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Evolution Encyclopedia Vol. 1 CHAPTER 7 - DATING METHODS PART 1
ARRANGEMENT OF THIS CHAPTER Introduction -
Additional problems Rock strata dating Radiocarbon dating Amino acid dating
Other dating methods
Appendices 1 - Magical qualities of time 2 - Problems with dating methods 3 - Uranium dating 4 - Thorium dating 5 - Rubidium-strontium dating 6 - Potassium-argon dating 7 - Radiodating fossil-bearing rocks 8 - Carbon 14 dating Study and review questions Information on this set of books, and how to purchase them. Related studies: Chapter 5, Origin of the Earth Chapter 6, Age of the Earth Chapter 17, Fossils and Strata Chapter 18, Ancient Man Chapter 19, Effects of the Flood Chapter 26, Paleomagnetism Chapter 35, Archeological Dating CHAPTER SEVEN DATING METHODS "In a billion years [from now], it seems, intelligent life might be as different from humans as humans are from insects . . To change from a human being to a cloud may seem a big order, but it's the kind of change you'd expect over billions of years." Freeman Dyson, Statement made in 1986, quoted in Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations, p. 93. [American mathematician.] "Slowness has really nothing to do with the question. An event is not any more intrinsically intelligible or unintelligible because of the pace at which it moves. For a man who does not believe in a miracle, a slow miracle would be just as incredible as a swift one."—*G.K. Chesterton (1925). "The theory of evolution gives no answer to the important problem of the origin of life and presents only fallacious solutions to the problem of the nature of evolutive transformations . . We are condemned to believe in evolution, but we will always search for a suggestion concerning the methods of transformations . . Perhaps we are now in a worse position than in 1859 because we have searched for one century and we have the impression that the various hypotheses [of how evolution could have occurred] are now exhausted. Presently, nature appears to be more steady, more firm and more refractory [resistant] to changes than we thought—before we had made a clear distinction between hereditary variability [within species] and acquired characteristics [DNA characteristics fixing each species]. "—*Jean Rostand, quoted in *G. Salet, Hasard et Certitude: Le Transformisme devant la Biologie Actuelle (1973), p. 419. Several methods for dating ancient materials have been developed. This is an important topic, for evolutionists want the history of earth to span long ages in the hopes that this will make the origin and evolution of life more likely. Therefore we shall devote an entire chapter to a discussion of every significant method used by scientists today to date ancient substances. Yes, an understanding of dating methods is important, but we should keep in mind that whether or not these dating methods are accurate, really has no direct relation to whether evolution has ever occurred or could occur. Long ages is not evolution! Evolution can only occur by a sequence of, first, production of matter from nothing, or origin of matter. This was dealt with in the chapter by that name (chapter 1). Second, generation of living organisms from non-living matter, or origin of life. This will be covered in the chapters, Primitive Environment (chapter 9), and DNA (chapter 10). Third, evolution of living organisms into more advanced life forms by natural selection or mutations. This is species evolution, and will be discussed in the chapters on Fossils (chapter 17), Ancient Man (chapter 18), Natural Selection (chapter 13), Mutations (chapter 14), and Species Evolution (chapter 15).
MAGICAL TIME—Yet it is thought that time can somehow produce evolution,—if there is enough time in which to do it! The evolutionist tells us that, given enough time, all the insurmountable obstacles to spontaneous generation will somehow vanish and life can suddenly appear, grow, and flourish.
In the next three chapters, we will learn that even split-second, continuous, multiple chemical activity going on for ages, and using all time and all space in the universe to carry on that activity, could not accomplish what is needed. It could not produce life out of nothing.
Just what is time? It is not some magical substance. It is merely a lot of past moments just like the present moment. Imagine yourself staring at a dirt pile or at some seawater, at a time when there was nothing alive in the world but yourself. Continue carefully watching the pile or puddle for a thousand years and more. Would life appear in that dirt or seawater? It would not happen. Millions of years beyond that would be the same. Nothing would be particularly different. Just piled sand or sloshing seawater, and that is all there would be to it. You and I know it would not happen in a full year of watching; then why think it might happen in an million years? Since a living creature would have to come into existence all at once suddenly, in all its parts—in order to survive, it matters not how many ages we pile onto the watching; nothing is going to happen! To say that life originated in that seawater in some yesteryear—"because the sand and seawater was there long enough" is just wishful thinking and nothing more. It surely is not scientific to imagine that perhaps it came true when no one was looking. There is no evidence that self-originating life or evolving life is happening now, has ever happened, or could ever happen. For additional information see quotation supplement, "1 - The Magic Qualities of Time," at the end of this a chapter. THE MORE TIME, THE LESS LIKELIHOOD—*G. Wald in "The Origin of Life," in the book, Physics and Chemistry of Life, says "Does time perform miracles?" He then explains something that you and I will want to remember: If the probability of a certain event occurring is only 1 /1000 (one chance in a thousand), and we have sufficient time to repeat the attempts many times, the probability that it could happen would continue to remain only one in a thousand. This is because probabilities have no memory! But *Wald goes farther. He explains that if the event is attempted often enough,—the total probability of obtaining it would keep reducing! If it is tried a thousand times and does not even occur once, and then is tried thousands of more times and never occurs,—then the chances of it occurring keeps reducing. If it is tried a million times—and still has not occurred,—then the possibility of it occurring has reduced to less than one chance in a million! The point here is that time never works in favor of an event that cannot happen! Can time change rocks into raccoons, seawater into turkeys, or sand into fish? Can time invent human hormones, the telescopic eye of an eagle, or cause the moon to orbit the earth? Can it increase complexity, and invent organisms? The truth is that the longer the time, the greater the decay, and the less possibility that evolution could occur. *Bernal, of McGill University, explains the evolutionists' view of how the origin and evolution of life took place:
In contrast, two of England's leading evolutionary scientists, *Hoyle and Wickramasinghe, working independently of each other, came to a different conclusion than Bernal's: The chance of life appearing spontaneously from non-life in the universe is effectively zero! (*Fred Hoyle and *C. Wickramasinghe, Evolution from Space.) One of these researchers is an agnostic and the other a Buddhist, yet both decided from their analyses that the origin of life demands the existence of God to have created it. They wrote:
The London Dally Express (August 14, 1981), put the conclusion of these two scientists into headlines: "Two skeptical scientists put their heads together and reach an amazing conclusion: There must be a God." *Hoyle and *Wickramasinghe concluded in their book that the probability of producing life anywhere in the universe from evolutionary processes, was as reasonable as getting a fully operational Boeing 747 jumbo jet from a tornado going through a junkyard. REAL TIME VS. THEORY TIME—Evolutionary scientists tell us that the past stretches into over a billion years of life on the earth. Man, we are informed, has been here over a million years. That is the theory, yet the facts speak far differently. When we look at those facts, as available from ancient studies of all types, we find that recorded history goes back only several thousand years. Before that time, we have absolutely no verification for any supposed dating method of science. (More evidence on this will be found in chapters 6 and 18, Age of the Earth, and Ancient Man.) The earliest paintings of people only date back a few thousand years, and show them to be just like ourselves: intelligent, capable people. If human beings have been on this planet for over a million years, as theorized by evolutionists, then we should have a large amount of structures and written records extending back at least 500,000 years. FLAWED DATING METHODS—Evolutionists try to prove long ages of time by certain theoretical dating methods. Yet as we analyze those dating methods, we find each of them to be highly flawed and extremely unreliable.
Aside from the known inherent weaknesses in assumption and methodology (which we shall begin discussing shortly),—we cannot even verify those dates objectively. Not even uranium dating can be confirmed, for no one has sat around watching uranium decay for thousands or millions of years, and testing its decay loss rate from time to time. Apart from recorded history, which goes back no farther than about 2200-3000 B.C., we have no way of verifying the supposed accuracy of theoretical dating methods. In fact, not even the dating methods confirm the dating methods! They ALL give different dates! With but very rare exception, they always disagree with one another! There are a number of very definite problems in those dating methods. We are going to learn below that there are so many sources of possible error or misinterpretation in radiometric dating that most of the dates are discarded and never used at all. Only those are used which bear some similarity to one another. Some people think that the various dating methods (uranium, carbon 14, etc.) can be verified by rock strata and fossils, or vice versa. But this is not true either. The geologic column and approximate ages of all the fossil-bearing strata were worked out long before anyone ever heard or thought about radioactive dating. There is no relation between the two theories, or between the dates they produce. More information on this will be given later in this same chapter under Rock Strata Dating. LONG AGES NEEDED—For nearly two centuries, evolutionists have known that, since there was no proof that evolution had occurred in the past and there was no evidence of it occurring today, they would need to postulate long ages as the means by which it somehow happened! *Weisz, in his book, The Science of Biology (p. 636), tells us that by the beginning of the eighteenth century, evolutionists "recognized that any concept of evolution demanded an earth of sufficiently great age, and they set out to estimate this age." The long ages were the result of wishful thinking.
That is a meaningful statement. *Darwin said it because there is no evidence of evolution occurring at any time in recorded history. Evolution could not occur in the past unless the earth had been here for long ages. But there is clear-cut evidence that our planet is not over 6-10,000 years old (see chapter 6, Age of the Earth). And when all the facts are studied, the age of the earth leans more toward the 6,000 mark than the 10,000 mark. Scientific dating evidence is needed to prove long ages. But no such evidence exists. All the non-historical dating methods are unreliable. That is what we will learn in this present chapter, and chapter 17, Fossils and Strata. Darwinists claim that our planet is 5 billion years old. Long ages of time are desperately needed by evolutionary theorists, for, whenever confronted with the facts disproving the possibility of evolutionary processes, they can reply, "Well, given enough time, maybe it could occur." Ironically, even if the earth were trillions upon trillions of years old, evolution still could not have taken place. The chapters, DNA and Probabilities, Mutations, and Laws of Nature will clearly show that life origins and species evolution could not occur in a billion trillion, trillion years! First, long ages of time cannot PROVE evolution, and, second, long ages of time cannot PRODUCE evolution. Evolutionary processes across basic types of life forms is impossible both in the short run and in the long run. 2 - RADIODATING MAJOR DATING METHODS—Several types of dating methods are used today. Chief among them are:
(2) Rubidium-strontium dating, based on the decay of rubidium into strontium. (3) Potassium-argon dating, based on potassium into argon and calcium. In this chapter, we shall discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each of these dating methods. There is a basic pattern that occurs in the decay of radioactive substances. In each of these disintegration systems, the "parent" or original radioactive substance, gradually decays into "daughter substances." This may involve long decay chains, with each daughter product decaying into other daughter substances, until finally only an inert element remains that has no radioactivity. In some instances, the parent substance may decay directly into the end product. Sometimes, the radioactive chain may begin with an element part-way down the decay chain. (That fact has been established by the Gentry research: see chapter 5, Origin of the Earth.) A somewhat different type of radioactive dating method is called "carbon 14 dating" or "radiocarbon dating." It is based on the formation of radioactive elements of carbon in the atmosphere by cosmic radiation and their subsequent decay to the stable carbon isotope. We will also discuss radiocarbon dating in this chapter. SEVEN INITIAL ASSUMPTIONS—At the very beginning of this analysis, we need to clearly understand that each of these special dating methods can only have accuracy IF (if!) certain assumptions ALWAYS (always!) apply to each specimen that is tested. Here are seven of these fragile assumptions: (1) Each system has to be a closed system, that is, nothing can contaminate any of the parents or the daughter products while they are going through their decay process—or the dating will be thrown off. Ideally, in order to do this, each specimen tested needs to have been sealed in a jar with thick lead walls for all its previous existence, supposedly millions of years! But in actual field conditions, there is no such thing as a closed system. One piece of rock cannot for millions of years be sealed off from other rocks, as well as from water, chemicals, and changing radiations from outer space. (2) Each system must initially have contained none of its daughter products. A piece of uranium 238 must originally have had no lead or other daughter products in it. If it did, this would give a false date reading. But this assumption can in no way be confirmed. It is impossible to know what was initially in a given piece of radioactive mineral. Was it all of this particular radioactive substance, or were some other indeterminate or final daughter products mixed in? We do not know; we cannot know. Men can guess, they can apply their assumptions, come up with some dates, announce the consistent ones, and hide the rest, which is exactly what evolutionary scientists do! The rock may have been placed there at Creation. If so, it may well have had a variety of radioactive substances—both parent and daughter products—originally in it. But there are also other ways that the daughter products—at various points in time—could have been present in the rock and contaminated the original specimen, throwing off the clock. (3) The process rate must always have been the same. The decay rate must never have changed. Yet we have no way of going back into past ages and ascertaining whether that assumption is correct. A number of variable factors could have changed the decay rate from what it is now. Every process in nature operates at a rate that is determined by a number of factors. These factors can change or vary with a change in certain conditions. Rates are really statistical averages, not deterministic constants. The most fundamental of the initial assumptions is that all radioactive clocks, including carbon 14, have always had a constant decay rate that is unaffected by external influences—now and forever in the past. But it is a known fact among scientists that such changes in decay rates can and do occur. Laboratory testing has established that such resetting of specimen clocks does happen. Field evidence reveals that decay rates have indeed varied in the past. The decay rate of any radioactive mineral can be altered [1 ] if the mineral is bombarded by high energy particles from space (such as neutrinos, cosmic rays, etc.); [2] if there is, for a time, a nearby radioactive mineral emitting radiation; [3] if physical pressure is brought to bear upon the radioactive mineral; or [4] if certain chemicals are brought in contact with it.
(4) One researcher, *John Joly of Trinity College, Dublin, spent years studying pleochroic halos emitted by radioactive substances. In his research he found evidence that the long half-life minerals have varied in their decay rate in the past!
This problem of variation in decay rates is important. Any one of the four decay-rate factors mentioned above (particle bombardment, nearby radioactivity, pressure from rocks, chemical contamination) would be sufficient to accomplish the changes that Joly found in radioactive halos.
(5) If any change occurred in past ages in the blanket of atmosphere surrounding our planet, this would greatly affect the clocks in radioactive minerals.
(6) The Van Allen radiation belt encircles the globe. It is about 450 miles (724 km) above us and is intensely radioactive. According to *Van Allen, high-altitude tests revealed that it emits 3-4,000 times as much radiation as the cosmic rays that continually bombard the earth. Any change in the Van Allen belt would powerfully affect the transformation time of radioactive minerals. But we know next to nothing about this belt; what it is, why it is there, or whether it has changed in the past. In fact, the belt was only discovered in 1959. Even small amounts of variation or change in the Van Allen belt would significantly affect radioactive substances. (7) A basic assumption of all radioactive dating methods is that the clock had to start at the beginning. It is assumed that no daughter products were present; only those elements at the top of the radioactive chain. For example, all the uranium 238 in the world originally had no lead 206 in it, and no lead 206 existed anywhere else. But if either Creation—or a major world-wide catastrophe (such as the Flood) occurred, everything would begin thereafter with an "appearance of age." By this we mean "appearance of maturity." The world would be seen as mature the moment after Creation. Spread before us would be a scene of fully grown plants and flowers. Most trees would have their full height. We would not, instead, see a barren landscape of seeds littering the ground. We would see full-grown chickens, not unhatched eggs. Radioactive minerals would be partially through their cycle of half lives on the very first day. This factor of initial "apparent age" would strongly affect our present reading of the radioactive clocks in uranium, thorium, etc. Evolutionary theorists tell us that originally there was only uranium, and all of its daughter products (radioactive isotopes farther down its decay chain) developed later. But "appearance of maturity" at the Creation would mean that, much of the elements now classified by evolutionists as "daughter products," were actually original—not daughter-products, and were already in the ground along with uranium, instead of being produced by it. We already know from Robert Gentry's studies that original (primordial) polonium was in the granite when that granite initially came into existence suddenly and in solid form, and polonium is thought by evolutionists to only occur as an eventual daughter product of uranium disintegration. (See chapter 5, Origin of the Earth, for much more on this.) For additional information see quotation supplement, "2 - Problems with Dating Methods," at the end of this chapter. TWELVE DATING METHODS—We have looked at the basic assumptions relied on by the radiodating experts; now let us examine the primary dating methods. Here are nineteen of them:
1-URANIUM DATING—Because of similarities !n method and problems with uranium and thorium dating, we will frequently refer to both under the category of uranium dating.
(1) Uranium 238 decays to lead 206, with a half life of 4.5 billion years. (2) Uranium 235 decays to lead 207, with a half life of 0.7 billion years. (3) Thorium 232 decays to lead 208, with a half life of 14.1 billion years. These three are generally found together in mixtures, and each one decays into several daughter products (such as radium), before becoming lead.
FIVE RADIOMETRIC DATING INACCURACIES—Here are some of the reasons why we cannot rely on radioactive dating of uranium and thorium: (1) Lead could originally have been mixed in with the uranium or thorium. This is very possible, and even likely. It is only an assumption that integral or adjacent lead could only be an end-product. In addition, there is "common lead, "which has no radioactive parent (lead 204). This could easily be mixed into the sample and would seriously affect the dating of that sample. *Adolph Knopf referred to this important problem (Scientific Monthly, November 1957). Faul, an authority in the field, recognized it also:
When a uranium sample is tested for dating purposes, it is assumed that the entire quantity of lead in it is "daughter-product lead" (that is, the end-product of the decayed uranium). The specimen is not carefully and thoroughly checked for possible "common lead" content, because it is such a time-consuming task. Yet it is that very uranium-lead ratio which is used to date the sample! The same problem applies to thorium samples. (2) Leaching is another problem. Part of the uranium and its daughter products could previously have leached out. This would drastically affect the dating of the sample. Lead, in particular, can be leached out by weak acid solutions.
Faul's last sentence alone is enough to destroy the usefulness of uranium and thorium in providing us with accurate clocks for dating. (3)Then there is the problem of inaccurate lead ratio comparisons. Correlations of various kinds of lead (lead 206, 207, etc.) in the specimen is done to improve dating accuracy. But errors can and do occur here also. The following statement briefly summarizes the five types of dating errors that can result when lead ratios are compared:
This point of maturity or "apparent age" at the beginning answers many questions about radioactive elements and radiodating. THE CHART ON THE LEFT shows the lengthy half-lives of the longest long-period radioactive isotopes. Yet, in each case, a variety of assumptions must be made in order to vindicate such long ages. One of these is the assumption that, originally, there were only radioisotopes at the top of each chain, and no daughter products existed. Yet, at the Creation, each of those substances could have been made—already partly changed into its daughter products (already partly down its radioactive chain. "Daughter products" of those chains could have been made in the beginning, in addition to their "parents," the radioactive isotopes at the top of each chain. The words "complete" and "variety" would have marked the world at the Creation, when everything was first made. There were not a few of the radioisotopes (uranium and thorium), but all of them (radium, polonium, and the other "daughter products"). It was a complete work and all nature was filled with variety of every sort. We find obvious evidence of this today in the radioactive substances. Instead of all of the long half-life substances being the same age, they indicate a variety of ages. Yet, if the earth came into existence from a molten mass at some time in the past, that would not be true. Or, if all originated by a Creation in which everything, animate and inanimate, began in total youth, that would not be true. When the world was Created, God did not simply scatter pine seeds, acorns, and plant spores on the ground, amid eggs and placentas; He made everything apparently already somewhat aged. The same would have occurred with the radioisotopes. Box The third reason, cited above, deserves special mention: That contaminating lead in a specimen which skews dating results, is lead that did not originate with inherent radioactive decay of uranium or thorium in the specimen. It may have always been present or it may have been introduced.
When such contaminating lead is thought to be in a specimen, the presence of a "non-radiogenic lead" (lead 204, or "common lead"—lead which is not a daughter product of any radioactive decay chain) is assumed. But many or most such minerals might equally well contain some "radiogenic lead" (lead still emitting radiation) from some other source. This radiation would itself contaminate the test results and would result in a much higher date reading for the mineral specimen. Radiogenic lead can contaminate any uranium mineral to an unknown amount, making accurate dating impossible.
*Sidney P. Clementson, a British engineer, carefully studied a wide variety of known modern volcanic rocks. All were spewed out of volcanoes within the past 200-300 years. Upon cooling, any uranium in them would have their clocks reset to zero, because of dramatic leaching factors during eruption and lava flow. He compared his rocks, which were only 200-300 years old, with Soviet uranium dating tests of the same volcanic rocks,—and found that in every instance, the uranium-lead dated ages were vastly older than the TRUE ages of the rocks! Depending on which methods, samples, and corrections were used on those Russian volcanic rocks, the radiodating methods gave ages from 50 million to 14.6 billion years! A majority of the age differences were in the billions of years. (See "Critical Examination of Radioactive Dating of Rocks," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, December 1970.) Thus, we have here astounding evidence of the marvelous unreliability of radiodating techniques. Rock known to be less than 300 years old is variously dated between 50 million and 14.5 billion years of age! That is a 14-billion year error in dating! Yet such radiodating techniques continue to be used in order to prove long ages of earth's existence. A chimpanzee typing numbers at random could do as well.
In the above quotation, Spieker suggests that radiodating is worthless and only fossil strata dating theories are correct. In the chapter on Fossils, we shall find that stratigraphic dating (dating by sedimentary strata) is equally useless! Sample datings from a single uranium deposit in the Colorado Caribou Mine yielded an error spread of 700 million years. Swedish kolm from one location in Scandinavia was dated by uranium dating from between 380 million years to 800 million years. Both of these items are discussed in Implications of Evolution, by *G.A. Kerkut (pp. 139-140). An excellent collection of scientific statements dealing with the dating problems caused by lead variations in rocks of various types, is to be found in *William Corliss, Anomalies in Geology, pp. 118-124. (4) Yet a fourth problem concerns that of neutron capture. *Melvin Cooke suggests that the radiogenic lead isotope 207 (normally thought to have been formed only by the decay of uranium 235) could actually have been formed from lead 206, simply by having captured free neutrons from neighboring rock. In the same manner, lead 208 (normally theorized as formed only by thorium 232 decay) could have been formed by the capture of free neutrons from lead 207. Cooke checked out this possibility by extensive investigation and came up with a sizable quantity of data indicating that practically all radiogenic lead in the earth's crust could have been produced in this way, instead of by uranium or thorium decay! This point alone totally invalidates uranium and thorium dating methods! (5) A fifth problem deals with the origin of the rocks containing these radioactive minerals. According to evolutionary theory, the earth was originally molten. But, if true, that would produce a wild variation in clock settings in radioactive materials.
According to evolutionary theory, all the rocks were originally molten!
It is a well-known fact by nuclear researchers that intense heat damages radiodating clock settings, yet the public is solemnly presented with dates of rocks indicating long ages of time, when in fact, the evolutionary theory of the origin of rocks would render those dates totally useless. For additional information see the appendix topic, "3 Uranium Dating, " at the end of this chapter.
The above quotations speak of ratios of "uranium-lead ages," "thorium-lead ages," and "lead-thorium. " To again clarify what is meant by these ratios, we will use uranium as an example. However, the same principles would apply to thorium: Uranium dating is done by determining the amount of uranium and lead in a given sample, and then calculating how long it should take for a pure specimen of uranium, with no original lead in it, to decay to pure daughter lead—or to the amount of mixture (ratio) of uranium and lead that is in the sample. It is assumed that there has been no contaminating fluids, pressure, radioactive substances, extraneous lead, or other factors affecting the sample at some previous time. A "uranium-lead age" is simply the time required to complete this cycle down to the point of the mixture of the two in the present sample. 3-4-LEAD 210 AND HELIUM DATING—Two other methods of dating uranium and thorium specimens should be mentioned. First, there is uranium-lead 210 dating. Lead 210 is frequently used to date uranium. Second is the uranium-helium method. Helium produced by uranium decay is also used for the same dating purpose. But the lead 210 method is subject to the very same entry or leaching problems mentioned above, and helium leakage is so notorious as to render it unfit for dating purposes. Uranium and thorium are only rarely found in fossil-bearing rocks, so recent attention has been given to rubidium dating and two types of potassium dating, all of which are radioactive isotopes of alkali metals, and are found in fossil rocks. For additional information see the appendix topic, "4 - Thorium Dating," at the end of this chapter. 5-RUBIDIUM-STRONTIUM DATING—Rubidium 87 gradually decays into strontium 87. All aside from leaching and other contamination, the experts have so far been unable to agree on length of rubidium half life. *Abrams compiled a list of rubidium half lives suggested by various experts. The rubidium half life estimates varied between 48 and 120 billion years! That is a variation spread of 72 billion years: a number so inconceivably large as to render Rb-Sr dating worthless. In addition, only a very small amount of strontium results from the decay, and much of it may be non-radiogenic, that is, not caused by the decay process. One geologist, *J.C. Engels, after careful researching into this problem, estimated that "radiogenic Sr-87 [decayed from Rb-87] would be only about 5 percent of all Sr-87 present" in the Rb-87 to Sr-87 specimens analyzed! The problem is that strontium 87 is easily leached from one mineral to another, thus producing highly contaminated dating test results. Granite from the Black Hills gave strontium/rubidium and various lead system dates varying from 1.16 to 2.55 billion years. For additional information see quotation supplement, "5 - Rubidium-Strontium Dating," at the end of this chapter.
box 6-POTASSIUM-ARGON DATING—Radioactive potassium decays into calcium and argon gas. Great hopes were initially pinned on this, for potassium occurs widely in fossil-bearing strata. But equally great disappointment resulted when, first, because of such wide dating variations the scientists could not agree on potassium half life, and then, second, when they discovered that the rare gas, argon, quickly left the mineral and escaped into other rocks and into the atmosphere.
Since it is a gas, argon 40 can easily migrate in and out of potassium rocks.
Not only is argon an unstable gas, but potassium itself can easily be leached out of the rock.
Rainwater is distilled water. In heavy downpours, rainwater that is still fairly pure can occasionally trickle down into deeper rock areas, transferring potassium from one location to another. Another problem is that potassium-argon dating must be calculated by uranium-lead dating methods! This greatly adds to the problem, for we have already seen that uranium dating is itself unreliable! This is something like the blind leading the blind. In view of such information, it is a seemingly unbelievable—but true—fact that K/A (potassium-argon) dating is at the present time a key dating method used in developing and verifying advanced evolutionary theories. (See the chapter, Paleomagnetic Dating.) The long ages applied to the major new theory of "sea floor spreading" is based entirely on potassium-argon dates in basalts (lava) taken from the ocean bottom. Submerged volcanic rocks, produced by lava flows off the coast of Hawaii near Hualalei in the years 1800-1801, were dated using potassium-argon. The lava forming those rocks is clearly known to be less than 200 years old, yet the potassium-argon dating of the rocks yielded great ages, ranging from 160 million to 2.96 billion years! (See *Science, October 11, 1968; *Journal of Geophysical Research, July 15, 1968). A group of volcanic rocks from Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean produced K/Ar (potassium-argon) ages ranging from 100,000 to 2 million years. These same rocks were then tested by the uranium 238/lead 206 method, and the age indications varied from 3.2 to 4.4. billion years. The factor of discordance between "ages" ranged as high as 1 to 14,000 in some samples. Potassium is found in most igneous (lava) and some sedimentary (fossil-bearing) rocks. In spite of its notorious inaccuracy, to this day potassium-argon dating continues to be the most common method of radioactive dating of fossil-bearing rock strata. This is because it yields long ages for the rocks, and occasionally a potassium-argon test result will agree with the hundred-year-old theory of dating strata by index fossils. When doing rock strata testing with K/Ar, only those rare test results that agree with the 100-year-old strata dating theory are widely mentioned; conflicting test results are set aside or discarded. Here are "professional" instructions given to geologists, telling them to do just that, when running radioactive mineral tests:
The above quotation tells us this: Only those radioactive dates are to be retained, which agree with the 19th century geologic column dating theories. Here is the meaning of the big words used in that quotation: Geochronology refers to rock dating; stratigraphy is the study of rock strata; paleontology, the study of fossils; petrography, the study of ancient pictures and markings; and parageny, the study of fossils as they might relate to one another. It is highly significant that when potassium argon dating methods have been applied to Cambrian rocks, they produced test result age dates with a variation spread of 200 million years! For additional information see quotation supplement, "6 -Potassium-Argon Dating," at the end of this chapter. 7-POTASSIUM-CALCIUM DATING—If possible, the situation is even worse for dating with this method. Radioactive potassium decays to both argon and calcium (calcium 40). But the problem here is that researchers cannot distinguish between calcium 40 and other calciums because the two are so commonly and thoroughly intermixed. The argon is of little help, since it so rapidly leaches out. PROBLEMS WITH ALL RADIODATING METHODS—The rocks brought back from the moon provided an outstanding test for the various dating methods—because all those techniques were used on them. The results were a disaster. Doctor Read, in a presentation before a special meeting of the California State Board of Education, discussed his research into lunar rock analysis using the various types of radioactive dating methods. Sample materials brought back by the Apollo rockets were carefully dated by uranium dating, thorium dating, agglutinate dating, and potassium-argon dating. The age spread of certain moon rocks varied from 2 million to 28 billion years! Now scientists are arguing over the results. Some say the moon is 2 million years old, while others say it is 28 billion years old. We have here a weighty scientific problem. (For more on this, see "Proceedings of the Second, Third and Fourth Lunar Conferences; Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Volumes 14 and 17.) Yet there is clear-cut non-radiogenic evidence that the moon is less than 10,000 years old. (See chapter 6, Age of the Earth). In the following paragraph: Pb = lead; U = uranium; Th = thorium; K = potassium; Ar = argon.
In contrast with these inaccurate dating methods, scientific facts, such as the almost total lack of moon dust, lunar soil mixing, presence of short half-life U-236 and Th-230 in moon rocks, low level of inert gases, and lunar recession,—provide strong evidence that the moon is less than 10,000 years old. (See chapter 6, Age of the Earth.) Thus we find that there are problems with ALL radioactive dating methods!
(Another factor which by itself would account for the apparently long ages indicated by radiodating, is the decay of the speed of light. This point is dealt with near the end of this chapter.) EMERY'S RESEARCH—In order for a radioactive clock to be usable, it has to run without variation. But *G.T. Emery has done careful research on radiohalos (pleochroic halos) and found that they do not show constant decay rates. When the long half-life radiohalos (made by uranium, thorium, etc.) are examined, the time spans involved show inaccuracies in the decay rates. This research by Emery indicates that radiodating based on uranium and thorium is simply not reliable for dating purposes (see *G.T. Emery, "Perturbations of Nuclear Decay Rates," in American Review of Nuclear Science, vol. 22, 1977). (Such inconsistencies would prove no problem for the extremely short half-life radiohalos produced by polonium 210, 214, and 218. As described in chapter 5, Origin of the Earth, these rock halos, researched by R.V. Gentry, show that the major foundation rock of the world—granite was produced in less then three minutes time. Since the polonium half-lives are so extremely short already, variations would not matter. Uranium and thorium half lives are in the billions of years, compared with a split second, a half-hour, or less than half-a-year for polonium. Because of those very short half lives, polonium dating of rocks remains highly accurate for our purposes in knowing that only a brief span of time could elapse before the granite was solid.) JUST ONE CATASTROPHE—As Jeaneman explains so well, just one major catastrophe such as a worldwide Flood—would have ruined the usefulness of our radiodating clocks:
Why would a single world-wide catastrophe reset all the atomic clocks? First, there would be massive contamination problems, as fluids, chemicals, and radioactive substances flowed or were carried from one place to another. Second, there would be major radioactive rate-changing activities (atmospheric, radiative, and magnetic changes) would tend to reset the clocks directly. Third, there would be a major shifting and redistribution of rock pressure occurring above radiogenic rocks would reset their clocks. Fourth, there would be reversals of earth's magnetic core, which were caused by the shockwave vibrations through that fluid core from what was happening closer to the surface (volcanoes, earthquakes, gigantic geysers, sea-floor sinking, and massive mountain building—see chapter 19, Effects of the Flood).
FIVE WAYS TO CHANGE THE RATES—Careful laboratory tests by * H.C. Dudley revealed that external influences can very definitely affect decay rates. He CHANGED (1) the decay rates of 14 different radioisotopes by means of pressure, temperature, electric and magnetic fields, stress in monomolecular layers, etc. The implications of this are momentous, even astounding! (see *H.C. Dudley, "Radioactivity Re-Examined," In Chemical and Engineering News, April 7, 1975, p. 2.) We know that the sedimentary rock strata were laid down under massive pressure. This involved great stress. (See chapter 17, Fossils and Strata, for more on both of these points.) Dramatic temperature changes occurred shortly after the strata were laid down (chapter 19, Effects of the Flood), and Earth's iron core was disturbed to such an extent, that magnetic reversals occurred at the poles (chapter 26, paleomagnetism). Yet Dudley showed that each of these forces would have dramatically affected the clocks within radioactive rocks. Immense forces were at work, during and just after the Flood, that could and did affect the constancy of radioactive half-lives—which, in turn, are the only basis for radiodating methods! The result is inaccurate dating results which are not reliable, and which cannot be reset—since their earlier settings are not now known. *Time magazine (June 19, 1964) reported an intriguing item which was overlooked by much of the scientific community. Although scientists generally consider that no known force can change the rate of atomic disintegration of radioactive elements,—researchers at Westinghouse laboratories have actually done it. How did they do it? simply by placing inactive "dead" iron next to radioactive iron. The result was that the disintegration rate was altered! Radioactive iron will give off particles for a time and then lapse into an inactive state. When the researchers placed radioactive iron next to inactive iron, the inactive iron gradually became active. In this way the apparent age of the radioactive iron was changed by about 3 percent, while the clock of the previously inactive iron was returned to its original radioactive mass. Its clock was set back to zero! If so much variation can be accomplished in small lab samples, think what has been taking place out in the field. All that is required is for radioactive lead solutions to flow by and coat inactive lead. Magnetic rocks—or changes in earth's magnetic core—can work great changes also:
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