Session 21
Topics (keep it simple)
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Carbon-14
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How is carbon-14 produced?
Where do we find carbon-14?
What does the evidence support?
The underlying assumption
Radiometric dating (rocks)
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Three assumptions
Conflicting dates
How well does the method work?
Evidences for a young earth
Since God is the Creator of all things
(including science), and His Word is true
(John 17:17), the true (correct) age of the
earth must agree with His Word.
However, rather than accept the literal
biblical account of creation many
Christians have accepted the radioisotope
dates of billions of years and attempted to
fit long ages into the Bible. The
implications of doing this are profound
and affect many parts of the Bible.
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Hermeneutics and the plain reading of
Scripture (number with a day, evening and
morning, Exodus 20:11)
The Gospel (death before sin)
The character of God (God becomes the
author of death and not sin)
Genesis 1:31 (God’s “very good”)
The Genesis Flood becomes a local flood
The words of Jesus (Mark 10:6)
The authority of Scripture (when does it
become real?)
The NT (Romans 5:12, 8:20-22)
The Atom
Electron
Nucleus
(Protons and Neutrons)
RATE Group
Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth
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Larry Vardiman, Ph.D. Atmospheric Science
Russell Humphreys, Ph.D. Physics
Eugene Chaffin, Ph.D. Physics
John Baumgardner, Ph.D. Geophysics
Donald DeYoung, Ph.D. Physics
Steven Austin, Ph.D. Geology
Andrew Snelling, Ph.D. Geology
Steven Boyd, Ph.D. Hebraic and Cognate
Studies
How Is Carbon-14 Produced?
For further study go to New Answers Book 1, Chapter 7
Anything older than about 80,000
years should contain no datable C-14
No Carbon-14
Evidence older
than 80,000 years
Carbon-14
Evidence younger
than 80,000 years
65 mya
240 mya
540 mya
Cenozoic
Age of
mammals
Mesozoic
Age of
dinosaurs
Paleozoic
Fish and
invertebrate
Evolutionary Timescale
Carbon-14 and Coal
Coal samples from 10 locations
Every sample contained measurable
amounts of carbon-14
Carbon-14 and Diamonds
12 diamond samples chosen from
different locations all contained
measurable amounts of carbon-14
Dating Dinosaurs - 2012
American Geophysical Union and the Asia
Oceania Geosciences Society, Aug, 2012
Carbon-14 (C-14) dating of multiple
samples of bone from 8 dinosaurs from
Texas, Alaska, Colorado, and Montana
revealed that they are only 22,000 to
39,000 years old.
http://newgeology.us/presentation48.html
These results indicate that the entire
geologic column cannot be millions of years
old. This confirms the Bible and challenges
the evolutionary idea of long geologic ages.
Thousands
NOT Millions
C-14 Conclusion
The scientific evidence supports the
biblical worldview of a young earth
C-14
A Few More Details
Carbon-14 Assumption
The amount of C-14 being produced in
the atmosphere is equal to the amount
removed over a period of time.
C-14
produced
C-14
removed
Equilibrium
30,000 Years to Equilibrium
The amount being produced into the
atmosphere is equal to the amount being
removed through decay (steady state).
Carbon-14 and Age
Dr. Willard Libby and belief
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1960
Over 20% out of equilibrium
20% faster
The assumption is false
Conclusion
It takes 30,000 years to reach equilibrium.
 We are not in equilibrium.
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1. The earth is young (less than 30,000
years.
2. The Bible is correct (a young earth).
For in six days the LORD made the heavens
and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them,…
More Information
Chapter 7
Doesn’t Carbon-14 Dating
Disprove the Bible?
How old is the earth?
How reliable are the dating methods?
6 Days
Things Change Over Time
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We grow older
Food spoils
Things wear out
Some elements change forms
Some Elements Change Over Time
Uranium changes into lead
Potassium changes into argon
Carbon-14 changes into nitrogen
Parent
Daughter
What Is Radiometric Dating?
Parent
Daughter
2 KEY considerations
1. How long it takes for the parent element
to decay into the daughter element
2. There are assumptions involved
Textbooks
Biology: Visualizing Life, Holt, Rinehart, Winston,
1998, p.177.
“Using radioactive dating, scientists
have determined that the Earth is about
4.5 billion years old, ancient enough for
all species to have been formed through
evolution.”
Radiometric dating methods
contain assumptions
3 critical thinking questions
Hour Glass Example
Hour Glass Example
Can you calculate how long you were
outside?
Assumption 1
Knowledge of initial
starting conditions
The starting amount
of daughter element is
known.
Assumption 2
The sample was
always in a closed
environment.
Assumption 2
Vernon Cupps (Ph.D. Nuclear Physics),
“Radioactive Dating,” Acts and Facts, Feb. 2015.
“There are significant problems with
radioisotope dating in general. The
critical closed-system assumption is not
realistic – no system can remain
unaffected by its environment over
millions of years.”
Assumption 3
The decay rate has
always been constant.
The Scientific Method
Vernon Cupps (Ph.D. Nuclear Physics),
“The Noble Clock,” Acts and Facts, Dec. 2014.
“Thus, the K-Ar model does not meet
even the basic criteria of a hypothesis in
the scientific method…
The potassium-argon dating method –
once heralded as a solid scientific
method – has proven to be unreliable.”
How Well Does It Work?
Jim Mason (Ph.D. Experimental Nuclear
Physics), Evolution’s Achilles’ Heels,
“Radiometric Dating,” 2014, p. 196.
“Before using any measurement
instrument or technique, it is good
practice to calibrate it against some
known quantity…
So how well does this radiometric dating
technique do in determining the ages of
rocks of known age?”
Conflicting Dates
Sunset Crater, Northern Arizona
Dated: Potassium-argon: 200,000+
1065 AD
Real date __________
Conflicting Dates
Lava flows at Mt. Ngauruhoe,
New Zealand
Potassium-argon: 275,000 – 3.5 million
Real dates 1949,
__________________
1954, 1975
Conflicts in Dates
Rocks that were created since the 1980
eruption of Mount St. Helens dated to be
to ____________________years
old.
350,000 - 2.8 million
Paleozoic
Precambrian
Cardenas Basalt (Precambrian)
1.07 billion years
Dating recent lava flows in the
Grand Canyon
Youngest Rocks
1.34 billion
Oldest Rocks
1.07 billion
Radioisotope dating methods
contain assumptions
Rock of
Known Age
Rock of
Unknown Age
Radioisotope
Dating
Doesn’t Work
Radioisotope
Dating Assumed
to Work
How Well Does It Work?
Jim Mason (Ph.D. Experimental Nuclear Physics),
Evolution’s Achilles’ Heels, “Radiometric Dating,”
2014, p. 205.
“Since the calculations of age are quite
sensitive to these assumptions, and
since it is clear that we cannot know if the
assumptions are true, and since
radiometric dating produces wildly
incorrect results for rocks of known age,
it is quite reasonable to conclude that
radiometric dates are entirely unreliable.”
KB tuff (Lava flow) found in
East Africa (dated: 230 myo)
An alleged human ancestor was found
nearby the lava flow (dated 2.61 myo)
A dilemma for the evolutionists
1. How old is the lava flow? 230 million
2. The alleged human fossil is dated to be
2.61 myo
3. Which age is correct?
The KB tuff (Lava flow) is re-dated to be
2.61 myo!
A new skull is found nearby and dated
1.82 myo
Another dilemma for the evolutionists
The KB tuff (Lava flow) is re-dated
again. The new age is1.82 myo!
Are the dating methods really accepted
as exact methods? NO!
How Well Does It Work?
Brandon Van Der Ventel (Ph.D. Nuclear
Physics), Creation Magazine, Vol. 34 No. 4,
2012, p. 19.
“A radiometric ‘date’ for rock layers near
a fossil is accepted only if it fits into the
grand evolutionary scheme of things. If
this is not the case then either new
samples are taken or a different dating
method is used. This is a situation where
results are ‘interpreted’ in order to obey
the evolutionary dogma.”
Evidences for a Young Earth
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Too much helium in granite rocks
Carbon-14 ratio in the atmosphere
Carbon-14 in coal and diamonds
Sodium in the oceans
Rapid disintegration of comets
Spiral galaxies
Sediments in the ocean
Decay of the Earth’s magnetic field
Radiohalos for polonium in granites
Population statistics
Recession of the moon
Conclusion
 All
radiometric dating methods are based
on assumptions.
 If assumptions are accepted as true,
results can be biased.
 In textbooks and other journals these
assumptions have not been questioned.
 When the assumptions were evaluated
they were shown to be faulty.
 The results support a biblical model of a
young earth.