quote:
possibility
The usage of the word "possibility" twice is in reference to assist creationists in attempting to debunk the dating method. However, if you had read on into those sentences, you would have realized that it required preposterous possibilities in the second case, and would have meant that the fossils were actually *older* than dated in the first case.
quote:
I'd rather think they would be fairly consistently wrong if the false reading were caused by conditions commonly affecting all.
First off, there is no "common condition" to all of them except the decay rate of radioisotopes, which are at different rates. However, unless if radioisotope decay rates could vary, you can't just have them all vary by the same amount (and do you really want to go into the changing the rates of decay for radioisotopes?
Because, to summarize, to make it consistant with reality, it would requires enough altering of physical parameters that it basically contracts time, for which any observer witnessed time would experience no difference. The Earth's rotation would speed up as well, so the number of "days" would remain constant.). You still would have the following problem:
Each dating method utilizes a mineral with a completely different half-life. In many cases, the radioactive materials come from different sources. Let's present a simple case:
Mineral A has a halflife of 1 year
Mineral B has a halflife of 2 years
Mineral C has a halflife of 4 years
You find a rock that contains a ratio that indicates 50% breakdown of mineral A (.5 ^ 1), ~30% breakdown of mineral B (.5 ^ (1/2)), and ~15% breakdown of mineral C (.5 ^ (1/4)). All three of these methods confirm each other in that the rock is 1 year old. Now, let's say that you wanted to show that this is a flawed conclusion. Well, not only do you need to show that each method is wrong, but you n
eed to show that they're all wrong by the same amount in
years (not in percents).
Let's say that you wanted to show that the rock was 3 months old. You would have to show that there really was a 15% change in mineral A, a 8% change in mineral B, and a 4% change in mineral C. That means that there's a 35% error in mineral A, a 22% error in mineral B, and a 4% error in mineral C.
Now, if the rock had 75% breakdown of mineral A, 50% breakdown of mineral B, and 30% breakdown of mineral C, it dates to 2 years using the scientific method. To make it date to your 3 month time frame, you need a 60% error on A, a 42% error on B, and a 26% error on C.
Why are the "errors" completely different for *every sample* that you try, in a way that indicates an old Earth? They don't scale together - they scale completely independently.
Punch in whatever numbers you want - but you'll realize that it's virtually impossible to stretch real dating numbers to any sort of creationist framework unless you break the rules that scientists operate under (multiple samples from a uniform mineral, no carbon dating of organisms which are exposed to a "resevoir effect", etc). Unfortunately, creationists often like to violate these, which is a big scientific no-no. Then, remember that there are thousands apon thousands of samples that are multiply confirmed every year. How do *all* of the numbers get these supposed inconsistant error levels every time? How do these different methods confirm each other?
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"Illuminant light,
illuminate me."
[This message has been edited by Rei, 09-18-2003]