the amount of time each "begat" lived.

Let's say you believe this to be fact. You still haven't accounted for how long the 6+1 "days" are and in my opinion don't account for how long Adam and Eve were in the garden. I think it could be easily possible that the days aren't literal or at least as we percieve them. A day to God may be billions of years.
People also fail to account for the bit about in the begining the world was void and without form, indicating the world was already there in some fashion or another.
Also, it could be argued without a hint of heresy that Adam's clock didn't start until he was expelled from the garden. We know Adam walked with God in Eden but how long isn't clear by any stretch. A week, 10 years, a thousand, 4.5 billion. We don't know, we assume.

Remember also that Genesis is credited to Moses who had to then get the data from devine inspiration, if we are to say it is reliable. We cannot ignore that Moses was a man, no matter how great and it would be very difficult for him to get any firm grasp on times in this context and certainly episodes of vision could be pinpointed as days by him but that may not be accurate, though honest.

There are also some odd things going on that aren't explained at all like where did Cain's woman come from? It's alluded to that she had a people but at the same time Adam and Eve were the first. Why would Cain be afraid that men would murder him, if there was no one else but his parents and his dead brother? How are these isues reconciled? Obviously some stuff is going on that we aren't made privy to that is being glossed over in some way or the Jews, the Catholic Church, King James, or some one along the line did an edit/delete job that results in serious confussion, if you bother to question or even think about the information in front of you.
I think there is plenty of room to believe that God created the universe without the Earth having to be literally 6,000 years and seven days.

Most importantly this is so far off from the spiritual content that it's totally unimportant. Why just turn your back on discovery? God clearly intends for us to question, learn, and understand. The purpose of his word is not to relieve you of the quest for knowledge.
Seriously, if one's faith is hanging on a 6,000 year old earth then you are far short of a mustard seeds worth.