you state that “God said He created both the animal kingdom and mankind in a single day about 6000 years ago” (Genesis 1:24-31) I can accept that man etc was created in one day, but where in the Bible are we told that it was 6000 years ago. I have always believed that this is based on the various genealogies listed in the early books of the bible, but I also understood that some of these genealogies are not necessarily complete. I would be interested in reading your thoughts on how the 6000 years have been calculated.
The Bible does not directly tell us how many years ago Earth was created. But through study we can get close. One of the most fascinating histories of the world was written by Bishop James Ussher and published in 1658. He placed the creation in 4004 BC.
On the Hebrew calendar, which began at the creation, Sept. 2014 – Sept. 2015 is the year 5775. It is almost universally accepted that a number of years are missing in the Hebrew count, but there is no agreement on how many years have not been included. Estimates I’ve seen range from 165-240. Put it all together and 6,000 years is a reasonable approximation.