Geochronology, as a scientific
endeavor, is an attempt to determine the temporal
sequence of events related to the formation of the
planet and the history of life on
Earth. The word is derived from Geo meaning
Earth, and
chronology, which is the study of time, or a record
of events in the order of their occurrence (timeline).
It is from this field of study
that artifacts are dated based on the age of the
geological formations in which they are located.
Geologists determine the age of
rocks,
fossils, and
sediments using a variety of methods including
relative and
absolute dating.
In dating any object, geologists:
- Observe the present state of
the system.
- Measure a process rate within
the system.
- Assume certain things about
the past.
- Calculate the time necessary
from that process to produce the present state.
Assumptions
When dating an object, a geologist
measures some physical property of the object, which is
believed to provide evidence regarding its age. All
dating methods rely upon assumptions about the past.
These assumptions are based on the axioms or
worldview the scientist is operating within. This
worldview is the basis for an entire system of theories.
Creation science is one theoretical system and
evolution is another. Thus even when
creationists and
evolutionists use the same dating methods, they will
more often than not achieve radically different results.
In using these dating methods,
evolutionists assume that there was no
global flood as told in the
Bible or
Qur'an. Therefore, at their outset these methods are
used by investigators who seek to prove their
interpretation of the data. The methods are all
ultimately calibrated to
relative dates of the
geologic column, such that data that conflicts with
a fossil's or rock's placement in the geologic column is
explained away by the evolutionary theoretical system.
For example,
Carbon-14 would decay to nothing in well under 1
million years, so if Carbon-14 is found in a
dinosaur fossil it is interpreted as resulting from
contamination. The result is that the geologic column is
the ultimate filter for other dating methods. This not
only makes the other dating methods look more consistent
than they actually are, but it also renders the very
existence of the geologic column untestable.
The result is that these dating
methods only produce old ages for the
Earth within the evolutionary theoretical system.
Within the creation theoretical system, different
assumptions are used, producing different results.
Absolute dating methods
- Main Article:
Absolute dating
Radiometric Dating
- Main Article:
Radiometric dating
Radiometric dating utilizes the
decay rates of certain
radioactive atoms to date rocks or artifacts.
Uniformitarian geologists consider this form of dating
strong evidence that the
Earth is billions of years old. However,
research by
creationists has revealed a large number of
problems with radiometric dating. In some cases such
as
Carbon-14 dating, radioactive dating actually gives
strong evidence for a
young Earth, while other methods such as
K-Ar dating and
Isochron dating are based on faulty assumptions and
are so unreliable as to be useless.
Carbon-14 dating
- Main Article:
Carbon-14 dating
Carbon-14 dating is a
radiometric dating technique used to deduce the
approximate age of organic remains by measuring the
quantity of the
isotope 14C in the sample and comparing
it with the current atmospheric level. The usual isotope
of
carbon found in living organisms, 12C, is
stable, while 14C is not stable. It is formed
when cosmic radiation interacts with the upper
atmosphere creating thermal neutrons that strike 14N
(Nitrogen),
converting it into 14C which decays back into
14N with a
half-life of 5730 years.
Isochron
dating
- Main Article:
Isochron dating
Scientists have realized that
there are difficulties in dealing with the assumptions
of
radiometric dating. Isochron dating has been
developed in an attempt to solve such problems.
According to theory, the sample starts out with daughter
isotopes present at constant ratios in relation to
one another, but with the parent isotope, the ratio is
arbitrary. As a result it forms a straight horizontal
line on a graph. As the parent decays to daughter, the
ratios change and the straight line remains but becomes
angled. The slope of the line equals the number of
half-lives the parent
isotope has passed since solidification.
Concordia dating
- Main Article:
Concordia dating
Concordia dating is a form of
uranium/lead
dating that uses a concordia diagram. The theory is that
when zircons crystallize they lose all of their lead and
as long as the crystal remains closed its lead/uranium
ratios should follow a predictable trend. It is further
theorized that since all
isotopes of the same element are chemically
identical, they should be removed in proportional
amounts, forming a straight line on the concordia
diagram, that crosses the concordia curve at both the
crystallization and the contamination date. Loss of
uranium moves the point up and to the right, while a
loss of lead moves the point down and to the left.
Fission-track dating
- Main Article:
Fission-track dating
Fission-track dating involves
counting the damage tracks left by fragments of the
spontaneous fission of uranium-238. The
spontaneous fission of 238U has a known
rate, and as such the number of tracks is theoretically
related to the age of the sample. Because fission-track
dating requires a manual count of the fission tracks,
the process is more prone to human error and bias than
other
radiometric dating methods. This problem is made
worse because other types of crystal defects can easily
be counted as fission tracks.
Dendrochronology
- Main Article:
Dendrochronology
Dendrochronology is a technique of
dating past climatic changes through a study of tree
ring growth. Each year a tree adds a layer of wood to
its trunk and branches thus creating the annual rings we
see when viewing a cross section. Wide rings are
produced during wet years and narrow rings during dry
seasons. This technique has posed a different problem
for creationists, as this dating method does not make
use directly of
accelerated decay. By using dendrochronology
scientists have dated certain living trees to having
ages of around 4600 years. This finding showed the
current model for
carbon-14 dating to be incorrect, so scientists
recalibrated their 14C model based on this
tree.
Relative dating methods
- Main Article:
Relative dating
Stratigraphy
- Main Article:
Stratigraphy
Relative dating is a technique
that uses the "relative" positions of layers and fossils
to assign estimated dates to strata.
Uniformitarian geologists began using the principles
of
stratigraphy to assign dates to the layers of the
geological column fossils back in the late 1700s.
Relative dating uses a combination of
fossil studies and structural interpretation to draw
conclusions about the geological history of an area.
Ice cores
- Main Article:
Ice cores
Ice cores are obtained by drilling
core samples of ice in glaciated regions, such as near
the poles. Visible light and dark rings can be found in
such cores that are then analyzed to determine the age
of the ice. These layers are presumed to be the result
of annual fluctuations in climate, and using this
method,
uniformitarians purport to document ages of over
100,000 years. Creationists, such as
Michael Oard, contend that these laminations are
from subannual events, including layering due to dust to
be found in a post-flood ice age. He discusses this
theory briefly
here. Subannual formation is supported by
observations that several such layers of snow and ice
can result from the storms within a single winter
season.
Problems with dating methods
Any dating method depends on a
fixed standard, or else it produces arbitrary dates.
Uniformitarian geologists prefer to believe, and claim,
that each of their methods uses such a fixed standard.
But a careful examination of the so-called "standards"
of dating reveals that each of their methods depends on
an a priori assumption about the history of the
earth. By continuing to use such methods,
uniformitarians make their own chief assertion, that the
earth is billions of years old, untestable. In so doing,
they commit the
logical fallacies of
proof by assertion and
circular reasoning.
Beyond this, each dating method
has problems with the method itself and problems with
the interpretation of its results. Some of the
"adjustments" that uniformitarians make to the dates
that their procedures produce are akin to the detestable
practice of "dry-labbing" wherein a dishonest
investigator constructs observations out of his own
imagination. The adjustments of carbon-14 dates to make
them concordant with other dating methods is a case in
point.
Many sites get labeled a certain
age based on evolutionary bias, but later get redated at
much younger dates. A good example of this is the
Barberton deposits. It was thought to be the product of
a Archean hydrothermal vent, but supposedly it's now
from a Cenozoic hydrological system.[1]
Young earth evidence
- Main article:
Young earth evidence
Young earth
creation scientists believe that the evolutionary
geological timescale is in error.[2][3][4]
They also point to multiple lines of evidence from the
field of
geology showing that the earth is young.[5][6][7][8]
The
uniformitarian assumptions are rejected, in favor of
catastrophic processes related to the global flood
as responsible for the vast majority of the Earth's
geologic features. It should be noted that catastrophism
is increasing being accepted in the field of geology.
[9][10]
Young earth creationists also assert that old earth
uniformitarian geology has numerous
anomalies. For example,
William R. Corliss catalogued numerous anomalies in
the old earth uniformatarian geology
paradigm.
[11][12]
-
Geomagnetic field decay - Observations made of
the strength of
Earth's magnetic field over the last 150 years
show that it is decaying, which puts an upper limit
on the age of the Earth.
-
Pleochroic halos - Scars of radioactive decay,
which suggest problems with the standard
uniformitarian model.
-
Helium diffusion - there is a significant amount
of helium still inside the
zircons, showing their ages to be 6000 +/- 2000
years.
-
Accelerated nuclear decay - Recent experiments
commissioned by the
RATE group indicate that "1.5 billion years"
worth of nuclear decay has taken place, but in one
or more short periods 4000 - 8000 years ago. This
would shrink the alleged 4.5 billion year
radioisotope age of the earth to only a few thousand
years.
References
-
↑ Lowe DR, and Byerly
GR (2007), "Ironstone bodies of the Barberton
greenstone belt, South Africa: Products of a
Cenozoic hydrological system, not Archean
hydrothermal vents!" GSA Bulletin, January 2007,
Vol. 119, No. 1 pp. 65-87, DOI:
10.1130/B25997.1.
-
↑ Woodmorappe, John,
The Geologic Column: Does It Exist?
Journal of Creation 13(2):77–82, 1999
-
↑ Morris, Henry,
Geology and the Flood Impact 6,
August 1973
-
↑
Geologic Time Scale - The Misconceptions
(All About Creation)
-
↑
Geology Questions and Answers (Answers in
Genesis)
-
↑
Geology (Creationism.org)
-
↑
Geology Links (Northwest Creation Network)
-
↑ Baumgardner, John,
Genesis Flood 28 July 2003.
-
↑
The Mexico Earthquake - Some Afterthoughts
by Ariel A. Roth, Origins 12(2):61-63(1985)]
-
↑
Up with Catastrophism! by Henry Morris,
Ph.D. August, 1976
-
↑
The Sourcebook Project: Catalog of Anomalies
by Omni Edge Science Winner, December 1996
-
↑
Polystrate Fossils and the Creation/Evolution
Controversy by Joe Deweese and Bert
Thompson, Ph.D. Apologetics Press :: Reason &
Revelation, 20[12]:93-95 December 2000.
