CSE Seminar Notebook - Free Bible Resources

“In the last two years anabsolute date has beenobtained for (the Ngandongbeds, above the Trinil beds),and it has the very interestingvalue of 300,000 years plus orminus 300,000 years.”—Birdsell, J. B. , HumanEvolution (Chicago: RandMcNally,1975), p. 295“One part of Dima [a babyfrozen mammoth] was 40,000,another part was 26,000 andthe ‘wood immediately aroundthe carcass’ was 9-10,000.”—Troy L. Pewe, QuaternaryStratigraphic Nomenclature inUnglaciated Central Alaska,Geological Survey ProfessionalPaper 862 (U.S. Gov.printingoffice, 1975) p. 30“The lower leg of theFairbanks Creek mammothhad aradiocarbon age of15,380 RCY,while its skin andflesh were 21,300 RCY.”—Harold E. Anthony,“Natures Deep Freeze,”Natural History, Sept. 1949, p.300 See also: In theBeginning Walt Brown p. 124Althoughthis techniquelooks good atfirst, carbon-14 datingrests on at least twosimpleassumptions. They are, obviously,assumingthe amount of carbon-14 in theatmospherehasalways been constant, and its rateof decayhas always beenconstant. Neither of these assumptions is provableor reasonable.An illustration may help: Imagine you found acandleburningin aroom, and you wanted todeterminehow longitwas burningbeforeyou foundit. You could measurethepresentheight ofthecandle(say, seven inches) and therateofburn (say, an inchperhour). In order tofindthelengthoftime since the candle was litwewould beforced tomakesome assumptions. We would, obviously, have to assumethatthecandlehas always burned at thesamerate, and assumeaninitial heightof thecandle. The answer changes based on theassumptions. Similarly, scientists do notknow that thecarbon-14 decay rate has been constant. They do notknowthattheamount of carbon-14 in theatmosphereis constant.Present testingshows the amount of C-14 in theatmospherehas been increasingsince itwas first measured in the1950’s.This may betied in to the declining strengthofthemagneticfield.In addition tothe above assumptions, dating methods areallsubjecttothegeologiccolumn datetoverify their accuracy. Ifadate obtained by radiometric datingdoes not match theassumedagefrom the geologic column theradiometricdatewill be rejected. Theso-called geologiccolumn was developedin the early 1800’s over acentury beforethere wereanyradiometricdatingmethods. “Apart from very ‘modern’examples, whicharereally archaeology, Ican think of nocases ofradioactivedecay beingusedto datefossils.”Ager,Derek V., “Fossil Frustrations,” New Scientist, vol. 100(November 10, 1983), p. 425. Laboratories willnot carbondatedinosaurbones (even frozen ones whichcould easily becarbon dated) because dinosaurs aresupposed to havelived 70million years ago according tothe fictitious geologiccolumn.An object’s supposed place on thegeologiccolumn determinesthemethodused todateit. Thereareabout 7or 8radioactiveelements that areused today totry todateobjects. Eachonehas adifferent half-life and adifferentrangeofages itissupposed tobeused for. Nodating method cited byevolutionistsis unbiased. Formoreinformation, seevideo tape#7of the CSE videoseries on Creation, Evolution, and Dinosaurs;Bones ofContention byMarvin Lubenow, orScientificCreationism by Henry Morris (allavailablefrom CSE).Afew examples ofwild dates by radiometricdating:Shells from livingsnails werecarbon dated as being27,000years old. Sciencevol. 224, 1984, pp. 58-61Livingmolluskshells weredatedupto 2300 years old. Sciencevol. 141, 1963, pp.634-63759Creation Science Evangelism •29 Cummings Road •Pensacola, Florida 32503