we know that carbon-dating is useless for all intensive purposes. Potassium-Argon gas dating is also dependent on independent variables and assumptions. As for any radioisotope dating, someone can make a claim that the half-life of an element is a few million years based on what's been observed in a laboratory over the last 100 years, for example. But the truth is that if someone makes a claim that something is 5 million years old, then to prove that, the person would have to wait 5 million years to show that the decay of the isotope was consistent or didn't have any exponential change one way or another over that time frame. All of these dating theories are based on nothing but assumptions.
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"But the truth is that if someone makes a claim that something is 5 million years old, then to prove that, the person would have to wait 5 million years to show that the decay of the isotope was consistent or didn't have any exponential change one way or another over that time frame."
That is not the truth because you say it is. This kind of fundy thought is exactly why you guys are so funny. You would stake your life on an old book yet scientific analysis is 'useless' and 'based on..assuptions'. Believe it or not we know the age of some of the things that are tested. Wouldn't you think that gives a solid basis for forming these theories? Of course not you, you're a doctor because that's what you call yourself. (psst) that's just a name you gave yourself, it don't mean poop! Just be open to the fact that the bible is unproven and there are literally billions of people that are smarter than you.
Let me ask you this; do you believe that you have a mass of nerves and veins running throughout your body? If you've never been completely dissassembled, how would you know for sure? If you claim to have a stomach ache, does the real doctor cut you open to make sure you have one?
If you have a tumor I'll bet it's smarter then you.
"we know that carbon-dating is useless for all intensive purposes."
I'm not entirely sure what an "intensive purpose" is, but I'm guessing it can't mean "dating of Holocene organic matter". Because then this post would just be stupid. Oh, wait ...
"Potassium-Argon gas dating is also dependent on independent variables and assumptions"
Do you even know what at independent variable is? Did you mean "unknown conditions"? And as for assumptions:
assumption 1) that the amounts of the potassium and argon isotopes are accurately measured
assumption 2) that we have accurately constrained the decay constant of 40 K
assumption 3) that the sample has been a closed system since the K/Ar clock began "ticking"
Assumption 3 can be tested for using release spectra during Ar/Ar dating.
~
Eh well, they'll be saying the same thing next week too :(
Dude, AFAIK, the change IS exponential. It sure as hell isn't a straight line. Thing is, exponential results of experiments are NOT A PROBLEM for anyone who can do calculus.
<<< All of these dating theories are based on nothing but assumptions. >>>
Beta decay is a probabilistic process rooted in quantum tunneling. Likewise for other radioacitve decay. As such, the laws of physics require that it would approximately follow a specific pattern (namely, an exponential curve). With perfectly precise measurements (and neglecting the randomness involved), a single measurement would be sufficient to determine the entire process (the only independent variable involved is the size of the quantum barrier involved, which determines the half-life). Due to the random nature of the process, and the potential of measurement error, many measurements are taken - and the closer they agree, the more certain we can be of the answer.
Redhunter put it perfectly; these morons try to claim certainty from the Bible, yet cast aspersions on science, claiming that IT operates on mere "assumptions" -- yet science seems to work well enough to get probes to the outer Solar System, acquire images of the body's systems, and so on. It certainly has a wildly better track record for explanation and prediction than the Bible.
"tumordoctor" (whose nomme du nette is almost hilariously hypocritical under the circumstances) is the worst sort of antiscience luddite there is. Instead of encountering something he doesn't understand and assuming that HE is stupid, he encounters something he doesn't understand and assumes that IT must be stupid. Bass ackward fundie logic, as usual.
~David D.G.
Everyone by now knows how grammatically anal I am. So I went and looked up intensive in a dictionary just to see if it could be used in this situation. Surprise, it can't. Now, if this moron would go do some REAL research on carbon dating, maybe, just maybe, he might actually learn something, instead of being told what to say by the overlords.
Good that we also have tree ring counting, ice layer counting, and coral layer measurement to verify our other dating methods.
Or do you claim that trees were growing more rings per year, snow fell in shorter periods and corals had faster grow in former times? You, "Tumordoctor" would need to assume this to save the silly assumption of 6000 years as the age of earth.
> we know that carbon-dating is useless for all intensive purposes.
> for all intensive purposes
image
By the way, carbon dating ISN'T useless for anything younger than 60,000 years.
> But the truth is that if someone makes a claim that something is 5 million years old, then to prove that, the person would have to wait 5 million years to show that the decay of the isotope was consistent or didn't have any exponential change one way or another over that time frame.
And why would the probability of radioactive decay of a particular isotope change over time?
And why would the probability of radioactive decay of all isotopes change in such a way that many different types of radiometric dating all converge on the same approximate date?
You're the one making assumptions here.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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