Radiometric Dating: The Geologic Column

Dear hijas,

Did you realize that the geologic column came before and preceded radiometric dating and the counting and extrapolating of parent and daughter isotopes into millions and billions of years? Radiometric dating as a science didn’t come to fore until the early 1900’s, yet the geologic column and it’s eons, era’s and periods were established in the 1800’s.

Why is this significant? It was Nicholas Steno, a Christian and creationist, who in the late 1600’s introduced the idea of superposition; that rock layers (or strata) are laid down in succession, each layer representing a ‘slice’ of time, and that any given stratum is probably older than those above it, and younger than those below. The principles were simple, applying them to real rocks wasn’t.

Steno believed that those ‘slices’ of time were a result of the universal and global judgement of God in the Flood of Noah. He believed that the sediments laid down in ‘layers’ came from and were a result of this global year-long Flood. Read Genesis 6-9 again and pay special attention to the dates given in the text. Take note of when the text says a particular year, month, and day. Add up the dates. It’s a simple exercise, and yet you’ll find the floodwaters upon the earth were not just 40 days and 40 nights.

It was others then, who came after Steno, like Hutton and Lyell, who took these ‘slices’ of time, not dealing with the Biblical text which indicated a massive and global tectonic event like Noah’s year-long Flood, and inserted the idea of millions of years into the rocks. They believed that an older layer like the Cambrian must be millions of years older than a younger layer like the Pleistocene. They used present processes observed at their time for deposition and erosion of rocks and extrapolated unwarranted into an unseen past. This might seem logical to do, but this is not science, for rates may have not been the same over this unseen period of time, and there may have been one or more events that catastrophically altered these processes that they can’t and are unable to see. One of those major events was a worldwide global flood.

From a starting point of no Flood, (a wrong starting point), men like Hutton, Lyell, and others came to wrong conclusions (millions and millions of years). An incorrect starting point that there was no act of God in judging mankind on the earth with a global and universal Flood, gave wrong conclusions that there were millions and millions of years in each of the layers of the geologic column. And remember, all this before the advent and discovery of radiometric dating.

One might ask, “But doesn’t radiometric dating prove that these men were right in their millions and millions of years assumption? Who cares if radiometric dating came afterwards? It proves today that they were right”.

Not so fast. Radiometric dating is fraught with assumptions and discordances that throw the whole effort into a tizzy with questions about its reliability. Different pair elements give different dates for the same rock. But more on that in my next post.

Vaya con Dios mis hijas,

Dear ol’ Dad

Radiometric Dating: Support for Evolution?

Dear hijas,

I’m going to do a series on radiometric dating, the supposed lynch pin of all old earth theories. What the assumptions are, how the ages are extrapolated into millions and billions of years, and what current research is finding out about this supposed icon of old earth evolution.

We’ll need to get down into the nitty gritty, so hold on to your hats, and be prepared to think back to your chemistry classes in days of yore. Atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons, alpha and beta decay will need to be covered, as well as the elements uranium, lead, potassium, argon, rubidium, strontium, samarium and neodymium.

We’ll talk about the different types of rock: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary, but don’t despair, it’ll be fun and exciting. We’ll need a handle on the geologic column and it’s eras, periods, and epochs as well.

Stay tuned,

Dear ol’ Dad

Vaya con Dios mis hijas

Writer’s Block

Dearest hijas,

For several weeks now I’ve been stymied on what to write that would be meaningful and insightful and a tool for learning and further investigation on your part.  This God-given life, this blessing to be called sons and daughters of God, this birth from above and granted us to live on earth here below fills me with wonder and gratitude every day He allows me to draw breath. It should fill you with the same wonder and gratitude (and I know it does) as well.

For you my beloved, and for any readers who by Providence have stumbled across these pages, what are you questioning? What are you seeing raised up against the knowledge of God in conversations and dialogue with friends and co-workers? What is a sticking point in your knowledge of Scripture and what you read therein?

As always, with love, I remain,

Dear ol’ Dad

Vaya con Dios mis hijas