4 Time

4 Time

An evolutionist will claim, ‘Give me enough time & anything is possible’. Time is the god of the evolutionist. Given enough time, the impossible becomes unlikely, the unlikely becomes likely & the likely becomes reality. Life is very complex, & the possibility of our universe is very unlikely. Given enough time could it have arisen by chance?

What amount of time are we talking about? If you ask an average evolutionist you will be told, the universe is ~13.8 billion years old, the Earth is 4.5 billion years old & life originated about 3 billion years old. How do scientists arrive at these figures? Are they correct?

By far the most common way of dating old age events is by using the radiometric dating method, this is based on the decay of radioactive elements. If an igneous rock (such as a lava flow) contains radioactive elements, these will decay over time at a standard rate based on the half life of the element. This is the time taken for half the element [parent] to decay into another element the [daughter].

If you know the amount of the parent present, the amount of the daughter & the rate of decay at which the process runs, you can calculate the age of the rock.

[This can be related to the flow of an egg timer. Fill one of the bowls; measure the rate of sand passing through the neck & the amount in the bottom will give a measure of time since it was turned over].

However there are major problems inherent in this system:

1 You cannot be sure of the starting conditions. Did the rock contain 100% parent material &

0% daughter?

[This is like turning the egg timer over before all the sand gets to one bowl].

2 You don’t know if material has been added or leached out of the rock.

[This is like someone adding or taking sand from one from one or both bulbs of the egg timer].

Evolutionists say the rocks have laid in place for millions of years. For this to be valid it would require a complete lack of geological activity over that length of time. Some of the minerals are water soluble, and again millions of years of water passage through the rock could not have had any effect.

3 Has the rate of decay been stable over millions of years?

Again this is a requirement that cannot be verified. Cases both in the lab & field have shown changes in the rate of decay. Just think of the increase of the decay rate in nuclear reactors! In my letter about starlight I mentioned the change in the speed of light with time. This is fundamental to the decay rate.

[An egg timer example would be if the sand gets soggy or dries out].

Dating of known events. Lava flows which have been historically witnessed have been dated using this method & produced ages in millions of years.

Dating using different elements. Sometimes different radioactive elements occur in the same rock. Dates determined from these are generally in conflict.

Is this the only dating method available? Certainly not.

There are many methods by which upper limits for the age of the Earth can be determined.

1 Earth’s magnetic decay (maximum age 10,000 years)

The strength of the field has been measured for hundreds of years & it has been found to be dropping. If you extrapolate back in time by about 10,000 years the heat associated with such a massive field would make the Earth as hot as the sun.

2 Comets in our solar system (10,000 years)

Every time a comet orbits round the sun much of its mass is burnt off by the sun’s heat, forming the characteristic tail. Many comets would not last more than 10,000 years before totally disappearing.

3 Salt in the oceans (max. 9,000-160,000 years)

Water is constantly eroding salts out of rocks. This is carried by rivers into the oceans. More enters than leaves so there is a gradual build up of the concentration. By measuring the amount entering & the present salinity, an upper age limit can be calculated. If the oceans were salty at formation then this limit is proportionately reduced.

4 Helium in the atmosphere (1,750-175,000 years)

When radioactive elements throughout the Earth decay one of the results of the process is the production of alpha particles. These readily change into helium atoms & migrate into the atmosphere where they accumulate. As with salt in the ocean, the time taken to reach the current concentration can be calculated.

5 Erosion of the continents (14 million years)

From the amount of sediments being transported into the oceans, all the land masses should be worn down to sea level in this time.

These are just some of the many methods which indicate a young age for the Earth. If you calculate the date of creation from the chronologies in the bible you get a date of about 6,000 years. Other historical records only go back a matter of a few thousand years. Tree ring counts onlyindicate up to a few thousand years. Civilisations only date back a few thousand years. If it were not for the vast ages demanded by evolution there would be little controversy about the age of the Earth.