very serious weaknesses of the redshift theory, which requires
speeding stars, immense distances, and an expanding universe, were
discussed in chapter 2,
Big Bang and Stellar
Evolution.
More reasonable explanations of the spectral redshift, which fit
astronomical facts better, would eliminate the expanding universe
theory and bring the stars much closer to us.
(2) Einstein’s Theory. Albert Einstein theorized
that the speed of light is the only constant (186,000 miles
[299,274 km] per second) and that everything else is relative to
it. Theoretical effects of that theory are little short of
astounding (people that become almost infinite in length if they
travel too fast, time that stops, etc.).
But there are a number of scientists who do not believe Einstein
was correct. They believe in a Euclidean universe which has normal
time, energy, and matter in it. The velocity of light would not
then be a constant.
One important implication of the Euclidean viewpoint would be
that the time required for light to travel from a star to the earth
would be greatly reduced. This is highly significant.
13—PALEOMAGNETIC DATING—Because
paleomagnetic dating
is such a new field, and is so intricately associated with
seafloor spreading and
plate tectonics, which has
taken the geological world by storm since the 1960s, it deserves
special discussion and far too much space for this present chapter.
Within the past 25 years, paleomagnetic dating has become a
significant method of trying to prove long ages for earth’s
history.
There are serious flaws in paleomagnetic dating, one
of which is that K/A (potassium-argon) dating is heavily relied
on. (Due to a lack of space, the data in chapter 20,
Paleomagnetism, has been almost entirely removed from this
paperback; go to our website)
.
14—VARVE DATING—There are sedimentary clays that are known
as
varved deposits. These clays are banded sediments, with
each band generally quite thin. The color of each band will vary
from light to dark.
Evolutionists arbitrarily interpret each
varve as being exactly—no more and no less—equal to one
year! On this basis, they count the 'varves' and attempt to
work out 'varve chronologies.'
In reality, any brief flooding discharge into a lake will
cause a varve, which is a settling out of finer particles.
*Thornbury, a major geology writer, discussed the problems in that
theory
(*W.D. Thornbury, Principles of Geomorphology, p.
404).
Pebbles, plants, insects, and dead animals have been found
embedded in varves. How could a dead fish rest on the
bottom of a lake for two hundred years without rotting while slowly
accumulating sediments gradually covered and fossilized it? This
does not occur in modern lakes, and it would not have happened
anciently.
15—TREE RING DATING—The giant sequoias
(Sequoia
gigantea) of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, along
with the bristlecone pines of Arizona and California, are the
oldest living things on earth.
Nothing can kill a mature sequoia, with the exception of man and
his saws. Yet
no sequoias are older than 4000 years of age.
They date back to the time of the Flood, and no
further.
The bristlecone pines of the White Mountains in California and
nearby Arizona are said to be somewhat older. But research by
Walter Lammerts, a plant scientist, has disclosed that
the
bristlecone pine routinely stops growth during the dry summer and
when both spring and fall are rainy (which is common). It produces
two rings a year. Thus, the giant redwoods (Sequoia
gigantea) are with certainty the oldest living thing, not the
bristlecone pine.
For more information on this, see chapter 4,
Age of the
Earth.
16—BURIED FOREST STRATA DATING—Buried trees are to be found in
the sedimentary deposits. Some are horizontal, others diagonal, and
many are vertical. This topic will be discussed in more detail
in two later chapters
(Fossils and Strata and
Effects of
the Flood). Because these vertical trees are at times found
above and below one another, evolutionists assume that here is
another way to prove long ages. Outstanding examples are to be
found in
Amethyst Mountain and
Specimen Ridge in the
northwestern part of Yellowstone National Park.
Fifteen to
eighteen successive levels of buried trees are to be found
there. This could be the result of local floods occurring over
a period of many centuries (although such floods never today wash
over these mountains).
The Genesis Flood—a worldwide
inundation that covered everything would more easily explain these
tree levels. As it rose, it successively laid down trees,
plants, and animals, covered them over with sediment, and then
repeated the operation again and again.
A dead tree would
rot; it would not remain vertical while long ages of strata
gradually covered it!
17—PEAT DATING—Peat moss is any of a group of pale-green
mosses, genus
Sphagnum. They grow in swamps and are the
major source of peat. Peat is made up of deposits of this
decomposed plant matter found in what were once swamps. It is found
in bogs and similar poorly drained areas. The residue of these
mosses is sold as mulch under the names of 'peat moss' or 'sphagnum
moss.' Peat is not only used as a plant covering (mulch), but is
also burned as a fuel.
Scientists have worked out the theory that peat forms at the
rate of about one-fifth inch per century, or one foot in 6000
years. Thus, evolutionists use peat bogs to help support the theory
that long ages were required to form peat bogs. But research
evidence contradicts the theorized uniform rate of peat moss
formation. Here are several examples:
'More than a century ago . . peat farmers said that the rate [of
peat formation] was about 2½ inches [6.35 cm] per year. A large
number of embarrassing finds soon supported the experience of the
peat farmers:
'Elephant bones found under a few inches or feet of peat in America
are still dated in terms of many thousands of years. In some places
in Scotland old Roman roads were covered with peat to a depth of
eight feet [24.38 dm], but one could hardly argue for an age of
48,000 years for such work by human beings.
'Other finds included datable metal objects found at great depths
in peat. In Abbeville, France, a boat loaded with Roman bricks was
found in the lowest tier of peat. In the Somme Valley, beech stumps
up to four feet in height were found covered by peat before they
had decayed
.'
—Erich A. von Fange, 'Time Upside Down,' in
Creation Research Society Quarterly, June 1974, p. 17.
18—REEF DATING—During his five-year voyage on the
Beagle (1831-1836), *Charles Darwin first learned about
coral reefs. Sailors and explorers were well-acquainted with them,
but no one knew how they got there. *
Darwin developed a theory
that coral reefs gradually grew higher as the oceans filled over
millions of years; and later, in 1842, he wrote a book about
it.
Coral, which makes the reefs, only lives within a couple
hundred feet of sea level; yet remains of coral are to be found
deep in the ocean. Therefore, at some past time the oceans
rose. According to *Darwin’s uniformitarian theory, oceans
have risen at a slow, steady rate for millions of years.
What actually happened was a filling of the oceans, during the
Flood as the rains fell, and shortly afterward as mountain building
took place. The up-raised continents flooded the ocean basins with
yet more water. (See chapter 14,
Effects of the Flood
for more on this.)
19—THERMOLUMINESCENCE DATING—A little-known method of dating
is thermoluminescence dating, but it is one that has also failed to
meet expectations. Speaking of
Ban Chiang pottery dating
from southeastern Asia, we are told:
'The Ban Chiang painted pottery, thought on the basis of
thermoluminescence dates to be more than 6000 years old, is now
found by radiocarbon dating to be no older than the first
millennium B.C.'
—Quoted in News Notes, Creation Research Society
Quarterly, June 1977, p. 70.
20—STALACTITE FORMATION—In almost every country there are
limestone caverns. Water running through limestone dissolves some
of the mineral. As it prepares to drip from cracks in the ceiling,
some of the water evaporates and leaves a mineral deposit. The
result is
dripstone. As it grows longer, it becomes
stalactites. Dripping onto the ground, more formations are
built up, called
stalagmites. (Memory device:
'c'
comes before 'g,' and stalactites come before and result in
stalagmites; therefore stalactites are on top, stalagmites are on
the floor.)
Stalactites are the long conical formations that hang down from
the ceiling of caves. They are often cited as a proof of the
earth’s great age. But that is not correct, There is evidence
that stalactites can form fairly rapidly. Dr. Ken Ham tells
of a cave in Queensland, Australia that, because it is a
comparatively dry cave with little moisture, ought to have an
especially slow stalactite growth. It is known that, in the 1890s
as a means of recreation, men destroyed the stalactites within that
cave with shotgun blasts. By the 1980s, the stalactites had already
made six inches [15.24 cm] of new growth.
A London subway tunnel that has not been used since 1945, when it
was an air-raid shelter, was opened again 33 years later in 1978.
In his book,
In the Minds of Men (p. 336), Ian Taylor shows
a picture of the 24-inch [61 cm] stalactites that had developed in
that brief space of time.
Over a dozen other examples of lengthy stalactites that developed
within a matter of a decade or less could have been described. But
the above illustrations should suffice. Neither stalactites nor
stalagmites are evidence that the earth is millions of years old,
and
the standard scientific measurement applied to them (one
inch [2.54 cm] equals a thousand years) is totally
inaccurate.
SUMMARY—In this chapter, we have learned that the various
methods used to date materials, supposedly older than a few
thousand years, are notoriously unreliable. This fact should be
kept in mind.
EVOLUTION COULD NOT DO THIS
The 6-inch Craseonycteris thonglongyal
bat weighs only 0.06 ounce. Yet it has all the multiplied thousands
of specialized organs that every mammal has. How can this be?
Evolution could not produce it.
The blackpoll warbler weighs only three-quarters of an ounce;
yet twice each year it flies 2,400 miles [3862 km] non-stop for 4
days and nights. These little birds spend the summer in Alaska and
then, in the fall, on one day they all know to begin flying
eastward. Arriving in New England, they head out over the ocean for
a non-stop journey. Climbing high in the air, and quickly becoming
separated from one another, they climb higher and higher in the
sky. Although they want to go to South America, they begin by
heading toward Africa. Climbing to 20,000 feet [6096 m] in the sky,
they head off. How can each bird keep warm at such a high altitude?
There is very little oxygen for it to breath, and it is so much
harder to fly when its tiny wings must beat against that thin
atmosphere. Yet and on it goes, with nothing to guide it but a
trackless ocean below and sun, stars, and frequently overcast sky
overhead. At a certain point, the little bird encounters a wind
which does not blow at a lower altitude. It is blowing toward South
America. Immediately, the little bird turns and goes in that
direction. It had no maps, and no one ever instructed it as to the
direction it should take. Well, you say, it may have taken the trip
before. No, this might be one of this year’s new crop of birds
which hatched only a few months before in Alaska. And its parents
never told it what it was to do. Now, alone, separated from all the
other birds, it keeps flying. It cannot stop to rest, eat, or
drink. It dares not land on the water; for it will drown. The
following spring, the little bird will once again fly to
Alaska.
Many other examples could be cited. One is a bronze bird in
New Zealand which abandons its young and flies off. In March, when
strong enough to fly, they follow after, taking the same route:
first 1250 miles over open sea to northern Australia; then to
Papua, New Guinea; then the grueling distance to the Bismarck
Archipelago—a migration of 4000 miles from New Zealand where they
hatched not long before.
Specialized features enable the bat to fly, yet all those
features had to be placed there together in the beginning. Its
pelvic girdle is rotated 180o to that of other mammals. That means
it is backwards to yours and mine. The knees bend opposite to ours
also. This ideal for bats, but an impossible stuation for
evolutionary theory to explain. The pelvis, legs, knees, and feet
of a bat are structured so that they can sleep, while hanging
upside down at night from rocks and trees.
Young bats have special infantile teeth with inside tooth
hooks on them. These allow the immature bats to hold into the thick
hair on their mother’s shoulders. without those juvenile teeth, few
bats would survive to adulthood. It would be equally hazardous to
the bat race if the babies lacked the awareness to grip the fur
with their teeth.
The radar abilities of bats surpasses man’s copy of it. In a
darkened room with fine wires strung across it, bats fly about and
never touch them. This is called 'echolocation,' but the bat was
never taught the word.
A true bird, the oilbird, also uses radar to fly in and out
of caves. So do porpoises and whales, but theirs is called 'sonar'
instead of 'radar.'
CHAPTER 6 - STUDY AND REVIEW
QUESTIONS
INACCURATE DATING METHODS
GRADES 5 TO 12 ON A GRADUATED SCALE
1 - What is the oldest species of tree in the
world?
2 - Why are evolutionists so afraid to tell the public that
their theories and dating techniques do not agree with scientific
facts?
3 - There are five factors that render inaccurate the results
of uranium or thorium dating. List three of them.
4 - List three of the four reasons why a worldwide Flood
would have ruined the clocks in radiodating results.
5 - Why are evolutionists so concerned to try to make
radiodating conclusions agree with the 19th-century theoretical
dates applied to sedimentary strata?
6 - List five of the thirteen radiocarbon assumptions which
you consider to be the most flawed, and most likely to produce
inaccurate carbon-14 test results.
7 - How can we know that a dating technique is accurate if
there is no way to verify a particular date?
8 - Why should anyone think that a radiodating method has any
possible accuracy, when all its dates are wildly different from one
another, and with every other dating technique—even on the same
tested substance?
9 - Is a scientific method 'scientific' which cannot be
verified by other data or duplicated by alternate
tests?
10 - Summarize five of the most significant of the seventeen
major problems in radiocarbon dating.
11 - Twelve methods for figuring out the date of ancient
materials are listed near the beginning of this chapter. Write a
brief report on one of them, and why it does not accurately
date.
12- List three of the reasons why racemic amino acid dating
is so inaccurate.
13 - Why is the evolutionary varve theory not
true?
14 - In view of the facts given in this chapter, which of the
twenty dating methods discussed in this chapter can be reliably
used?
15 - Why is it that ancient records of total solar eclipses
are the most accurate way of dating ancient events?
![[英文]科学与进化论：为何非历史学的年代计算方法都不准确C](http://www.pathlights.com/ce_encyclopedia/images/Thin_Red_and_BlueC1D4.gif "[英文]科学与进化论：为何非历史学的年代计算方法都不准确C"){kind=small}