There is one thing we can be certain of - the testimony of the God who created this world can be trusted to tell us the truth. His testimony in Genesis (and dating methods based on Genesis and the Bible) supports thousands (10,000) not millions of years. There is no need to believe in millions/billions of years unless you trust in man’s “evolutionary testimony” instead of God’s testimony.
This section will explore answers to the following questions...
• How Old Is the Earth?
• Where did the idea of “millions-billions of years” come from?
• Is “millions-billions of years” observed or imposed (on the evidence)
• Do ALL scientists believe that the Earth is millions-billions of years old?
• What is a (Young Earth) Creationist?
• Is the idea of “millions-billions of years” a battle of Science vs. Religion?
• Where do some people try to put millions-billions of years in the Bible?
• What methods do Evolutionary Scientists use to determine the age of the Earth?
• What is the Geologic Column?
• Does the Geologic evidence indicate rapid formation?
• How does the Geologic Column compare with Biblical History?
• How does the Geologic Time Scale fit with the view of a young Earth?
• What is Radiometric Dating?
• Does Radiometric Dating give erroneous (false) dates?
• What is Carbon 14 dating?
• Why is finding Carbon-14 in Dinosaur Fossils a big deal?
• Is there evidence that Evolutionary Dating Methods are unreliable?
• Could “Millions/Billions of Years” thinking be compared to a mental disease? (Or Virus)
• Where can I learn more about Age of the Earth Dating Methods?
• What is Catastrophism?
• What is Uniformitarianism?
• How Old Is the Earth?
When we start our thinking with God’s Word, we see that the world is about 6,000 years old. When we rely on man’s fallible (and often demonstrably false) dating methods, we can get a confusing range of ages from a few thousand to billions of years, though the vast majority of methods do not give dates even close to billions. Cultures around the world give an age of the earth that confirms what the Bible teaches. Radiometric dates, on the other hand, have been shown to be wildly in error. The age of the earth ultimately comes down to a matter of trust - it’s a worldview issue. Will you trust what an all-knowing God says on the subject or will you trust imperfect man’s assumptions and imaginations about the past that regularly are changing?
Charts and Calculations available at this link (Source: https://answersingenesis.org/age-of-the-earth/how-old-is-the-earth)
• Where did the idea of “millions-billions of years” come from?
(Hint: It didn’t come from God’s testimony to us in the Scriptures.)
• ICR - Biblical Age of the Earth
(Source: https://www.icr.org/biblical-age)
Institute for Creation Ministries
• ICR - Can the Ussher Chronology Be Trusted?
(Source: https://www.icr.org/article/can-ussher-chronology-be-trusted)
December 1, 2003, Institute for Creation Ministries, John D. Morris, Ph.D.
• AiG - The World - Born in 4004BC?
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/bible-timeline/the-world-born-in-4004-bc)
April 28, 2006, Answers in Genesis, Larry Pierce
• Got Questions - What is the age of the earth?
(Source: https://www.gotquestions.org/earth-age.html)
Got Questions Ministries
• Got Questions Teens - How old is the earth according to the Bible?
(Source: https://412teens.org/qna/how-old-is-the-earth.php)
Got Questions - Teens
• Got Questions Kids - What is the age of the world? How old is it?
(Source: https://www.gqkidz.org/age-of-world.html)
Got Questions - Kids
• Got Questions - The Age of the Earth - Articles
(Source: https://www.gotquestions.org/content_creation_age-earth.html)
Got Questions Ministries
• Where Do All Those Billions of Years Come Fromin Darwinian Thinking?
(Source: http://www.creationmoments.com/content/where-do-all-those-billions-years-come-darwinian-thinking)
Answers in Genesis
Today, most people in the world, including many people in the Church, take for granted that the earth and universe are millions and millions (even billions) of years old. Our public schools, from kindergarten on up, teach these vast ages, and one is scoffed at if he questions them. But it has not always been that way, and it is important to understand how this change took place and why.
Geology’s Early Beginnings. Many believed that the fossils were the remains of former living things turned to stone, and many early Christians . . . attributed them to Noah’s Flood. Geology, as a separate field of science with systematic field studies, collection and classification of rocks and fossils, and development of theoretical reconstructions of the historical events that formed those rock layers and fossils, is only about 200 years old. Prior to this, back to ancient Greek times, people had noticed fossils in the rocks. Many believed that the fossils were the remains of former living things turned to stone, and many early Christians (including Tertullian, Chrysostom, and Augustine) attributed them to Noah’s Flood.
But others rejected these ideas and regarded fossils as either jokes of nature, the products of rocks endowed with life in some sense, the creative works of God, or perhaps even the deceptions of Satan. The debate was finally settled when Robert Hooke (1635–1703) confirmed by microscopic analysis of fossil wood that fossils were the mineralized remains of former living creatures.
Prior to 1750, one of the most important geological thinkers was Niels Steensen (1638–1686), or Steno, a Danish anatomist and geologist. He established the principle of superposition, namely that sedimentary rock layers are deposited in a successive, essentially horizontal fashion, so that a lower stratum was deposited before the one above it. In his book Forerunner (1669), he expressed belief in a roughly 6,000-year-old earth and that fossil-bearing rock strata were deposited by Noah’s flood.
In the latter decades of the 18th century, some French and Italian geologists rejected the biblical account of the Flood and attributed the rock record to natural processes occurring over a long period of time.
In the early 1800s, Georges Cuvier (1768–1832), the famous French comparative anatomist and vertebrate paleontologist, developed his catastrophist theory of earth history. It was expressed most clearly in his Discourse on the Revolutions of the Surface of the Globe (1812). Cuvier believed that over the course of long, untold ages of earth history, many catastrophic floods of regional or nearly global extent had destroyed and buried creatures in sediments. All but one of these catastrophes occurred before the creation of man.
William Smith (1769–1839) was a drainage engineer and surveyor who in the course of his work around Great Britain became fascinated with the strata and fossils. Like Cuvier, he had an old-earth catastrophist view of earth history. In three works published from 1815 to 1817, he presented the first geological map of England and Wales and explained an order and relative chronology of the rock formations as defined by certain characteristic (index) fossils. He became known as the “Father of English Stratigraphy” because he developed the method of giving relative dates to the rock layers on the basis of the fossils found in them.
A massive blow to catastrophism came during the years 1830 to 1833, when Charles Lyell (1797–1875), a lawyer and former student of Buckland, published his influential three-volume work Principles of Geology. Reviving and augmenting the ideas of Hutton, Lyell’s Principles set forth the principles by which he thought geological interpretations should be made.
His theory was a radical uniformitarianism in which he insisted that only present-day processes of geological change at present-day rates of intensity and magnitude should be used to interpret the rock record of past geological activity. In other words, geological processes of change have been uniform throughout earth history. No continental or global catastrophic floods have ever occurred, insisted Lyell. Lyell is often given too much credit (or blame) for destroying faith in the Genesis Flood and the biblical time scale.
But we must realize that many Christians (geologists and theologians) contributed to this undermining of biblical teaching before Lyell’s book appeared. By the end of the 19th century, the age of the earth was considered by all geologists to be in the hundreds of millions of years. Radiometric dating methods began to be developed in 1903, and over the course of the 20th century that age of the earth expanded to 4.5 billion years.Christians must repent of their compromise with millions of years and once again believe and preach the literal truth of Genesis 1–11. It is time to take our culture back.
Where Did the Idea of Millions of Years Come From?
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/theory-of-evolution/millions-of-years/where-did-the-idea-of-millions-of-years-come-from)
Answers in Genesis, Dr. Terry Mortenson
• Is “millions-billions of years” observed or imposed (on the evidence)?
Interpretation of the data (rock layers, fossils, etc,) and their supposed ages begins with a person’s assumptions. One scientist has convictions that the supernatural is possible (because there is evidence of a all-powerful God). Another scientist has convictions that the supernatural is not possible (because there is no God). Creation Scientists look at a piece of evidence (for example a fossil) and come up with one set of conclusions about it. While Evolution Scientists look at the same evidence (fossil) and come up with a very different set of conclusions. So, why are the conclusions different? Because the starting beliefs of the people interpreting the evidence are different. Too many people think that “evidence”, all by itself, determines or shapes a belief system. The evidence is not really the basis for belief; rather it’s the belief system that determines how the evidence is understood. Are evidences important? Yes. However we need to be sure we have the correct system of beliefs in place that will allow us to make correct interpretations of the evidence.
Conclusion. It’s not about the evidence. It’s about a person’s foundation/worldview. Instead of presenting evidence after evidence, maybe we should be ask them questions, and ask them what evidence the base their beliefs on. Then look at the evidence provided and speak about it from a Creationist viewpoint.
Sources
(http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/overheads/pages/oh20021108_144.asp)
(http://www.answersingenesis.org/Home/Area/overheads/download.asp?oid=oh20021108_144)
• Do ALL scientists believe that the Earth is millions-billions of years old?
The short answer is no. But that isn’t what most Darwinist Scientists claim - they claim that all scientists believe in evolution/millions-billions of years. What they mean is all (evolutionist) Scientists believe in Evolution. Which is to be expected. However not all scientists believe in Millions-Billions and Evolution. Here are a few Ph.D scientists who are creationists.
• Austin, Steven A., Ph.D. Geology
(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Steve_Austin)
(Source: https://creationtoday.org/creationspeakers/dr-steve-austin)
(Source: https://isgenesishistory.com/steve-austin)
• Mortenson, Terry, Ph.D., Geology
(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Terry_Mortenson)
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/bios/terry-mortenson)
• Snelling, Andrew A., Ph.D., Geology
(Source: http://www.creationwiki.org/Andrew_Snelling)
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/bios/andrew-snelling)
• Lisle, Jason, Ph.D. Astrophysics
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/bios/jason-lisle)
Video - Dr Jason Lisle - Science ConfirmsBiblical Creation
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnF9JBeWxkY)
Calvary Chapel Brentwood (1:14:34)
• Wise, Kurt, Ph.D, Paleontology
(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Kurt_Wise)
(Source: https://truett.edu/directory/kurt-wise)
(Source: https://isgenesishistory.com/kurt-wise)
• Video - Why I am a Creationist (20:45)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6Ac0_Jeerw)
October 20, 2017, Is Genesis History
• What is a (Young Earth) Creationist?
Creation is based upon the written account from the Bible “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Those that trust God’s revelation/the biblical account of creation are called Creationists. Therefore, the term “creationist” refers to one who ascribes to the revelation from God that He created heaven and earth. It is often said that a creationist is one that uses blind faith in order to believe that God created all that we call earth. However, the truth is that the Bible provides an accurate account that was recorded through handed-down facts and those facts were then complied into what we now know as the book of Genesis. This creation “record” has been preserved down through the ages. The Creationist observes order and design in the natural world around us and therefore has strong evidence of a Creator.
(Source: http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/creationist-faq.htm)
All About Philosophy, Randall Niles
(Source: http://www.icr.org/article/706)
Institute for Creation Ministries, Ken Hamm
• Is the idea of “millions-billions of years” a battle of Science vs. Religion?
When many people consider the age of the Earth debate, they think of it as science versus religion. They assume that those who hold to an old Earth have all the scientific facts behind them, and those who believe in a young Earth are just biased because of their religious beliefs. But it’s not really a battle of science versus religion - it’s a struggle between two philosophical worldviews. The idea of millions of years arose because of an anti-biblical interpretation. The scientists, and non-scientists, of the past 200 years who began proposing the idea of an old Earth all rejected God’s Word as the true history of the world and instead tried to explain the universe apart from the revealed history in Scripture - by naturalism (which is in essence atheism). They began to interpret the observational evidence through the lens of man’s ideas, rather than the eyewitness testimony of God’s Word. Sadly, instead of opposing these anti-biblical ideas, many leaders in the church simply bought into them and tried to reinterpret Scripture to accommodate this interpretation of the evidence. Their refusal to stand on the authority of God’s Word opened the door to further compromise and doubt regarding the accuracy of God’s Word.
Millions of Years. In the DVD, “Millions of Years, Where did the idea come from?” Dr. Terry Mortenson reveals that it didn’t come from the scientific evidence - it arose out of an anti-biblical interpretation of the observable evidence. This DVD is an especially good tool for pastors and other Christian teachers. Sadly, so many Christian leaders have accepted the idea of millions of years and tried to fit it into the Bible. Many of them just don’t understand where the idea came from and what they are really doing when they teach old ages.
Video - Millions of Years, Where did the idea come from? (3:04)
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2015/04/24/millions-years-not-a-battle-of-science-versus-religion)
Answers in Genesis, Dr. Terry Mortenson
• Where do some people try and put millions-billions of years in the Bible?
The motivation for people to impose millions-billions of years on the Bible is to try and harmonize the authoritative Testimony of God in the Bible with the fallible imaginings of men. There are two places people (compromisers) try to do this. One is between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, (Gap Theory).
Conclusion. Those who trust in the complete authority of scripture do not have to compromise - there is no real scientific evidence that disproves God’s revealed testimony in Genesis.
• Why Shouldn’t Christians Accept Millions ofYears?
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/theory-of-evolution/millions-of-years/why-shouldnt-christians-accept-millions-of-years)
Answers in Genesis, Dr. Terry Mortenson
• Millions of Years - Are Souls at Stake?
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/theory-of-evolution/millions-of-years/are-souls-at-stake)
Biblical Authority, Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham
• What methods do Evolutionary Scientists use to determine the age of the Earth?
(Primary Methods - Geologic Column, Radiation Measurement, Fossil Record)
In the early part of the 20th century, [evolutionist] scientists still weren’t sure how old Earth is. Nowadays, [evolutionist] scientists use radiometric dating of various sorts of rock to [approximate] Earth’s age. In the past, [evolutionist] Scientists tried to determine Earth’s age via our planet’s layers of rock. You’ve seen these rock layers if you’ve ever observed a cut-away section of a mountain, perhaps because a highway runs through it. But Earth’s layers of rock did not give up the secret of Earth’s age easily. Their message proved difficult to decipher.
Early 20th century scientists came to believe the Earth is not millions of years old - but billions of years old. Modern radiometric dating methods came into prominence in the late 1940s and 1950s. These methods focus on the decay of atoms of one chemical element into another. They led to the discovery that certain very heavy elements could decay into lighter elements – such as uranium decaying into lead. This work gave rise to a process known as radiometric dating. Taken together these methods [Rock Layers-Geologic Column, and Radiometric Dating] give results that suggest [only to an evolutionist scientist] an age for our Earth, of 4.5 to 4.6 billion years old.
• What is the Geologic Column?
The geological column is the theoretical classification system for the layers of rocks and fossils that make up the Earth's crust (also known as the standard geologic column). Fossiliferous layers can often be traced across entire continents and correlated with rocks in other countries. In such cases, these layers have been given names and assigned dates, and are frequently diagrammed as a cross-sectional column (the geologic column). Important in its development were studies on the origins of the various kinds of rocks (petrology), coupled with studies of rock layering (stratigraphy) and the fossils they contain (paleontology). The full sequence of layers was compiled following the study and correlation of rock layers on many continents, and was largely based on the interpretation that layers of sedimentary rock formed over millions and even billions of years at uniform geologic rates.
Problems. The geological column is a classification system based on the fossil that are found in layer of rocks. It is assumed that certain fossils are only found in layers that are associated with a particular period of time. These fossils which are used to identify particular periods of the geological column are known as index fossils. The use of these fossil-defined time periods (geologic ages) is so common that it makes an independent determination of fossil distribution and back-checking the validity of the geologic column practically impossible. This gives the appearance of proof, but actually amounts to circular reasoning. Fossils do not always line up in layers.
Often only one layer of fossils is found at a given site. This is particularly common with vertebrates. Sometimes they are found in multiple layers, but a statistical study of their distribution shows that even index fossils are seldom found layered on top of one another. It also shows that many fossils are artificially restricted to a few layers. When looking at the fossil record through the eyes on the geologic column, one would expect to find a lesser quality of the fossil record going down. This is due to the fact that older rocks would be more likely to have been distorted then younger ones. However the consistency of cladograms with fossil taxa is nearly constant throughout the geological column. This suggest a major problem with theoretical interpretations using the geological column as it's basis.
(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Anomalously_Occurring_Fossils)
Fossils are often found out of place according to the geologic column; many of them relate to humans. Out-of-place fossils are either ignored as anecdotal if not published by a “proper” (evolutionist) scientific journal, or explained away by one of following two methods if they are so published: Reworking (Fossil eroded from older rock), Down washing (Fossil is washed down into older strata). Organisms such as the Coelacanth and Nautilus are called living fossils because they remain essentially unchanged from their ancestors in the fossil record. Many were thought to be extinct based on absence of fossils in upper layers of strata, but then later discovered alive and well in remote regions.
This shows that a lack of fossils does not mean that an animal was not living when a given layer was laid down, which places the entire stratigraphic order and time sequence in question. Furthermore, the fact that these animals are unchanged after the alleged million years strongly suggests that the deep time never happened.
• Out Of Place Artifacts (OOPARTS)
The most controversial findings in geology and also in archaeology are out-of-place artifacts. This term refers to human fossils in sub-quaternary or even sub-cenozoic layers [where no such artifact should be found] and also to clearly anachronistic artistic and even technological finds. The first such find was probably the Inca Nail, presented to the Viceroy of Peru in 1572.
Out-of-place Artifacts
(Source: http://www.conservapedia.com/Out-of-place_artifact)
Unconformities. An unconformity is a lack of geological conformity that exists when there is a gap in the expected rock strata. It describes a structural relationship between two groups of rock that are not in a normal succession, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous. It may be formed when erosion occurs while deposition has slowed or stopped, and is generally interpreted as a time break in a depositional sequence.
Claims of existence. While the geologic column consists of ten basic layers, all ten layers are found in very few places making up less than 1% of Earth's surface. The theory says it should be 100 miles thick, whereas, on average world wide, the sediment layers are only one mile thick. The entire geologic column was patched together from various locations. Geologists sometimes claim to have found the entire geological column at certain sites, but what they really mean is that they have found layers that they can assign to all ten geologic ages. Of the 25 claimed locations, stratigraphic information was available on only six of them. There is little if any mention of fossils other than micro fossils such as pollen.
Often the rocks seem to have been assigned their geologic age by comparing them with rocks from other locations. Most of these are hundreds of miles away and there is no direct observation of a physical connection. In some cases the “ages” are assigned to a rock layer based on the strata above or below it.
Conclusion. Although it is clear there was some fossil sorting during the global flood, the “Geological Column” seems to be only a mental fabrication. There are sufficient assumptions made in classifying fossils and rocks to justify questioning its legitimacy. There are also sufficient anomalies to show that the timescale is wrong and that the fossil order depicted in the Geologic Column is at best a local phenomenon. In short, the Geologic Column is found only in books and web-sites and does not really exist.
(Source: : Creation Wiki - Geological Column, http://creationwiki.org/Geological_column)
• Does the Geologic evidence indicate rapid formation? There is extensive evidence for the layers of strata in the geologic record being laid down very quickly, similar to the processes observed when Mount St. Helens erupted. Rapid global formation of sedimentary rock beds is evidence that the earth is thousands of years old. The major formations of the earth’s crust are sedimentary rock beds. These were formed by rapid erosion, transportation, and deposition by water. There is no global evidence of long periods of time between these layers or indications that these layers took long periods of time to form. For example, sandstone is a major feature of the lower part of the Grand Canyon. The same rock layer is found in Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, South Dakota, the Midwest, the Ozarks, and in northern New York state. Equivalent formations are found across wide portions of Canada, eastern Greenland, and Scotland. The flood that covered the earth formed the large geological structures that we can observe today.
(Source: Geological Evidence Indicates Rapid Formation, ICR, http://www.icr.org/earth-formation)
Video - Mt St. Helens (DVD Trailer) (1:32)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=87&v=E8T2crJo2zI)
(Source: http://store.icr.org/Mount-St-Helens-DVD-2012/productinfo/DMOSA2)
ICR, Compel Media, 2012, 36 minutes, Audience: General. Item Number: DMOSA2, Institute for Creation Research. P. O. Box 59029, Dallas, Texas 75229, 800-337-0375
• How does the Geologic Column compare with Biblical History? Considering that the Geologic Column is a product of Evolutionary imagination it would be hard to compare with the truthful testimony of God’s revelation to us.
• How does the Geologic Timescale fit with the view of a young Earth? The earth’s crust is made up of three different kinds of rock: igneous and metamorphic rock, both of which were once in a molten or semi-molten state, and sedimentary rock, rock which once existed elsewhere but was re-deposited as sediments in its current location. Sedimentary rock is usually layered. These layers are called “strata.” Strata often contain the fossilized remains of plant and animal life, which were buried and subsequently preserved through fossilization. Certain fossils have been found to be unique to certain layers. These fossils are called “index fossils.” Paleontologists use index fossils to identify the rock layers in which they are found. If an index fossil is thought to be 70 million years old, then the rock layer in which it was found must also be 70 million years old. The “geologic column” is a sequential catalog of these layers, the fossils they contain, and the ages, which have been assigned to the various geological eras, which are thought to be represented in the geologic record. Biologists then use the evolutionary progression organized by the geologists as evidence for evolutionary progression. This is a circular argument.
Critics claim that the geologic column is flawed in that it relies upon circular reasoning. This is because the strata are not always found in the order in which they are supposed to be. Sometimes rock layers containing what are thought to be older fossils are found above rock layers, which contain what are thought to be younger fossils (the younger fossils should be on top). Naturalist-Evolutionist Scientists use the theory of evolution to interpret the fossil record. They then turn around and use their interpretations of the fossil record as evidence for the theory of evolution.
If they date the rocks by the fossils, how can they then turn around and talk about the patterns of evolutionary change through time in the fossil record? Geologists frequently find discrepant fossils in the same rock layers. For example hoof prints of some other animal are alongside 1,000 dinosaur footprints in Virginia. A leading authority on the Grand Canyon published photographs of horse-like hoof prints visible in rocks that, according to the theory of evolution, predate hoofed animals by more than 100 million years. Sometimes, land animals, flying animals, and marine animals are found fossilized side-by-side in the same rock. Dinosaur, whale, elephant, horse, and other fossils, plus crude human tools, have been found in phosphate beds in South Carolina.
Moreover, some of the index fossils which geologists use to date bygone eras have been found still alive today. Consider, for example, the coelacanth, an index fossil, which was thought to have gone extinct 70 million years ago. It turns out the coelacanth didn’t disappear “some 70 million years ago.” They’re still around today. The first living coelacanth was caught in 1938 deep in the Indian Ocean, northwest of Madagascar. Before 1938, evolutionists dated any rock containing a coelacanth fossil as at least 70 million years old. It was an index fossil. Today, evolutionists frequently express amazement that coelacanth fossils look so much like captured coelacanths - despite more than 70 million years of [supposed] evolution.
• How does the Geologic Timescale fit with the view of a young Earth? (Continued)
Before living coelacanths were caught, evolutionists incorrectly believed the coelacanth had lungs, a large brain, and four bottom fins about to evolve into legs. Evolutionists reasoned that the coelacanth, or a similar fish, must have crawled out of a shallow sea and filled its lungs with air, becoming the first four-legged land animal. Millions of students have been taught that this fish was the ancestor to all amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, birds, and mammals, including people. In 1987, a German team led by Hans Fricke filmed six coelacanths in their natural habitat. Were they crawling on all fours in a shallow sea? Did they have lungs and a large brain? Not at all. In fact, they lived 500-1,200 feet below sea level and spent much of their time apparently looking for food.” The point? The geologic column is not as reliable as many scientists and academics make it out to be. (Adapted from: http://www.gotquestions.org/geologic-timescale.html, Got Questions Ministries)
• Video - Flood & Geologic Column (8:41)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlxxMBREzY4)
• Video - Geological Column Busted (29:17)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZzIihVUti4)
• Critical Thinking - Geologic Column
(Source: http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=9&article=3503)
• What is Radiometric Dating? Radiometric dating or Radioactive Dating is a technique used to date materials such as rocks or [fossils]. The method compares the abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope within the material and the abundance of its decay products, which form at a known constant rate of decay. Radiometric Dating is the principal source of information about the age of rocks and [fossils], including the age of the Earth itself. (Source: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiometric_dating)
• Does Radiometric Dating give erroneous (false) dates? Rocks are not dated by plugging them in to an ACME dating machine. Dating labs do not measure time but measure isotopes ratios. Are these ratios the result of radioactive decay over time or other processes that have taken place in the rock? Some times different methods used on the same rock, produce different ages. Further more the same method can produce different ages on different parts of the same rock. Some times these are close but other times they are vary different. Some times radiometric dating produces impossible results. Some soil from the Moon has been dated as more than a billion older than the uniformitarian age for the Moon. Some rocks have been measured with negative radiometric ages, in some case in terms of millions of years.
(Source: Radiometric Dating - Erroneous Radiometric Dates, Genesis Science Mission Blog
http://genesissciencemissionblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/gsmnl-radiometric-dating-erroneous.html)
• What is Carbon 14 dating? Many people have heard of carbon dating. Without being overly technical, it is sufficient to say that carbon dating is based on the process of carbon-14 (C-14) changing to nitrogen (Decay). This process happens at a known rate. By measuring the current amount of C-14 in a dead organism and by extrapolating backward, scientists can estimate when it died. As with virtually all age-dating methods, this technique assumes certain initial conditions and it assumes that the rate at which C-14 decays is constant. The problem for old earth supporters is that C-14 always gives “young” age estimates (a few thousand years) - even on things like coal beds that are supposedly millions of years old. At its current decay rate, C-14 simply cannot last even one million years. Yet, C-14 has been found in coal that is supposedly millions of years old and even in diamonds that are allegedly more than a billion years old. Since diamonds are the hardest known substance, there is essentially no chance of contamination from the outside. So this is very compelling evidence that the earth is only thousands of years old.
(Source: Carbon Dating, Answers in Genesis, https://answersingenesis.org/what-is-science/prosecution-philosophy-and-correct-application-of-science)
• Why is finding Carbon-14 in Dinosaur Fossils a big deal? The spring 2015 edition of the Creation Research Society Quarterly (CRSQ) is a special issue that focuses on the investigation of dinosaur proteins inside fossil bones. The last article in the issue presents never-before-seen carbon dates for 14 different fossils, including dinosaurs. Because radiocarbon decays relatively quickly, fossils that are even 100,000 years old should have virtually no radiocarbon left in them.1 The CRSQ study authors tested seven dinosaur bones, including a Triceratops from Montana, hadrosaurids, a cartilaginous paddlefish, a bony fish, and fresh-looking wood and lizard bones from Permian layers in Canada and Oklahoma. Five different commercial and academic laboratories detected carbon-14 in all the samples, whether from Cenozoic, Mesozoic, or Paleozoic source rocks.
The team also compared the results to several dozen published carbon-14 results for fossils, wood, and coal from all over the world and throughout the geologic column. Comparable amounts of radiocarbon showed up in almost 50 total samples.
Defenders of evolutionary time scales will have to assert that the radiocarbon all came from some sort of contamination, where recent or modern carbon somehow crept into all these samples. This has been argued before, but the testing process itself is loaded with procedures that rigorously remove contaminants. Secular researchers routinely detect radiocarbon in carbon-containing materials like coal, oil, marble, and diamond - materials they would like to use as “carbon dead” standards.
If contamination is really to blame for these results, then why does it appear in such supposedly old material as well as in every single fossil in the CRSQ report?
(Source: Carbon-14 Found in Dinosaur Fossils, ICR, Brian Thomas, http://www.icr.org/article/8822)
• Is there evidence that Evolutionary Dating Methods are unreliable? Rocks from the Nuvvuagittuq Supracrustal Belt in Quebec, Canada are considered among the Earth’s oldest and yet they contain carbon-based materials, which are a result of the decay of living organisms. Recently, researchers from Carnegie Institution of Washington, Boston College, and the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. discovered that the carbon-based materials in those rocks are actually younger than the rocks in which they reside, according to evolutionary dating techniques. This research has significant implications. First, while the creation model predicts the rapid formation of many rocks through cataclysmic events (e.g., Creation and the Flood), some of which will, and some of which will not, have carboniferous materials present at their formation, the evolutionary model predicts long periods of time with slow, gradual change leading to the formation of rocks.
Thus, if there ever were a period of millions or billions of years with only microbial life in the atmosphere, there should be an immense amount of such evidence in the fossil record. Evolutionists believed they had found such evidence with these rocks in Canada. However, this latest research nullifies that theory, and adds further weight to the fact that Earth’s atmospheric conditions have never been conducive to the spontaneous formation of life or its evolution. Second, macroevolution is false, and the Earth is relatively young. Evolutionists believe that long ages of time would allow for the gradual evolution of simple organisms into complex organisms, and evolutionary theory is based on that assertion.
This research indicates, based on the evolutionists’ own model and erroneous dating techniques, that there is much less time available for the evolution of life from single-celled entities into complex life as we know it today; since life allegedly was not already in existence at the time of the formation of these rocks.
(Source: More Conflicting Evidence from Evolutionary Dating, Apologetics Press, Jeff Miller, Ph.D, https://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=9&article=4136&topic=61)
• Could “Millions of Years” thinking be compared to a mental disease? (or a Virus?) The idea of millions of years is like a disease, and biological evolution is like the symptom. Many Christians are willing to deal with the “symptom,” but not the “disease.” “As an analogy, the idea of millions of years is like a disease (although we know sin is the ultimate disease/reason for the secularist position), and biological evolution is like the symptom. Many Christians are willing to deal with the ‘symptom,’ but not the ‘disease.’”
Many Christian leaders think that as long as they reject biological evolution, then it doesn’t really matter about the age of the earth. These pastors and theologians believe that by rejecting Darwinian evolution, they have shut the door to compromise regarding the authority of the Scriptures. The reality, however, is that by allowing for millions of years, these Christian leaders have kept a “compromise door” open. If that door is not completely shut, then the next generation of leaders will push the door open further.
This compromise has led to a catastrophic loss of biblical authority in the church (and culture as a whole) - which includes the devastating consequence of moral relativism permeating the church.
Why is the issue of time so important in the secular world? Well, without the supposed millions/billions of years, secularists cannot even propose biological evolution.
An old age is absolutely crucial for the secularists in their attempt to explain life without God. It is vital for Christians to understand that: The Bible does not even hint of millions or billions of years. If you take the Bible as written, it’s obvious God created in six literal days. With the specific history given in the genealogical lists, it’s very clear that there have been only about 6,000 years of history since time began.
All dating methods devised by humans are fallible; they are based on fallible assumptions. The only true reliable dating method is the historical record that God prepared for us: the Bible.
When Christian leaders try to add millions of years into God’s Word, then they are making God responsible for death, disease, thorns, carnivory, and suffering millions of years before sin. The Bible makes it clear such things are a result of man’s sin.
Ultimately, the issue over the age of the earth/universe is one of authority: will it be fallible sinful man’s authority, or will it be God’s? Should we take man’s fallible understandings about the past and reinterpret God’s Word, or do we judge man’s beliefs against the absolute authority of Scripture.
The secular world has intimidated so many pastors and Bible college/seminary academics to believe in millions of years, for if they don’t accept an old earth, they will be accused of being anti-intellectual and anti-science. Why such intimidation? Because the idea of an earth that is millions of years old is the foundational religion of this age for secularists, who need to explain the universe and all of life without God. These atheists and agnostics must have billions of years to support evolution. The idea of millions of years is like a disease in the church; biological evolution is just a symptom.
(Editor questions. How can we know if someone is infected with the “Millions of Year’s virus”? And what can we do to help them? Answer. Ask questions and listen for words like “millions” and “billions”. Then ask, “If what you believed was not true would you want know?” Or, “Do you want to know the truth, even if it hurts a little, or would you rather not be criticized, but base your life on a lie?”
(Adapted from: https://answersingenesis.org/theory-of-evolution/millions-of-years/the-disease-of-millions-of-years)
The Infection - MOY* Virus (*Millions of Years) Our goals as the un-infected should be… To help those who are infected realize that they are infected. Warn them about the consequences of that infection if left untreated. And point them to the Great Physician who can help heal them of their infection.
• Where can I learn more about Age of the Earth Dating Methods?
• Video - Measuring Billions (1:41)
(Source: http://www.icr.org/content/taf1)
• Video - Carbon-14 Dating (1:54)
(Source: http://www.icr.org/content/taf49)
• Video - Radiometric Dating (3:18)
(Source: http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/23679/check-this-out-radiometric-dating)
• Video - Can you trust Evolutionary Dating Mechanisms? (3:38)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rlRLrGQo7s)
• Video - Radiometric-Dating and a Young-Earth (8:33)
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3IAzxMr6F8)
• Six Days or Millions of Years (Booklet)
(Source: http://www.christianbook.com/six-days-millions-of-years-booklet/ken-ham/9781893345232/pd/334523?event=ESRCG),CBD Stock No: WW334523, Christian Book Distributors (CBD), Mailing - 140 Summit St., Peabody, MA 01960
• 7 Reasons Why We Shouldn't Accept Millions of Years (Booklet)
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/7-reasons-why-we-should-not-accept-millions-years/?sku=00-1-038)
AIG, Dr. Terry Mortenson, Answers in Genesis, PO Box 510, Hebron, KY 41048, 800-778-3390
• Thousands … Not Billions (Book)
(Source: http://usstore.creation.com/catalog/thousands-billions-p-936.html)
CMI, Dr Don DeYoung, Product Code: 10-2-199, Creation Ministries International, PO Box 350, Powder Springs, GA 30127, 800-616-1264
• Radioactive & Radiocarbon Dating (DVD)
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/radioactive-and-radiocarbon-dating/?sku=30-9-300)
AIG, Dr. Andrew A. Snelling, SKU: 30-9-300, Answers in Genesis, PO Box 510, Hebron, KY 41048, 800-778-3390
• Millions of Years - Where Did the Idea Come From? (DVD)
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/millions-of-years/?sku=30-9-500&)
AIG, Dr. Terry Mortenson, SKU: 30-9-500, Answers in Genesis, PO Box 510, Hebron, KY 41048, 800-778-3390
• What is Catastrophism?
Catastrophism is the theory that massive catastrophes occurred in earth's past, substantially altering the Earth and its life via mountain uplift, rapid deposition, and mass extinctions. According to creation scientists such an event did occur according to the Biblical account of the Global Flood in the time of Noah. The Catastrophist view could be summarized as “Revelation is the key to the past and the present.”
(Source: Catastrophism, Creation Wiki, http://creationwiki.org/Catastrophism)
• Video - Fossil Evidence - Catastrophism (5:30)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71xC-mk8gjc)
AIG, Fossil evidence supports Genesis Account
• Mt. St. Helens and Catastrophism
(Source: http://www.icr.org/articles/view/261/275)
ICR, Steven A. Austin, Ph.D.
• What Does The Bible Say About Catastrophism?
(Source: http://www.gotquestions.org/uniformitarianism-vs-catastrophism.html)
Got Questions
• What is Uniformitarianism?
Uniformitarianism is the theory that the same processes that operate on the universe now have always operated on the universe in the past, and at the same rates; and that the same laws of physics apply everywhere in the universe. A uniformitarian is one who believes in the principles, or any number of aspects and/or assumptions of the philosophy of uniformitarianism. The Uniformitarian view could summarized as “The present is the key to the past.” The interpretation of geological strata is a central point of debate between the creation and evolution camps. Creationists believe the fossil record represents the relative times of death of organisms during the global flood, while evolutionists believe it describes hundreds of millions of years of evolution on earth. The Biblical flood was in fact a long-standing interpretation of geologic formations until geologists such as Charles Lyell began arguing that the earth had been shaped by slow and gradual forces working over a vast timescale. (Adapted from: Uniformitarianism, Creation Wiki, http://creationwiki.org/Uniformitarianism)