Radiometric Dating, A Christian Perspective

Radiometric dating--the process of determining the age of rocks from the decay of their radioactive elements--has been in widespread use for over half a century. There are over forty such techniques, each using a different radioactive element or a different way of measuring them. It has become increasingly clear that these radiometric dating techniques agree with each other and as a whole, present a coherent picture in which the Earth was created a very long time ago. Further evidence comes from the complete agreement between radiometric dates and other dating methods such as counting tree rings or glacier ice core layers. Many Christians have been led to distrust radiometric dating and are completely unaware of the great number of laboratory measurements that have shown these methods to be consistent. Many are also unaware that Bible-believing Christians are among those actively involved in radiometric dating.

This paper describes in relatively simple terms how a number of the dating techniques work, how accurately the half-lives of the radioactive elements and the rock dates themselves are known, and how dates are checked with one another. In the process the paper refutes a number of misconceptions prevalent among Christians today. This paper is available on the web via the American Scientific Affiliation and related sites to promote greater understanding and wisdom on this issue, particularly within the Christian community.

You can declare that certain types of people not to your liking be disallowed from teaching but you will not threaten my livelihood, or you will have a fight on your hands that you really don’t want to see.

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You’re correct. I believe that some should not be in teaching positions. Very different from being disallowed. If you can get a teaching job with your attitude, all the more power to you. The evidence you have provided me suggests you are one of those people who should be in a different profession from teaching. Someone disagrees with you they have the word ‘faggy’ thrown at them. Not exactly the hallmark of a quality teacher.

I think it best for me to longer comment on your perceived threats from anonymous internet forum posters.

For several years, both Roger Wiens and John Baumgardner participated in the same (Christian) worldviews discussion group - these lunchtime meetings occurred at the national lab where they were both employed.

Here is a sample of the books that were discussed in those years:

1994 Schlossberg, Herbert Idols for Destruction, Thomas Nelson, 1983.

Johnson, Phillip Reason in the Balance, IVP, 1995.

Behe, Michael Darwin’s Black Box, Free Press, 1996.

Pearcy and Thaxton The Soul of Science , Crossway, 1994

Rohl, David M. Pharoahs and Kings, Crown, 1995.

Vitz, Paul C. Psychology as Religion, 2nd Ed. ,Eerdmans, 1994.

Beisner, Calvin Where Garden Meets Wilderness, Eerdmans, 1997.

Ross, Hugh Creation and Time, NavPress, 1994.

Zacharias, Ravi Can Man Live Without God?, Word, 1994.

James W. Sire The Universe Next Door 2000 William Dembski Intelligent Design

***

Roger Wiens is an “old earther”.

John Baumgardner is a “young earther”.

Both are PhDs in science.

In that same time period, John Baumgardner was participating in the RATE project,

http://www.icr.org/rate/

and he wrote this article then:

http://www.icr.org/article/carbon-14-evidence-for-recent-global/

During all those years, John was never able to convince Roger that the earth is young, and Roger was never able to identify any holes in John’s scientific arguments.

This information was provided by an eyewitness, who was present at all of those lunch meetings for all those years.

There you have it.

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