The WT's web page which Sea Breeze provided a link to says the following. "However, according to the Bible, the earth and the universe existed before the six days of creation. (Genesis 1:1) For that reason, Jehovah’s Witnesses have no objection to credible scientific research that indicates the earth may be billions of years old." The first sentence in that quote is one literal interpretation of the Genesis chapter one account. It is part of the idea of the Gap Theory which Christian believers in biblical creation (before Russell began the WT) came up with in the 1800s, and it is mentioned in the Scofield Reference Bible (a study Bible) edition of the KJV, which was originally published in 1909. (I own a deluxe leather copy of the 1917 revised edition of that Bible.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scofield_Reference_Bible says the following. "It was in the pages of the Scofield Reference Bible that many Christians first encountered Archbishop James Ussher's calculation of the date of Creation as 4004 BC; and through discussion of Scofield's notes, which advocated the "gap theory," fundamentalists began a serious internal debate about the nature and chronology of creation.[3] " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gap_Creationism says the following.
"Gap creationism (also known as ruin-restoration creationism, restoration creationism, or "the Gap Theory") is a form of old Earth creationism that posits that the six-yom creation period, as described in the Book of Genesis, involved six literal 24-hour days (light being "day" and dark "night" as God specified), but that there was a gap of time between two distinct creations in the first and the second verses of Genesis, which the theory states explains many scientific observations, including the age of the Earth.[1][2][3] It differs from day-age creationism, which posits that the 'days' of creation were much longer periods (of thousands or millions of years), and from young Earth creationism, which although it agrees concerning the six literal 24-hour days of creation, does not posit any gap of time.
... From 1814,[4] Thomas Chalmers popularized gap creationism;[5] he attributed the concept to the 17th-century Dutch Arminian theologian Simon Episcopius. "
Notice the idea of a Gap in creation did not originate with atheists, but with a Christian theologian in the 17th century (or perhaps even earlier)!
Notice also that SeaBreeze in his quote of the WT left out the sentence in which the WT said the biblical reason (one of a literal interpretation) of why "... Jehovah’s Witnesses have no objection to credible scientific research that indicates the earth may be billions of years old."
Correction: In my prior post I had multiple typos when I wrote the following. "The idea of the Earth being far more than 10,000 years ago was the idea of scientists who were Christians believing in creation, which began before wrote his Origin of Species book. Christians believers in creation and the Bible who were geologist discover ancient extinct animals, even dinosaurs, and layers of rock, and evidence of weathering, and thus concluded the Earth was far more than 10,000 years old." I should have wrote the following instead. "The idea of the Earth being far more than 10,000 years ago was the idea of scientists who were Christians believing in creation, which began before Charles Darwin wrote his Origin of Species book. Christians believers in creation and the Bible who were geologists discovered ancient extinct animals, even dinosaurs, and layers of rock, and evidence of weathering, and thus concluded the Earth was far more than 10,000 years old."
The "me.It " in my prior post is an error created by this website (and by me leaving out a blank space), due it 'thinking' it was a URl. I meant it to simply say "me. " followed by the word "It".