[sirchtruth]

Ok since I'm ignorant about this stuff can someone clue me in on what was the difference between Neanderthals and Humans?

Is carbon dating an exact science now?

[Coyoteman]

Ok since I'm ignorant about this stuff can someone clue me in on what was the difference between Neanderthals and Humans?

Is carbon dating an exact science now?

There are lots of differences in the skeletons; there are literally hundreds of papers in the technical literature comparing the differences, usually using multivariate statistics.

Carbon-14 dating is getting pretty good with the calibration curves. These are worked out by literally counting individual tree rings, dating rings of a known age and then building a detailed table which will correct for atmospheric variations. It goes back past 12,000 years now. When supplemented with glacial varves and other methods, it goes well past 20,000 years.

Here are a few links on the subject:

ReligiousTolerance.org Carbon-14 Dating (C-14): Beliefs of New-Earth Creationists

The American Scientific Affiliation: Science in Christian Perspective Radiometric Dating: A Christian Perspective by Dr. Roger C. Wiens.

This site, BiblicalChronologist.org has a series of good articles on radiocarbon dating.

Are tree-ring chronologies reliable? (The Biblical Chronologist, Vol. 5, No. 1)

How does the radiocarbon dating method work? (The Biblical Chronologist, Vol. 5, No. 1)

How precise is radiocarbon dating?

Is radiocarbon dating based on assumptions?

Has radiocarbon dating been invalidated by unreasonable results?

Tree Ring and C14 Dating

Radiocarbon WEB-info Radiocarbon Laboratory, University of Waikato, New Zealand.