Old Earth or Young Earth?

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The debate over the age of the earth has been building since geologists first started dating rock strata and Darwin introduced us to the concept of evolution. Whether it's billions of years old or only a few thousand is a topic that seems to be impossible to come to an agreement on. Most people believe one or the other, completely ignoring all evidence contrary to their beliefs. A few attempts have been made to reconcile the two but rebuttals to the arguments seem to come faster than the theories themselves. I believe the answer to this question lies right there in the first chapter of Genesis and one need only look to the original Hebrew Scriptures. "Old earthers" rely on science while ignoring the Bible and "young earthers" blindly stick to the King James Version of the Bible while ignoring science. The keys to unlocking this mystery require first, an open mind, and second, a look at what was originally written about creation. I am vehemently opposed to allowing one's personal bias to get in the way of the truth. We must start from the scriptures and learn from them, not bring our own preconceived notions to the scriptures. Every English version of the Bible that I've found has shown signs of personal bias in the translation. No two translations completely agree with each other and even the KJV has been revised several times. If you have ever sat in church trying to follow along with what the pastor is reading and found all the words don't match up it's because you're reading from different "editions" of the KJV. In this essay, I will use the most common edition of the KJV as a reference only. It's the version that is most widely read in the English speaking world and it's also the version that Dr. James Strong used as a reference for his "Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible". Strong's Concordance is considered to be the most accurate resource for Biblical study and is certainly the most widely read. These are the only two references I use in my work unless otherwise noted.