Creationists: how do you think materials that are tens of millions of years old are dated?

Question

Materials such as rocks and fossils?


(I will give the answer later, so be sure to check back.)


This is in reference to the poster of this question:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ApgeSDD.YOz2rGl75gDlud_d7BR.?qid=20070414151942AAtxepz

EDIT: Hint to Arnon - it's NOT carbon dating.

Answer 1

There are many many methods used other than carbon dating. I wait with baited breath to see how many Christians answer this question knowing any other method at all.....

Edit: Strata dating is only used in a general way to say that something above a layer is newer and below a layer is older. THAT is accurate. it does NOT give you dates and it is not used for such.

Carbon dating has an error ratio of roughly 5400 years and only applies to things younger than 60 000 years old (meaning from now to 60 000 years ago) so does NOT apply to dinosaurs since dinosaurs died out 65 000 000 years ago.

There is radiometric dating, of which carbon dating is only ONE OF MANY. There is also uranium-lead dating which is accurate only in samples older than 1 million years, Uranium-thorium dating which is accurate from anywhere within a few years up to 70 000 years, and Potassium-argon dating and argon-argon dating. Argon-argon has an accuracy of a few thousand years.

Within radiometric dating there is

# Fission track dating
# Cosmogenic isotope dating
# Rubidium-strontium dating
# Samarium-neodymium dating
# Rhenium-osmium dating
# Lutetium-hafnium dating
# Paleomagnetic dating
# Thermo-luminescence dating

Then there is the incremental dating that has already been suggested. It is not an actual dating method, but rather tells when something is older than something else by its position within the earth.

* Dendrochronology- meastures the number of rings inside a tree. As we all know, each ring inside a tree represents a year. The width of the ring will tell you how good that year has been as well as whether the ring is cracked (indicating a dry year). The rings between two trees from different areas wcan then be compared and a basic time or date derived from doing so. In the last century or so, its actually possible to pinpoint an exact year in a find using this method (like when using it with a recent native american burial).
* Ice cores are generally used in the polar regions where the ice is thickest. By comparing cores brought up from the ground using chemical analysis, as well as analysis of the remains of single celled organisms found inside the ice cores, its possible to give a relative age as the earth has fluctuated in things like the amount of oxygen/nitrogen in the atmosphere, the amount of ozone, etc. By comparison to many samples, its further able to narrow it down.
* Lichenometry uses lichen plant remains as a way to narrow down age. Lichen can continue to exist on a given surface for hundreds of years, even after its dead, because its roots litterally burrow the creature into whatever its attached to. In some cases, it can even become part of the preserved rock and becomes a fossil. Though it can only be used in Tundra areas as places like Tropical areas would reclaim any dead Lichen too quickly for them to be preserved. This has been observed and recorded for centuries.
* Varves are kind of like little hills created by sediment as it moves. If you watch the mouth of a river, you can see the water slowly moving the earth beneath it. As time moves on, due to the movement of the earth, the earth does actually move very slowly. It results in the creation of what looks like tiny hills. By this method, it can be determined by the shape of the varves, and the location of the deposit, whether something is older or younger.

However, the four methods do not give you any kind of exact age UNLESS used in conjunction with several other methods including radiometric dating.

YES, I know all this to be true. I spent a great deal of time learning about all of it in depth and I've given you the tiniest bit of information on it here.

As for the dinosaur.... why are people so stupid? Bog people have been dated to almost exactly around the time Christ was said to have been born. They have their flesh intact and we can test it. They've been mummified.

Why would it not be possible for flesh to exist for 65 million years long in the right conditions? Theres no reason whatsoever. Its called ICE. ICE freezes things. And the remains could have easily been mummified.

I don't think Christians think before they speak. They cannot conceive of age and science so rather than even attempting to understand it, they blow it off.

Answer 2

Well let's see. Some are dated by the strata they are found in. This in conjunction with other fossils found with them can be used to assert a common timeline however that would be inaccurate since you would be dating with a variable. Strata dating depends on knowing when the strata were laid down. How do you know this with any accuracy? You could get an approximation by carbon dating any bio fossils which may be present in the strata. You would have to assume then that the carbon being quantified was intact from the moment of deposition and that Carbon-14 production in the upper atmosphere was constant throughout history. These are two possibilities which would give me pause before relying solely on carbon dating or anything that rests on it.

You are right carbon dating is inaccurate beyond a certain time so at the age you are describing it is useless. Since all matter on earth is the same age (or so I would presume) and you cannot tell the age of the rock in my garden as opposed to the rock in the driveway with any certainty. The material to be dated would have to have a measurable quality to describe its age in its present form. Some slow decaying isotope, little digital numbers on the inside or maybe serial numbers from the factory. Regardless, the age calculation would have to be verifiable from another means otherwise it is a guess at best. The whole topic is irrelevant in the topic/forum you present it in. What you show and verify scientifically will have no bearing on the belief or non belief of anyone reading here. If the earth is millions of years old then praise be to God. If it is 5000 years old and was created with a billion year old fossil record then Praise be to God. Have fun with your intellectual fantasies.

Answer 3

This seems curiously apposite to me as I vaguely heard on the BBC recently (see source below) the observation from Ken Ham (President of Answers in Genesis - a sort of Creationist Theme Park in Kentucky) that the reason Dinosaurs and Humans could live together in Biblical times was that T.Rex and his (supposedly) carnivorous ilk were really vegetarians. Before the sin of Adam, the world was perfect and hence the Allosaurus could lie down with the lamb, the infant, the Megalodon, the Giant Sloth and 101 Dalmatian puppies.

Ken also seemed to think that there were Dinosaurs on the ark (wouldn't a Pteranadon have been quicker than a dove? - but I digress) and Vegan T.Rex's with six inch incisors quietly trotted off onto dry land after a friendly pat from Noah.

I think this answers your question.

Answer 4

Actually, no matter which dating method is used, an estimation, or an assumption has to be made part of the equation ,due to many variables, enacted upon the sample used. No one method has been proven accurate without these estimations and assumptions as part of the Equation.
Any scientist will agree with this statement.
Now science has a "New" theory about how the universe began, it's called "String" theory. Once again science has thrown out another highly acclaimed theory, after finding fault with this theory. Thirty years from now science will throw out "String" theory, for another theory.
God has all the answers, not science.
God Bless You....Peace.

Answer 5

Your comment is just the opposite of everything that I have read regarding the bones found in the Lipscomb bone bed in Alaska. The specimens found(frozen) had ligaments,tissue, remnants of blood cells.

Answer 6

Isn't the whole point of creationism that they don't believe that there Are any materials that are tens of millions of years old?
So, to them, your question would be moot...

Answer 7

Tell me how a dinosaur was discovered with flesh and hide on it in alaska???Common sense says no-matter how cold it is the flesh would not be there over a period of a million years.

Answer 8

Nothing is older than 6000 years old dear, any fool knows that ...