Creationist Dating Systems are Wrong

Creation vs. Evolution II

by Jeremy E., Creation vs. Evolution II Team Member

Creationist dating systems need to create a low age for the earth to make it match the Biblical account. Here are some rebuttals:

Helium in the atmosphere. Creationists claim that all the helium in the atmosphere could have been produced (from radioactive decay) in several thousand years. However, they completely ignore processes that allow helium to escape from the atmosphere. The polar winds can sweep helium into space at a rate nearly equal to production. And the solar wind, during periods of magnetic field reversal, can interact with the upper atmosphere to remove more helium. You can't build a dating system by ignoring half the data.
The Earth's magnetic field. According to creationists, the magnetic field has been decaying, and extrapolating along an exponential curve (their best fit), the data leads to impossible fields as little as 8,000 years ago. This has several problems. The original calculation ignored all components but the dipole. The "decay" can be explained by energy transfer to non-dipole or toroidal components of the field. Also, the magnetic field has reversed frequently, as many as 20 times in the past 3.5 million years. This makes extrapolation impossible.
Metals in the oceans. Some creationists believe that the rates of accumulation of metals in the oceans lead to a low age for the earth. This is done by conveniently ignoring some metals. It is very similar to the helium argument. However, there is no way of knowing whether the influx and outflux of the metals have remained the same. Not enough is known about the chemistry of the oceans.