Creation
vs. Evolution II
Creationist Dating
Systems are Wrong
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.

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