How Do You Date a Rock?
How do scientists find out how old something is? Rocks don’t tell you how old they are and they don’t come with labels. Science is limited to the present--geology is not empirical science--it cannot be observed or repeated by historical reconstruction of the past.
All Dating Methods:
1. Observe the present state of a system
2. Measure a process rate within that system
3. Make assumptions about the past
4. Ask how long that process has been going on to produce the present state
Radioisotope Dating Assumptions:
1. Constant decay rate
2. System closed to environment (nothing added or taken away)
3. No daughter-product from the start or know starting concentrations
4. There's been sufficient time to produce present state through measured process
Speak to the earth, and it will teach you. (Job 12:8)
Potato Basket Parable
1. Observe a time & a process. Assume rate is constant.
1. Observe a time & a process. Assume rate is constant.
1. Observe a time & a process. Assume rate is constant.
2. Assume nothing has been added.
1. Observe a time & a process. Assume rate is constant.
1. Observe a time & a process. Assume rate is constant.
3. Assume nothing was taken away.
4. Assume there were no peeled potatoes in the basket when he started.
4. Assume there were no peeled potatoes in the basket when he started.
4. Assume there were no peeled potatoes in the basket when he started.
4. Assume there were no peeled potatoes in the basket when he started.
4. Assume there were no peeled potatoes in the basket when he started.
All dating Methods make these same assumptions & are themselves based on certain assumptions:
1. Constant decay rate>Uniformity—“the present is the key to the past” & “everything goes on as it always has.”
2. Closed system>No Flood—no major upheavals in the environment that would have sped up processes or added or washed away evidence.
3. Starting Conditions>No Creation—meaning God didn’t create the world with all elements present at the beginning, so daughter products (such as lead) were only produced from radioactive decay.
4. Time available>Old Earth—since daughter products are present (and God creating them out of nothing is excluded), the assumption is that the earth is old enough to produce them through radioactive decay.
Volcanic Rocks (lava, basalt, granite) are the only types of rocks that can be dated in this way. These types of rocks DO NOT contain fossils. Only sedimentary rocks (those laid down by water) contain fossils. Therefore, radiometric dating cannot be used to date fossils.
In ALL cases where rocks of known age (i.e. rocks from recent volcanic eruptions) have been tested, they come back with ages of millions of years even though they were only decades or centuries old.
Example of flawed dating: Cardenas Lavas in the Grand Canyon date younger than the lava flows over the top of the sediments sitting on top of them.
Conclusion
If the testing method is flawed, how can I trust the results? Why would I put faith in millions of years? Even radiocarbon dating (which can be used to test fossils) makes similar assumptions. Assumptions that are known to be based on incorrect data cannot produce correct results. On the other hand, God does not lie. His Word has always proved true. The All-Powerful, Creator did not need millions or billions of years to create everything in the universe. Only a commitment to evolution despite evidence to the contrary, i.e. blind faith, would explain a commitment to millions of years. If you refuse to believe the truth, all you are left with is a lie.