12-03-2002, 06:17 PM
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#100
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Guest
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Quote:
Originally posted by Cerek the Barbaric:
One question I have about Carbon Dating is this....
How do you PROVE something is one million years old????
Pretty much the same way you can prove what the temperature of the sun is, or what the speed of light is, or how you can prove proxima centauri is about 4 light years away from us, or that the earth is roundish and not rectangular. You use the best scientific principles available, USUALLY this give you the ability to be right more often than you are wrong. 
I do have to say, that altho I am a christian do not buy the idea that the Bible should always be intepreted literally and do not for a second believe genesis was a literal acount of the creation and/or that the earth is only something like 7000 years old. I believe that God created a set of natuarl laws and worked his will through them, not around or in spite of them. I believe that parts of the Bible may be literal but not all by any means.
Err I knwo this is in the middle of your post..but Im rushed for time, hope you don't mind Cheers!
The machine may estimate it's age to be that, but what other evidence is there to back up the claim?? Can the results be compared to textbooks or scientific documents from one million years ago? Can mankind "travel back" to confirm that this tree was indeed growing one million years ago? NO - it can't. There is absolutely no way to verify the accuracy of a carbon-dated estimate of one million years.
I have read in other sources that the ONLY reason for claiming the Earth is actually several million years old is because it is necessary to support the Theory of Evolution. If the Earth truly is only a few thousand years old, then the Theory of Evolution completely collapses because the time frame is not adequate to explain the various life forms found on the planet today.
Now, even though I believe the Bible on a literal basis (as opposed to a metaphorical one), I do NOT completely believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old. That just seems to be far too short a time for the world to develop as it has. But I also don't believe it is millions of years old either. I think the actual existence of the Earth is somewhere in between (but far closer to the 6,000 end of the spectrum). I also believe - like Garnet - that it doesn't really matter one way or the other.
I believe that God created the Heavens and Earth and everything within them. When He did it and how long it took are really irrelevant to me. All that matters to me is my relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Everything else is a distant second-place to that.
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