CSE Seminar Notebook - Free Bible Resources

“Facts do not cease to existbecause they are ignored.”—Aldous Huxley“The collective needs of nonhumanspecies must takeprecedence over the needsand desires of humans.”—Dr.Reed F.Noss, TheWildlands Project“Ateam led by Nail R. Tanvirof the University ofCambridge in England used atwo step method to estimatethe [Hubble] constant. Firstthey observed atype of“standard candle”-starsknown as Cepheid variablestofind the distance to thespiral galaxy M96… You haveto be very careful about[drawing conclusions] becauseall of the [Hubble constant]measurements have hugesystematic errors.”—Science News Sept. 9,1995 p. 166“Radiocarbon is forming 28-37% faster than it is decaying"— R.E. Taylor et al.,American Antiquity,Vol. 50, No.11985 pp. 136-140“Living mollusk shells weredated up to 2300 years old.”—Science vol. 141, 1963 p.634-637“Basalt from Mt. Etna, Sicily(122 BC) gave K-AR age of250,000 years old.Dalyrmple, G.B., 196940Ar/36Ar analysis of historiclava flows.”—Earth and PlanetaryScience Letters, 6-47 55. Seealso: Impact # 307 Jan. 1999based. Radiation from thesun strikes theatmosphereof theearthallday long. This energy converts about21 pounds ofnitrogen intoradioactive carbon 14. This radioactivecarbon14slowly decays backintonormal, stablenitrogen. Extensivelaboratory testinghas shown that abouthalf oftheC-14molecules willdecay in 5730 years. This is called the half-life.After another 5730 years halfoftheremainingC-14 willdecay leavingonly¼oftheoriginal C-14. Itgoes from ½to ¼to 1/8, etc. In theory, itwould never totally disappear, butafter about 5halflives, thedifferenceis not measurable withanydegreeofaccuracy. This is why most peoplesaycarbondatingis only good for objects less than 40,000 years old.Nothingon earthcarbon dates in the millions ofyears,becausethescopeofcarbon datingonly extends afew thousandyears. WillardLibby inventedthecarbon dating techniqueintheearly 1950’s. Theamount ofcarbon 14 in theatmospheretoday is about .0000765% itis assumed therewould be thesameamountfound in living plants or animalssincethe plants breath CO and animals eatplants.2Sincesunlightcauses theformation ofC-14 in theatmosphere,andnormalradioactive decay takes itout, theremust be apoint where theformation rateand the decay rateequalizes.This is called the point of equilibrium. Let meillustrate: Ifyouweretryingtofillabarrel withwater buttherewereholesdrilled up theside of the barrel, as youfilled the barrelitwould begin leakingouttheholes. Atsomepointyou wouldbeputtingitin anditwouldbeleakingout at thesamerate.You will notbeable tofill thebarrel past this point of equilibrium.In thesameway theC-14is beingformed and decayingsimultaneously. Afreshly created earth would requireabout30,000 years fortheamountofC-14in theatmospheretoreachthis point ofequilibrium becauseit would leak outas itis beingfilled. Tests indicatethat theearthhas stillnotreached equilibrium. Thereis more C-14 in the atmospherenow than therewas 40years ago. This wouldprovetheearthis not yet30,000 years old! This also means thatplants andanimals that lived in thepast had less C-14 in them than doplants and animals today. Just this onefact totally upsets dataobtained by C-14 dating.Thecarbon in theatmospherenormally combines withoxygen tomakecarbon dioxide (CO). 2 Plants breatheCO2andmake it part of their tissue. Animals eattheplants and makeitpart of their tissues. Avery smallpercentageofthecarbonplants takein is radioactiveC-14. When aplant oranimaldies it stops takingin airand foodsoitshould not be abletogetany new C-14. The C-14 in the plantor animal will beginto decay backtonormal nitrogen. Theolderan object is, theless carbon-14 it contains. Onegram of carbon from livingplantmaterialcauses aGeiger counter to click 16 times perminuteas the C-14 decays. Asamplethat causes 8clicks perminutewould be5,730 years old (thesamplehas gonethroughone half life). and soon. (Seechart on page45aboutC-14).Dr. Kent Hovind • office (850) 479-DINO (3466) •Fax 479-8562 58