What is the Christian argument against carbon dating?

Question

Lately I have heard devout Christians saying that carbon dating is flawed in that the great flood somehow negates the scientific legitimacy of the process. Could someone please explain this argument to me?

Answer 1

The YOUNG EARTH argument against carbon dating is here:
http://ww.answersincreation.org/rebuttal/magazines/Creation/1979/article_v2_i2_carbon_dating.htm

Oh how they twist and abuse science!
Rebuttals against Young Earth dating are here
http://ww.answersincreation.org/radiometricdating.htm

And incidentally, just because you're a Christian, it doesn't mean you're a young earth creationist. I myself, a Christian, am a Old Earth creationist (I believe the universe is billions of years old, etc). Implying that all Christians are YEC is like saying all atheists study the bible (some do, some don't)

Answer 2

there's a glimmer of fact in the back of those claims, yet an undemanding actuality grow to be grew to grow to be into "reckless propaganda". Scientists examined samples to substantiate what carbon supplies are valid for courting. Carbon-14 sorts usually interior the ambience and can want to be sequestered and rot in the previous being integrated into an organism, transforming into an visual charm of age. Scientists observed difficulty supplies and do not use them. Creationists cite the problem, yet cover the actual undeniable actuality that the problem supplies at the instantaneous are not used. The 1963 paper factors out the problem with mollusk shells and different sequestered supplies were observed consequently. those supplies at the instantaneous are not used for courting. timber, which draw upon atmospheric carbon are an surprising administration. each and each and every ring might want to be dated, generating a helpful 12 months through 12 months scale which has been verified international.

Answer 3

Carbon can date whom ever he wants. It's really no one else's business. And what ever Christians are arguing this issue, really need to find other items for their agenda. If they believe that G-d invented everything, that would include carbon dating, right? So maybe he invented it so that people would have some way to answer some of the infinite questions before "the end of the world". Maybe, I'm just saying maybe the bible and it's stories shouldn't be taken literally, after all, its contents have been modified quite a few time to make accommodations for various events in history. Really, there are more important things to tend to. I don't know why they argue it, there's really no point.

Answer 4

As a test, pieces from the same source were sent to four different C-14 dating services. Numbers came back from a few thousand years to a few million years.

The earth can be a few million years old. Creative days were not the same length of time as earth days. Plus we have no idea how long it was between those days! When any craftsman today makes something, there are times when he must leave it alone and come back later to allow for drying or cooling or heating. This is expected and proper.

Answer 5

These are "young earth" creationists

I am an "old earth" creationist . . . the "young earthers" give Christianity a bad name by saying science is lying . . . or something like that . . . but the science works just fine!

It stems from a misunderstanding or bad translation concerning Genesis, chapter one and two. If you have to fit everything in the universe into the last 10,000 yrs - you have to have your own kind of science

If you follow the facts of science, and understand the first two chapters of Genesis a bit differently - it works very well

Answer 6

A less-common form of the carbon atom, carbon-14, is used today by scientists as a method to date once-living organisms. Many people believe that carbon dating disproves the Biblical time scale of history. However, because of the difficulties with current C14 dating techniques, the dates produced have been shown to be faulty.

Carbon-14 is produced in the upper atmosphere by action of cosmic rays. Once the C 14 has been formed, by converting nitrogen-14 into carbon-14, it behaves like ordinary carbon-12, combining with oxygen to give carbon dioxide, and freely cycling through the cells of all plants and animals. Carbon-14 is used for a dating material because once it has been formed, C14 begins to decay radioactively back to nitrogen-14, at a rate of change that can be measured. As soon as an organism dies, the C14 atoms which decay are no longer replaced by new ones through respiration. Consequently, the ratio of C14 to C12 in that once-living organism decreases as time goes on. The problem with the carbon dating method is—scientists can not be sure of what the C14/C12 ratio was when the organism died. Carbon dating assumes that the ratio has remained constant; however, events, such as the industrial revolution, are known to have raised C12 levels. Other possible factors, such as the presence of a water canopy, would have lowered the amount of C14 in the pre-Flood world. Because pre-Flood specimens had so little carbon-14 in them, some might appear to have been decaying for tens of thousands of years. Also, the decay of the earth’s magnetic field would have direct effects on C14 level, again, giving artificially old ages the farther you go back in time. Finally, carbon dating has been shown untrustworthy with some present day aquatic specimens that were concluded to be thousands of years old. For example, the shells of living snails’ were carbon dated and showed that the snails had died 27,000 years ago. Other specimens have been carbon dated more than once, each time producing a different date varying by thousands of years. In overview, we see that the radiocarbon dating method is certainly no embarrassment to the Biblical creationist who believes in a young earth. In fact, when all data, such as the decay of the magnetic field and the canopy, is taken into accord, carbon dating seems to support a young earth.

http://www.creationevidence.org/scientific_evid/carbon/se_carbon.html

Answer 7

Simple.Not one scientist alive can take us beyond recorded history with any invention whatsoever.Carbon-dating methods are only valid for up to about 6,000 years because we have historical reference points to support them.Some things alive have been carbon-dated at 20 million years old.The geologic column is an invention of man,and actually supports a catastrophic flood and young earth.

Answer 8

Without playing games, don’t be available 100% of the time or let your life be an open book. A man that comes on too strong or doesn’t have outside interests will scare a woman away just as much as it would if the circumstances were reversed. Read here http://AttractAnyWoman.emuy.info/?f102

Women don’t want to feel as though they are completely responsible for your happiness and that is what it feels like when the other person has no outside interests. Men who are overeager or jump when the woman says jump are the ones who are more likely to end up in the friend zone. This doesn’t mean that you should play the game of not calling for a few days; it means that you should set healthy boundaries until you both naturally find a spot for the other in your lives.

Answer 9

Easy.
Christians embrace science and technology when they think it supports the existence of God or the accuracy of the Bible
They reject science when it doesn't.

Answer 10

fundamentalist creations take the creation story literally, many other Christians, interpret it symbolically.