How old is old?

Geology in the 17th century..I am doing a post about this because I have had quite an interest in geology since I started geology 101 this semester. There are many questions geology answers or comes very close to answering such as: how old is the earth? What is the big bang theory i hear about and is it true? Did dinosaurs walk the earth at some point in time or is there some other theory to explain the discovery of their fossils? Did man come by evolution- how did God create man? Are these questions relevant? Are they worth researching? Although I was living just fine without some of these answers, I was interested in what geology had to say about them and it has been very eye-opening. Diving into these topics expands our understanding of the nature of God and much about the planet we live on. The 17th century was a spring board to many significant discoveries in the next two following centuries. James Hutton and many others in the 18th century found accurate ways to determine the age of the earth and create a reference of time. James ussher was a geologist who used the bible as a genealogical reference to count backward through the generations of kings in the old testament and calculated that earth was formed in 4004 B.C. This was one of a few different theories in the 17th century in effort to calculate the age of the earth. This led many to study further to be able to explain how the earth was created by natural processes in such a short amount of geological time. Geologists such as Dutch scientist Nicolaus Steno used fossils to contribute to their study of the history of the earth and to create a time frame. This was the foundation to many more discoveries in the 18th and 19th century. Are we in a spring board era right now? Some of those discoveries in the 17th century led to a more accurate estimate finding that the earth is 4.57 billion years old. James Ussher was a little off. But his discoveries were still significant because it initiated a lot more thought around that topic. Maybe some of the discoveries we are having in the 21st century are just spring boards to greater discoveries. There is much more to be discovered about the earth and other natural processes... Scientists... Have a hay-day!