With our focus on one particular form of radiometric dating—carbon Since the Bible is the inspired Word of God, we should examine the.
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Is Carbon Dating Accurate?
Other correlations have extended that to 26, years BP. It may eventually go back as far as 45, years, which is the approximate limit of the C technique. This will increase the level of cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere, generate more C, and upset the C dating process. The Earth's magnetic field has been decreasing for many decades.
The Basics of Carbon-14 Dating
However, it is cyclical in nature. Any affect that the Earth's field may have on the level of C in the atmosphere -- and thus on the dating method -- would be corrected by the calibration procedure.
The flood of Noah, as described in Genesis, Chapter 6 to 8, would have upset the carbon balance on earth by burying large amounts of carbon containing plants which became coal, and gas. This would lower the total C in the atmosphere at that time and upset the C dating process.
Samples from Egypt before, during and after the flood whose dates are precisely known have been C dated without any difficulty. Again, if it did have an effect, it would be corrected by the calibration process. Volcanoes emit a great deal of carbon dioxide which contains very little C Since a massive degree of volcanism occurred during the the flood of Noah, objects which died shortly after the flood would give inaccurate C dating results. Again, C dating results on Egyptian samples before, during and after the flood were found to be accurate when the data was compared with the actual dates as independently obtained.
If there were a great deal of volcanism in the 23rd century BCE, it does not show up in the C data. Radiocarbon dating laboratories often ask what is the expected age of the samples submitted to them. If C dating is really precise, such information would not be needed. They do not ask in order to "cook" the results. Other criticisms are based on unusual C test results which were obtained from samples who lived in very unusual environments: Yet, it had been killed only a few weeks previous to the measurement. A recently killed seal at McMurdo Sound gave an age of 1, years. C results are totally unreliable.
This is caused by the well known " reservoir effect. The water that is upwelling has been traveling along the bottom [of the ocean] for a few thousand years before surfacing. The carbon dioxide in it came from the atmosphere before the water sank Thus the carbon in the sea water is a couple of thousand years "old" from when it was in the atmosphere. The plants picked up this "old" carbon; animals eat the plants and pick up "old" carbon; the seals eat the animals and incorporate this "old" carbon in themselves.
The seal is killed. The sample taken for C measurement contains partly "old" carbon and partly recent carbon. The instrument reads an apparent year that the seal died, which is older than the actual year. A sample of oil, which evolutionists believe was derived from plants that were living millions of years ago, was C tested and found to be only 50, old. Fifty millennia is at the absolute limit of the capacity of the C test. The difference in C content between two carbon-containing samples -- one of which is 50 millennia old and the other is many millions of years old -- is minimal.
The sample of oil did indeed come from plants that were alive millions of years ago. By now, essentially all of the C atoms would have decayed so that none could be detected. However, very small amount of contamination could generate an apparent age of 50, years for the sample. Oil is typically " found within a matrix of sand or shale. Again, C results cannot be trusted. This is another example of the reservoir effect.
These particular snails lived in artesian springs which were " fed by carbonate aquifers. As this water percolated through the enclosing carbonates, it dissolved limestone and dolomite hundreds of millions of years old. Again, the "old" carbon dissolved into the water, and was picked up by the snails when they made their shells.
The shells were thus deficient in C and appeared to be millennia old. One wonders why a sample which most geologists would date to the middle Triassic to millions of years ago would be tested using C At that age, any C that the wood originally had would have decayed to unmeasurable levels millions of years ago. The flood of Noah, as described in Genesis, Chapter 6 to 8, would have upset the carbon balance on earth by burying large amounts of carbon containing plants which became coal, and gas.
This would lower the total C in the atmosphere at that time and upset the C dating process. Samples from Egypt before, during and after the flood whose dates are precisely known have been C dated without any difficulty. Again, if it did have an effect, it would be corrected by the calibration process. Volcanoes emit a great deal of carbon dioxide which contains very little C Since a massive degree of volcanism occurred during the the flood of Noah, objects which died shortly after the flood would give inaccurate C dating results.
Again, C dating results on Egyptian samples before, during and after the flood were found to be accurate when the data was compared with the actual dates as independently obtained. If there were a great deal of volcanism in the 23rd century BCE, it does not show up in the C data. Radiocarbon dating laboratories often ask what is the expected age of the samples submitted to them. If C dating is really precise, such information would not be needed. They do not ask in order to "cook" the results.
Other criticisms are based on unusual C test results which were obtained from samples who lived in very unusual environments: Yet, it had been killed only a few weeks previous to the measurement. A recently killed seal at McMurdo Sound gave an age of 1, years. C results are totally unreliable. This is caused by the well known " reservoir effect.
Carbon Dating Does Not Disprove the Bible
The water that is upwelling has been traveling along the bottom [of the ocean] for a few thousand years before surfacing. The carbon dioxide in it came from the atmosphere before the water sank Thus the carbon in the sea water is a couple of thousand years "old" from when it was in the atmosphere. The plants picked up this "old" carbon; animals eat the plants and pick up "old" carbon; the seals eat the animals and incorporate this "old" carbon in themselves.
The seal is killed. The sample taken for C measurement contains partly "old" carbon and partly recent carbon. The instrument reads an apparent year that the seal died, which is older than the actual year. A sample of oil, which evolutionists believe was derived from plants that were living millions of years ago, was C tested and found to be only 50, old. Fifty millennia is at the absolute limit of the capacity of the C test.
The difference in C content between two carbon-containing samples -- one of which is 50 millennia old and the other is many millions of years old -- is minimal. The sample of oil did indeed come from plants that were alive millions of years ago. By now, essentially all of the C atoms would have decayed so that none could be detected. However, very small amount of contamination could generate an apparent age of 50, years for the sample. Oil is typically " found within a matrix of sand or shale.
Again, C results cannot be trusted. This is another example of the reservoir effect. These particular snails lived in artesian springs which were " fed by carbonate aquifers. As this water percolated through the enclosing carbonates, it dissolved limestone and dolomite hundreds of millions of years old. Again, the "old" carbon dissolved into the water, and was picked up by the snails when they made their shells. The shells were thus deficient in C and appeared to be millennia old. One wonders why a sample which most geologists would date to the middle Triassic to millions of years ago would be tested using C At that age, any C that the wood originally had would have decayed to unmeasurable levels millions of years ago.
This particular sample was porous. It would probably have absorbed groundwater containing modern carbon. This slight degree of contamination could have provided sufficient C to give a 33 millennia age. Alternatively, there could have been radioactivity in the surrounding rocks which created some C in the sample. Creation Science organizations have found carbon dating results which give anomalous results. For example, different samples from the same frozen musk ox in Alaska gave age estimates of 24 and 17 thousand years BP.