One of the most popular questions I am frequently asked relates to the age of the earth. Let's face it, most if not all of us have been born with the silver spoon of evolution in our mouth. As a result many people have adopted the mistaken notion scientists have proved the age of the earth beyond a shadow of a doubt. They arrive at this assumption based on a number of elaborate and "so called" accurate dating methods. The most common one blowing around in the scientific wind is Carbon 14 testing.
I often hear people stating that they heard a certain fossil or rock was tested using carbon 14 and it was stated the rock or fossil was X number of millions of years old. However, readers need to be aware that it is impossible to date rocks and minerals using Carbon-14 methods. The only materials that can be subjected to C14 testing are organic material such as plants and animals, because they take in C14 during their lifetimes. Rocks do not.
How C14 dating works
Here's how it works. Carbon-14 is formed when cosmic rays bombard the nitrogen atoms in our atmosphere. The Nitrogen is then turned into C14, which in turn get absorbed (inhaled, consumed) into our bodies and other organic materials. This process repeats itself every day of our lives.
The intake of C14 stops the moment you die and then it begins to decay. (C14 is a very unstable element and breaks down easily.) The date testing is achieved by measuring the amount of C14 still remaining in the organic object. The less C14 in the object, the older it is.
In the C14 dating process, many assumptions are made, the first and worst of which is the idea the amount of carbon in the atmosphere has remained constant since creation. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you that many things have changed in the atmosphere since beginning of the world. Many of these changes are influencing factors on the production of radiocarbon. Some of these factors are daily events such as the constant and gradual weakening of the earth's magnetic field, meteors, lightning, volcanic eruptions and solar flares. All of which create an increase in C14.
If the amount of C14 absorbed into the body varies each year, then it would be impossible to determine how old an object is by what is left. (Without knowing how much C14 was in the item at the point of death, how can we determine age by what remains?)
In order for the C14 method to work, 5 assumptions must all be true:
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The 1/2 life (5730 y) of C14 must always be constant;
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The rate of formation of C14 must always have been constant;
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The concentration of C12 must always have been constant; C12 & C14 must be in sync with each other;
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The rate of absorption of C14/C12 into organic objects must always have been constant; and
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The rate of formation and decay of C14 must always have been constant.
None of these assumptions can reasonably be expected to be true. Before Noah's time there may have been a canopy that shielded the earth from cosmic rays. Then there would have been very little C14 formed so present tests would show an old age since there was little C14 in the bodies to begin with.
The magnetic field of the earth is decaying at present (by 1/2 in 1400 years). This means that the magnetic field would have been stronger in the past, this would have protected the early earth from cosmic rays, thus producing less C14 and resulting in a much older age.
Of course, add in the fact, samples can easily be contaminated after they die and C14 testing becomes a guessing game at the best of times.
Examples of C14 unreliability
Because of the 5 assumptions -- which can each throw off the true age of measured samples -- any confidence in the absolute accuracy of radiometric dating is to be accepted with caution.
Another mistaken notion is the idea that billions of years of Earth history can be determined from this test. Since, however, (as stated above) it is impossible to date minerals, only things that have died in the last few thousand years can be dated.
It stands to reason that the best way to test a dating method, such as C14, is to test it on something of which you know the actual age. While the concept of Carbon-14 dating is plausible (assumptions notwithstanding), the past results have been found to be notoriously unreliable.
For example:
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Cells taken from a freshly killed seal showed that it died 1300 years ago.
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The shells of living mollusks were dated at up to 2,300 years old,
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Scrapings from living snails' shells showed that they had died over 27,000 years ago.
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These are examples of subtle contaminations that drastically changed the test results.
Conclusion:
We must be cautious in what we accept as fact. It is true that scientists have made many advancements and useful discoveries, but they are not perfect and certainly not infallible. Noon of us are because we are mere men. People desperately want to believe in something so they will cling to the words of those who are believed to possess knowledge. This being said there have been new advancements in C14 testing by devices such as the AMS (Advanced Mass Spectrometer). These new tests are beginning to shed light on actual ages by filtering discrepancies. Perhaps this will lead to a common ground for actual scientific learning and a putting to rest of personal bias. Truth is truth.
Although the media as well as society in general would still like you to believe that scientists hold all the answers. We must strive to remember the words of Paul in Romans 1:20,22: "For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. . . . Professing to be wise, they became fools. . . ."
In Isaiah 40:8 we are told the word of God stands forever. God is infallible; man is not. Only the Word of the Creator can be used as a measure for absolute truth.
Brian Sass, B.SC. Paleobiology, works in the information technology industry. He also serves as Director of Technical Development for Creation Generation. In addition, he teaches Biblical science at Into His Harvest Bible training school in Regina, Saskatchewan. Brian has led two expeditions into the interior of the African rainforest in 2003 and 2004 searching for evidence of modern dinosaurs. These expeditions turned into significant missionary outreaches as he shared the gospel with a number of isolated African tribal communities.
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