Wait....the earth existed hundreds of thousands of years before Jesus was born. The Hopis have literal traditions about 3 previously existing worlds that were destroyed by fire, water, which is why they had to leave Lemuria under the care of their spiritual teachers, the Kachinas. They call it Kasskara and it is followed by 7 worlds. At the same time in the third world Atlantis also existed. They describe them as a somewhat warlike people, who brought their island to ruin by their destructive behavior. Then came the flood and the Mud. The Ice Age covered the north, at least from Europe, perhaps also Tartaria ,and Hypoborea disappeared. And only at dawn of our time Jesus came.

Yes well it's easy to believe such, imo, 'fascinating' and 'ear tickling' myths that require a hundreds of thousands of years (or billion upon billions take your pick) age of the earth but much harder to support them with hard evidence.

For instance in support of the Biblical narrative of a basically 6000 year old earth a retired Oak Ridge nuclear scientist examined via electron microscope examples of primordial granite from every outcropping on earth. The Andes, Rockies, Alps, etc.

He found enormous numbers of polonium molecules captured in every specimen. With a half life of roughly 6-30 min for those to exist that granite could *never* have been in a molten state (polonium would have all outgassed near instantly) and further come to be within *minutes* not billions of years.

The theory of billions of years of molten granite to cool is foundational to evolution and all the other supposed extreme ancient events of earth history.

I, like you perhaps, believed all such tales and traditions for a significant period of my life. I've sat w/ Hopi, Lakota and Tibetan Buddhist elders and discussed such teachings and oral traditions. I've done 'past life regression' via hypnosis (fully onboard w/ the doctrine of 'reincarnation') and read every book on such things as I could for over 2 decades; chased and studied the UFO question, Big Foot, all manner of other dimensional theories and 'spiritual' phenomena ... on and on.

Loooong before I ever came to crack open a Bible.

Since then through deep comparative study I've come to accept the Bible at it's plain spoken Word and consider it's instant creation/young-age-of-the-earth narrative the very best explanation for on-going provable real world history and what actually can be seen in earth geology and archaeology and how it, and mankind, came to be.

At the very least I'm far from uninformed on either 'side' of the 'grand debate'.