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You’re probably thinking that your child’s science class is conducted with the teacher having an open mind. You also, most likely, assume your child is being taught proven fact as just that proven fact and those ideas that are only theories will be taught as what they are just theories. Unfortunately, that is not the case in the overwhelming majority of classrooms across the United States.
When it comes to the subject of evolution, the discussion of proven facts seems to be ignored in most classrooms today. The age of the earth and the universe are integral to the explanation of the theory of evolution.
Therefore, if the documentation for the age of the earth is based on flawed science the entire theory of evolution falls apart. And the key methodology for dating the age of the earth is radiometric dating. This link will take you to my blog regarding the fallacy of this dating methodology. After reading that blog, it’s clear to see how critical it is to understand the underlying assumptions of any scientific statement.
photo credit: JESHOOTS.com
The proponents of evolution spend an inordinate amount of time presenting complex formulas and performing numerous complex calculations. However, these same evolution champions spend almost no time explaining what assumptions must be accepted for any of those mathematical gymnastics to have any meaning at all.
It’s important that you know what your child is being taught in school. Like any religion, evolution should be either taught outside of public school systems or taught alongside Biblical accounts of creation. Both understandings of how the universe came into existence should be explained to students so that they can evaluate the teachings and make their own decision as to which account they believe.
photo credit: pixabay
A good way for you to know what your child is being taught is to ask your children to bring their science books home. That way you can look through them to see for yourself what they are being taught. If you find questionable content you can arrange for a meeting with your child’s science teacher. You don’t need to be concerned about being confrontational as all you need to do is ask questions to determine how your child’s science teacher approaches the subject of evolution. Does he/she just assume evolution is true or is the topic presented in an objective manner? Or you can suggest to the teacher that both theories require faith. Evolution requires faith in a couple of critical areas.
The first area where faith is necessary is in the area of where did the matter come from that created the universe. Both evolutionists and creationists accept by faith that matter existed in the beginning. Evolutionists believe it just somehow appeared while creationists believe that God created it.
photo credit: nasa.gov
Also, both viewpoints must accept the fact that “life” happened. Evolutionists take by faith that a single celled organism just appeared out of nowhere while creationists take by faith that God created “life” by creating plants, animals, and Adam and Eve.
As you can see, both the theory of evolution and the creation viewpoint require faith. Evolution would most appropriately be categorized as a religion. Therefore, both evolution and creationism could appropriately be taught outside of the public school system or within it as different viewpoints of faith. Clearly this approach would not be an establishment of a religion, but merely the study of what already exists.
Both viewpoints are religious in nature. In fact, any viewpoint that relates to how the world was created is a religious or faith based view. Yes, in 1957 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Secular Humanism is a non-theistic religion within the meaning of the First Amendment!
Disclosure: This website contains quick links to affiliates. If you follow a link on this website and purchase something, we will in most instances, receive a small commission which will not increase the cost of the purchase. The merchant links presented on this site will help ensure I can continue shedding light on important topics. The blogs that I do are a result of compiling information gathered from sources considered reliable and of course the Bible which is totally reliable.
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Contrary to what you may be thinking, radiometric dating is not the latest romantic hookup site. Radiometric dating is a method that dates rocks and other objects by using the known decay rate of radioactive isotopes. The rate at which these substances decay is known as radioactive decay. This is the process that allows an unstable atomic nucleus to lose energy by releasing radiation. I should point out at this point that one of the basic assumptions in the radiometric dating theory is that radioactive elements will decay at a constant rate. This is a very important and extreme assumption since this theory is being relied upon to date items that are billions of years old.
Klyuchevskaya Volcano – photo credit: nasa.gov
The earth is constantly changing with volcanoes erupting and exploding causing disruptive changes to the earth, massive forest fires create barren land subject to erosion, earthquakes make major changes to the earth’s surface, as well as tsunamis, tornados, hurricanes, etc. This is not exemplary of a stable planet.
To assume that radioactive decay has not changed over the last 4.5 billions (their estimate) does not seem reasonable. Think about the changes that have occurred just during our lifetimes. It just doesn’t seem reasonable or logical that radioactive decay would undergo no changes during such a long period of time.
breast cancer cells – photo credit: nasa.govThe 2002 Oregon Biscuit Fire photo credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
Also, think about the changes that have supposedly occurred with regards to living organisms in the 4.54 billion years we are told the earth has existed. Evolution tells us that somehow a single cell organism formed (magically) and somehow miraculously transformed into a human being over that time period.
Evolutionary map of the world
Talk about things changing. Therefore, it doesn’t seem to be a reasonable assumption to assume that radioactive decay occurs at a constant rate without changing over those billions of years. We’ve been told to believe the miraculous appearance of a single celled organism turned into a human being, but radioactive decay has remained pristine with no changes through evolution or natural changes over time. All matter that has been studied has been exposed to the elements which over supposed billions of years would make changes to the matter.
For some reason many scientifically trained people use radiometric dating to date items. I cannot understand why any person of science would think that this dating method is a valid method of estimating the age of anything.
photo credit: NASA/JPL/USGS
First of all you may be thinking, why would someone like me with no scientific training venture into offering my opinion on such a highly scientific methodology. In defense of my reason for thinking I have the right to comment on this complex scientific topic, I will provide my logic and reasoning.
It’s true that I don’t have training or experience in this complex scientific methods of theoretically dating items. However, any methodology that uses complex scientific processes, if it is to be accepted as fact, must be logical and capable of being proven using the scientific method. Even if lay people don’t understand the details of the process, they certainly can understand the reasoning and logic behind the complex scientific process. For example, a lay person may not understand the details about why someone’s heart is not functioning properly and the details that are involved in how a heart transplant is accomplished. However, a lay person can certainly understand that a person’s heart is not working correctly and that the patient will need a new heart or the patient will die. Simply because a lay person cannot diagnose a defective heart or be able to put a new heart into that prospective transplant recipient, that lay person certainly can understand what is wrong and what needs to be done to correct the condition. That lay person would certainly know that putting a defective heart in the above referenced patient would be disastrous. That lay person would also be able to know that the new heart would have to be compatible with the transplant recipient. One would not have to be an expert, a doctor, or scientifically trained in any area of medicine to know these things or to be able to use logic and reason to come to these conclusions.
Having established that lay people can come to reasoned conclusions about complex scientific theories and analyses, it’s time to turn our attention to the theoretical science in question namely radiometric dating and electromagnetic radiation.
The MAP instrument consists of a set of passively cooled microwave radiometers with 1.4x 1.6-meter diameter primary reflectors to provide the desired angular resolution. photo credit: nasa.gov
“radiometer” is an instrument that measures electromagnetic radiation. Isotopes are variants of a chemical element that have the same number of protons in the nucleus and also have the same atomic number as each other. However, each of the variant isotopes have a different number of neutrons in the nucleus. There are over 800 radioactive isotopes.
It is common for geologists to use radiometric dating to estimate the age of elements through the use of carbon-14 and nitrogen-14. They use the natural radioactive decay of these elements to arrive at the age of Fossils. Also, for the age of the earth it is common for scientists to use isotopes potassium-40 and argon-40.
I have no problem with the rationale or the science behind this methodology of determining how long it takes for a particular isotope to decay as long as one assumes the rate of decay has not changed over billions of years. The problem I have is that the rate of decay over billions of years and therefore, the years it may take for the isotope to deteriorate is unknown and is not capable of being known and therefore, has nothing to do with how long the earth has existed. Think logically, if an isotope decays at a half-life rate of 1.3 billion years, how does that in any way have anything to do with how long that element has existed. That radioactive isotope could have been created 6,000 to 14,000 years ago and still have a half-life of 1.3 billion years, if it was created with a half-life of 1.3 billion years. How would that fact prove or disprove how old the earth is? If God created certain isotopes with half-lives of 1.3 billion years or 10.5 million years has nothing to do with how old these isotopes are. For purposes known only to God, I believe He chose to give those isotopes those half-lives. In order for this type of age-dating to have any validity, you would have to first know the age of the earth. Radiometric dating can only tell you how long it will take for a particular substance to decay providing nothing changes over long, long periods of time. Something could easily intervene that might change its radioactive properties. Using radiometric dating to estimate the age of the earth assumes that the isotopes being studied were very large at their creation and have been decaying at an established rate of decay. I understand it is not quite that simple as isotopes change into other isotopes as they decay. Taking all this into account, still does not provide anything other than an interesting theory as to the age of anything. Ultimately, knowing decay rates does not tell a researcher what may have happened during billions of years or how large the item being researched was when it was created.
21 April 1972 – Astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission photo credit: nasa.gov
I think anyone with a reasonable amount of intelligence can understand why radiometric dating is not a reliable indication of when the earth or universe came into existence. To review, in order to determine the age of the earth and it’s components or the universe using radiometric dating, you first must know when the item being studied was created or how large it was at the time of its creation and that there were no changes to the properties of the items being studied. It is not possible to study existing decaying isotopes and based on that analysis be able to go backwards in time to arrive at when they came into existence. You can estimate any number you want, but you can’t, with any confidence, state it is a fact. Remember, one of the main assumptions of this dating method is that the rate of radioactive decay must remain constant over 4.5 billion years. Experts can theorize that they “believe” they are correct. However, just because those experts are able to calculate consistent mathematical results does not prove that the calculations or results have any relevance to reality or the unknown ages being sought. Having a PHD and wearing a white lab coat does not insulate people from being wrong in their reasoning, assumptions, and logic. Anybody who has been involved with accounting understands how you can have assets equal liabilities, but if the numbers aren’t representative of reality, the reports that are produced are meaningless.
Disclosure: This website contains quick links to affiliates. If you follow a link on this website and purchase something, we will in most instances, receive a small commission which will not increase the cost of the purchase. The merchant links presented on this site will help ensure I can continue shedding light on important topics. The blogs that I do are a result of compiling information gathered from sources considered reliable and of course the Bible which is totally reliable.
Thank you.
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When articles are written about creation inevitably people ask this question. They have questions about how God and science have anything to do with one another. Many people say that God is within the realm of religion and science is about facts and the reality of what is around us. Because of these seemingly incompatible aspects of life, there have been many who see the terms as having nothing to do with one another. As a result there always seems to be a constant disagreement between those who believe in creation and those who believe in accidental evolution. Therefore, it’s important to understand why science and God are related to one another.
Set of passively cooled microwave radiometers. photo credit: nasa.gov
Since God created the universe, it only makes sense that God also created the things that science studies and investigates. God created what we see around us which means He created rocks (geology), atmosphere (meteorology), elements (chemistry), and the stars (astronomy) to name some of the areas of science. This is critical because it shows how important science is … not to prove, but to support the creation theory of the beginning of the universe. All science can do is to either lend support to the theory of creation or to the controversial theory of evolution which has no explanation of where matter came from. God has always existed and was the omnipotent being that created matter and an amazing creation that was. The theory of evolution does not leave room for anything supernatural, therefore, just saying matter appeared from nowhere is not in keeping with their belief there is nothing supernatural about life. As can be seen, science is the study of what God has created. Science does not equate and cannot be equated to creation.
photo credit: nasa.gov
Science is merely the study of what exists. It attempts to ascertain facts in an objective manner through use of the scientific method. As we learned in a previous post, for something to be a scientific fact it must be proven through use of the scientific method. Simply gathering unrelated data together in an attempt to call something a fact will not suffice. In order for something to be called a fact it must be proven through repeatable experiments that show the same reproducible results. Results that are capable of being reproduced are necessary for something to be called a fact.
For example, Sir Issac Newton was responsible for the third law of motion that states that for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is a scientific fact. Experiments can be done and every time a force is applied to anything it results in an equal and opposite reaction. Even in outer space this scientific fact is true and is reproducible. It is observable and verifiable.
As you can see, science is the study of what has been created. Science is not something that explains creation it is something that is used to study the creation. No amount of scientific facts that point toward the reality of a supernatural creation will ever “prove” that the creation theory is true. Just like evolution, creation must be proven to each person through faith. It is science that shows it takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe in creation! When you think about it, to believe in evolution you must believe the “matter” that the universe consists of came from nothing. You also have to believe that the earth is just the right distance from the sun by accident. If it were any closer we would burn up and any further away we would freeze. You also have to believe that life was created by accident! Please, take one look at the complexity of your body with all its systems and tell me you believe that just happened by accident!
Disclosure: This website contains quick links to affiliates. If you follow a link on this website and purchase something, we will in most instances, receive a small commission which will not increase the cost of the purchase. The merchant links presented on this site will help ensure I can continue shedding light on important topics. The blogs that I do are a result of compiling information gathered from sources considered reliable and of course the Bible which is totally reliable.
Thank you.
photo credit: nasa.gov
