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How old are those Diamonds and Coal
Cale Schueler
Professor Jackson
PHSC 210
Have you ever wondered how old the strongest substance on earth is? Or how old that
coal is that you feared finding in you stockings come Christmas morning? Probably not, but at
some point both materials have displayed some significant importance in our lives as humans.
Both are extremely valuable but age is not something many people know much about. Hopefully
the information provided will help inform and increase your knowledge of these materials and
how old they actually are, which are not millions or billions of years old.
Scientists of young earth positions use radiometric dating to determine how old a great
deal of materials are. They determine the age of rocks, fossils, and even the earth itself. Most of
the world has been told that the earth and most things in it are millions to billions years old but it
just doesn’t add up. Young earth scientist believe state that, “And because the half-life of carbon-
14 is just 5,730 years, radiocarbon dating of materials containing carbon yields dates of only
thousands of years, not the dates over millions of years that conflict with the framework of earth
history provided by the Bible, God’s eyewitness account of histor”(Snelling 1).
Evolutionists are gonna try and prove that the dating through radiocarbon dates back billions of
years but that is impossible. According to Jonathan Safarti, “But evolutionists know it can’t,
because 14C decays too fast. Its half-life (t½) is only 5,730 years—that is, every 5,730 years,
half of it decays away”(Safarti 1). The Instituition of For Creation Research article also claims
that, “But carbon-14 has been measured within natural diamonds. Either the decay rate of
carbon-14 is not uniform, the diamonds are younger than believed, or both. Carbon-14 in
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diamonds is evidence that the earth is thousands of years old, not millions” (Institute for Creation
Research 1). Another great thing about being a Christian who believes in young earth always has
the greatest reference of all to know if calculations are wrong. A perfect example here states,
“When a scientist’s interpretation of data does not match the clear meaning of the text in the
Bible, we should never reinterpret the Bible. God knows just what He meant to say, and His
understanding of science is infallible, whereas ours is fallible”(Riddle 1).
A main argument is that Carbon 14 dating runs the risk of being inaccurate due to
contamination over time. Others claim that the short length of the carbon 14 half-life is only
accurate for items thousands of years old and nothing more. Many scientists believe that carbon
dating is contradictive to their own claims because some dates of diamonds were estimated to be
over 50,000 years old. And so this means young earthers are wrong but when the levels are
extremely low it is difficult to measure accurately and that can go both watts. The diamonds still
could be dated much younger than their estimations. Or the other clear and obvious answer is
contamination of the carbon 14 leading to the erroneous numbers.
Ultimately there is still much more to learn and discover about carbon 14 dating for both
sides of the aisle. As technology advances around measuring carbon 14 dating data will likely be
more clear and definitive to young earthers or old earthers. I believe that Carbon 14 will only
shed more light on how the earth is NOT millions or billions of years old but thousands of years
old.
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Works Cited
Snelling, D. A. A. (2015, July 13). Carbon-14 dating-understanding the basics. Answers in
Genesis. Retrieved August 1, 2022, from https://answersingenesis.org/geology/carbon-
14/carbon-14-dating/
Sarfati, J. (2022, April 3). Diamonds: A creationists best friend. Creation.com | Creation
Ministries International. Retrieved August 1, 2022, from https://creation.com/diamonds-a-
creationists-best-friend
The Institute for Creation Research. (n.d.). Retrieved August 1, 2022, from
https://www.icr.org/carbon-14
