Considering the age of the earth has been a regular debate among humankind for at least
the better part of the past hundred years. Before that, people were content to acknowledge that
the written sources of history dated the earth by the listed generations. But, over time, people
have drifted from these sources as ultimate truth and have continuously questioned the age of the
earth and its origins. Thus, men began experimenting with science in an effort to see if they
could determine their age through various means. Perhaps the most fascinating and moderately
helpful scientific method for dating the earth is using radiometric dating.
Radiometric dating is the process of determining the age of geological and archeological
specimens. Specifically, and largely, the dating method utilizes rocks in the sediment. This is
because rocks have been in the sediment of the earth since the beginning of the world or soon
after it was created, depending on one’s worldview. Radiometric dating, otherwise known as
radioisotope dating, gives an estimation of the age of the rock depending on the decay of the
radioactive elements that it is holding inside itself. So, in other words, there are some atoms in
nature that are unstable, and will decay into a stable element over a period of time. This period of
time is what is estimated. Some examples of unstable atoms that decay over time into stable
atoms would be the uranium atom, or the potassium atom. Eventually, uranium will decay into
lead, and potassium will decay into argon. These final results are known as daughter elements
and the initial results are known as the parent elements.
The types of rocks commonly used for experiments in the dating field, are igneous rocks.
Ian Graham claims that metamorphic rocks are also used (Graham, 2020). These rocks usually
tend to form when molten, hot material cools and hardens. This usually happens when a natural
disaster occurs such as a volcano erupts. Some types of igneous rocks are basalt, which is also
known as lava rock, and granite. Interestingly enough, the rocks containing sedimentary rocks,
which are rocks which tend to have fossils, are not used for dating. Though, fossil dating is
another type of dating which is relative to radiometric dating.
Radiometric dating utilizes the isotopes found in rocks. Isotopes are elements that have a
differing amount of neutrons in them, while keeping the same amount of protons. Cosmos claims
“Radiometric dating is a method of establishing how old something is – perhaps a wooden
artifact, a rock, or a fossil – based on the presence of a radioactive isotope within it. The basic
logic behind radiometric dating is that if you compare the presence of a radioactive isotope
within a sample to its known abundance on Earth, and its known half-life (its rate of decay), you
can calculate the age of the sample” (Hart, 2021). These isotopes go through decay by losing
protons or neutrons. Alpha decay is the type of decay that causes an atom to lose two protons and
two neutrons making the atomic mass go down by four. Two other kinds of decay are beta minus
decay and beta plus decay. The first is a decay that causes an atom to lose an electron and
convert one of its neutrons to a proton. The second kind of decay works in the exact opposite
way: an electron is gained and a proton converts to a neutron.
The radioisotope process starts when the rock is exposed to extreme heat. This has been
said to push most of the gaseous daughter products out of the rock, but once the rock solidifies,
no further emissions occur. Next, the radioisotope process estimates the amount of daughter
product remaining in the rock. Once the rock solidifies, the only possible way for daughter
products to escape is through decay. This decay is measured in half-life, which is defined as the
time needed for half of the remaining atoms of the parent atom to decay.
Scientists are unable to accurately know the exact amount of daughter products in the
rock because they do not live in the past. This is one thing that can seriously hinder radioisotope
dating. Because of this flaw, scientists have relied on assumptions that can probably relate to the
conditions of the rock to calculate the amount of daughter product in it. The biggest factors that
would help with calculating the daughter product in the rock, are the initial condition of the rock,
whether the amount of elements in the rock have been altered, and finally if the rate of decay has
remained the same since it started. Because scientists cannot entirely insure any one of these,
radioisotope dating probably should be considered more unreliable than reliable simply because
it is mostly built on assumptions.
Radiometric dating is a complicated process, and can be hard to understand. One way of
making it more understandable is with the water evaporation illustration. This illustration says
that if a scientist were to observe a half full water cup, then the scientist could potentially
calculate how long the water had been left out by first measuring how quickly the water
evaporates over a given period of time. However, even if the scientist's observations and
calculations are accurate, the scientist’s conclusion could be wildly inaccurate. This is because
the scientific method used assumed three key points: the cup was full at the start, a fact that is
impossible for the scientist to know with any degree of certainty; no outside forces removed
water from the cup prior to the first observation; and the environmental conditions, prior to
observations, remained the same during the observation. Similarly, radiometric dating assumes
three things, which ultimately, renders this method of dating unreliable.
Radiometric dating has also been shown to not be accurate even when the age of a rock
specimen is known. In 1997 a team called RATE, looked into whether this dating would work
with rocks that have dates already known to people, to determine accuracy. A few of these
samples came from the volcano eruptions in 1949, 1954, 1975, and 1986. These all gave very
different results such as the 1986 result which dated back to 0.5 to 2.8 millions years. If rocks
with a known date are several million years off, and the same outcome occurred even in rocks
that were only known to be several hundred years old, then the accuracy of this method is not
only called into question, but utilizing it as an actual tool for dating the earth is dubious, at best.
From the perspective of the Bible, even without Radiometric dating or other dating
methods, Christians believe that the earth is around 6000-10,000 years old. The Conversation
claims “God made the universe in six 24-hour days about 6,000 years ago” (Trollinger, 2020).
The Bible has a timeline that when tallied up, gives about 6,000 years. Christians believe that
Adam in the Bible to Abraham is about 2000 years in time. It is widely believed also that
Abraham lived in the year 2000 B.C. So this would place the earth according to the Bible at
about 6,000 years. The book of Matthew affirms the Genesis account of genealogy in the Bible,
which gives room for the earth being 6,000 years old. Because of the accounting and accuracy of
the genealogies, it is easy to see how the youthfulness of the earth points to this as well.
While radiometric dating utilizes geological and archaeological materials such as igneous
rocks, or more specifically basalt rock and granite rock, it has been proven through testing to be
inaccurate. Rocks used for dating are usually the results of lava cooling from a volcano. Before
the rock has cooled, the daughter product may have already been sloughed off. Once the rock has
cooled, the only way for the daughter product to escape is through decay. Scientists will then
estimate the amount of daughter product in the rock after cooling, and then estimate the half-life,
and again assuming that it stays the same, can find how old the rock is. Because of all of these
factors, there are simply too many assumptions made about the origins and timing. Aside from
all of the assumptions, the RATE scientists tried to prove radiometric dating as an optimal source
for aging. However, in their experiments, they found the strategy to be rife with error.
Radiometric dating has been shown to be completely inaccurate, yet some old-age theorists still
believe in it. The Bible disagrees with old age, and says that the earth is about 6,000 years old.
Graham, I. I. (2020). Radioactive dating. The Australian Museum. Retrieved May 6, 2022, from
https://australian.museum/learn/minerals/shaping-earth/radioactive-dating/
Trollinger Professor of History, W., & Trollinger Professor of English, S. (2021, December 2).
At the Evangelical Creation Museum, Dinosaurs lived alongside humans and the world is 6,000
years old. The Conversation. Retrieved May 6, 2022, from https://theconversation.com/at-the-
evangelical-creation-museum-dinosaurs-lived-alongside-humans-and-the-world-is-6-000-years-
old-142145
Hart, A. (2021, May 12). From the vault: What is radiometric dating? Cosmos. Retrieved May
6, 2022, from https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/earth-sciences/what-is-radiometric-dating/
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