Oh Kenneth, Why would the age of earth be emotional?
It's been there 4.54 bn years, and it'll be there a good while longer (unless the lunatic Trump blows it up).
We only need it for 100 years or so, and you're near the end of that.
Doubt you'll need more than 5 years more.
The age of the earth is an extremely emotional topic for secularists.
Why? Well, for secularists to even postulate the idea of evolution, they have to also postulate an incomprehensible amount of time (billions and billions of years) so that the universe and life might have enough time to supposedly evolve by an impossible process (e.g., matter giving rise to information and a language system as seen in the molecule of life DNA, which is impossible).
Even with billions of years, though, evolution is impossible both mathematically and scientifically.
But secularists aggressively promote billions of years to make evolution a plausible idea. After all, as humans, we can’t really comprehend billions of years. So therefore, people are brainwashed to think that given enough time anything can happen.
Now for biblical creationists, the age of the earth is an issue that should lead Christians to a different kind of strong emotion—a real zeal for the authority and accuracy of the Word of God.
Ultimately, the issue of the age of the earth/universe is an authority issue.
Who is the ultimate authority? Fallible, finite man or God?