[JimSEA]

Since Radiometric Dating is a frequent topic at FR, I thought I'd post this for balance. I'll leave it to Dr. Wiens to answer the most frequent objections and explain the methodology of dating. It's a very long article so anyone most interested in the answers to young earth objection to Radiometric Dating gan go straight to the last couple of pages. I would recommend reading the whole thing if you want a better understanding of the subject as a whole. I learned a lot.

[Mercat]

I sent the article to my single son who has a BS in geology.

[C. Edmund Wright]

I don’t think the issue is “how old the earth is” really - I think the issue is “what is time, exactly?” There is clear science that indicates time is not a constant - and it’s related to the speed of light - which has not been constant over all of time either. There are perceptible, measurable and predictable differences in the world’s official atomic clocks depending on their altitude.

Can you image the difference in the speed of time from earth to say, the next galaxy? It is quite possible that the earth was created in six days as we know them, AND that it’s 16 billion years old - are both correct. Depends on where you are keeping time from.

Then there’s the fact that time and space are actually the same thing ultimately....and we worship a God not confined by time or space. As Einstein said, the idea the there is a difference between the past, present and future remains a stubbornly persistent illusion. (paraphrase)

[Vaquero]

My first class in biology back in the early 60s was taught by a pius Catholic Marist Brother named Brother William, who was well like and dubbed by his students ‘ bio-Bill’. He taught evolution in his science classes and in his home room class(which included Catechism) he taught that Jesus was Lord. Refreshing. No conflict.

[chajin]

I wonder if most students at Christian colleges would not be prohibited from engaging in radiometric dating...

[Hostage]

The fact is there is no proof that Adam and Eve and the first humanoid spirits (including Angels and lesser beings) were not existing for billions of years before Satan led them (Adam and Eve) to the process of Death. They were immortal and were not subject to programmed death until their code was altered by consuming that which was forbidden.

Therefore, Genesis does not conflict with radiocarbon dating technology.

Adam lived for 930 years after his EXPULSION and NOT from the time of his creation. Before his expulsion, he could not die. After he followed Satan, he lived for 930 years.

[Mechanicos]

Polystrate Trees: Dating rocks by radioactive timekeepers is simple in theory, but almost all of the different methods rely on these few basic assumptions:

1. Beginning Conditions Known; 2. Beginning Ratio of Daughter to Parent Isotope Known (zero date problem)3. Constant Decay Rate; 4. No Leaching or Addition of Parent or Daughter Isotopes; 5. All Assumptions Valid for Billions of Years; 6. There is also a difficulty in measuring precisely very small amounts of the various isotopes.

[Steely Tom]

I won’t date anyone who’s radio has less than 14 transistors.

[x]

Not what I’d expected from the title!

[ctdonath2]

Thank you.

Observation: Radiometric dating has an accuracy of something like thousands of years, so trying to date anything within that range from now is pretty much pointless.

[AdmSmith]

A very good 49 min lecture on half-lives and radioactive dating is this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozm1o2tzg2I

[fatez]

Thank you very much for posting this.

[1010RD]

Excellent article and post. It’s very much needed on FR. Christians should be the pro-science religion. Leave anti-science to Muslims and others. It’s through science that God’s handiwork is shown.

[fishtank]

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.