Fossil and Radioisotope Dating

Radioisotope Dating

Although scientists have proposed numerous age estimations of the earth, the most common methods promoted by evolutionists involve radioactivity. Such methods include carbon-14, uranium-238, thorium-232, and potassium-40.

Carbon-14 Dating

This method is used to date organic materials, that is, plants or animals that were alive. With a half-life of 5,730 years, detectable carbon-14 should not exist within Half-life is the time required for the mass of an atom to decay to half of its initial value. supposedly ancient fossils such as coal that are supposedly millions of years old. Yet, RATE scientists In 1997 a group of seven distinguished scientists met to review the assumptions and procedures used in estimating the ages of rock strata. This research project is identified as RATE (Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth).⁴⁴ The book, DeYoung, D. (May 2006). Thousands ... Not Billions, reviews eight years of research. (Master Books, Green Forest, AR, May 2006) have found detectable carbon-14 in ancient fossils, petrified wood, graphite, and calcite from samples from around the world—and in coal formations allegedly 300 million years old and in diamonds presumed to be many millions, if not billions of years old.⁴⁵

The actual age of coal and diamonds is estimated by RATE scientists to be several thousand years, not millions of years. The presence of carbon-14 in “ancient” fossils, rocks, coal, and diamond samples is clearly at odds with millions of years as advocated by secular geologists and evolutionists.

The fatal weakness of carbon-14 dating is the assumption of equilibrium Two forms of carbon, carbon-12 (stable form) and carbon-14 (unstable form), are found in carbon dioxide (CO₂). It is assumed by evolutionists that these forms of carbon are “thoroughly mixed” and the production and decay rates of carbon-14 have remained stable (likewise, it is assumed the ratio of ¹⁴C/¹²C has remained stable). So when a tree or animal dies, it ceases to take in new carbon of any form. Carbon-12 remains stable within the dead animal or plant tissue but the unstable carbon-14 continues to decay. So at the point of death, the ratio of carbon-14 and carbon-12 (¹⁴C/¹²C) begins to decrease. By knowing the decay rate of carbon-14 (called the half-life of an unstable element), the amount of carbon-14 in the fossil can be measured to determine its age—the less carbon-14, the older the fossil (as claimed by evolutionists).between carbon-14 and carbon-12 concentrations at the time of death (thousands of years ago). Although this assumption provides a value for carbon-14 at the time of death, “it is now admitted by all investigators that equilibrium does not exist—that the C-14 concentration is constantly increasing.”⁴⁶[Italics, emphasis added] This implies less carbon-14 in the past—so animals or plants that died hundreds or thousands of years ago would date much older than their true age.

A global flood would have buried and sealed enormous amounts of carbon in the form of plants, thus exhausting the total carbon (carbon-14 and carbon-12) available in the biosphere Biosphere is the earth’s plant and animal communities including land, water, and air. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and use it to grow, but when plants decay or burn, carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere.. The normal production of CO2 by decaying plants Biosphere is the earth’s plant and animal communities including land, water, and air. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and use it to grow, but when plants decay or burn, carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere. would have been greatly reduced for a time because of burial under hundreds of millions of tons of water-deposited sediment. The end result was that CO2 in the atmosphere (in the form of carbon-12 and carbon-14) was significantly reduced—so the lower carbon-14 level in plants and animals after the flood would yield ages much older than their true ages.

Further, a catastrophic worldwide flood would easily account for erosional and depositional geologic landforms found today, as well as carbon-14 found in ancient fossils, coal and diamonds supposedly billions of years old and the vast deposits of coal, oil, and limestone found worldwide (see sections, Origin of Coal and Oil, and Limestone Layers, under Catastrophic Worldwide Flood). Such ideas have been consistently rejected and ignored by secular geologists because they imply Biblical creation, a global flood and a young earth.