Page 67 - The Evolution Impasse 1

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to determine the ages of once-living The half-life of carbon-14 is around
things. That is because Carbon-14 is the 5,570 years. In other words, the amount
only radioactive substance found in the of carbon-14 in the dead tissue declines
bodies of living organisms. by half once every 5.570 years. For
The Earth is constantly being bom- example, if there were 10 grams of car-
barded by cosmic rays from outer space. bon-14 in a living thing’s body 5.570
These rays strike nitrogen-14, found in years ago, then there will now be only 5
high levels in the atmosphere, and trans- grams. This test, like other radiometric
form this into carbon-14, a radioactive tests, cannot be used to determine the
substance. Radioactive carbon-14, a age of specimens which are thought to
newly produced element, combines with be very old, since carbon-14 has only a
oxygen in the atmosphere, forming short half-life. Carbon-14 dating is re-
another radioactive compound, C-14 garded as giving accurate results for
O . As we know, plants use CO (car- specimens between 10,000 and 60,000
2
2
bon dioxide), H O (water) and solar years old.
2
rays in order to produce their nutrients. Carbon-14 testing is one of the da-
Some of these carbon dioxide molecules ting tests most frequently employed.
the plant absorbs into its body are mole- Evolutionists use this method in order to
cules formed from radioactive carbon- determine age when examining the fos-
14. The plant accumulates this radioac- sil record. However, as with other radi-
tive substance in its tissues. ometric tests, there are serious doubts
Some animals feed on plants; other concerning the reliability of carbon-14
living things feed on the creatures that dating. The most important of these is
feed on plants. Via this food chain, the the high likelihood of gas exchange bet-
radioactive carbon that plants have ab- ween the specimen to be dated and the
sorbed from the air is transferred to ot- outside environment. This exchange
her living things. In this way, every li- mostly comes about by means of waters
ving thing on Earth absorbs an equal le- containing carbonate or bicarbonate. If
vel of carbon-14 into its body. these natural waters—which contain
When that plant or an animal dies, it carbon-14—come into contact with the
is of course no longer able to feed and specimen, then some of the carbon-14
absorb any more carbon-14. Since car- atoms they contain will pass into the
bon-14 is a radioactive substance, it has specimen. In that event, the specimen
a half-life, and gradually begins losing will test younger than it really is.
electron. Thus the age of a once-living The exact opposite of this situation
thing can be calculated by measuring the may also arise. Under certain conditi-
amount of carbon-14 left in its tissues. ons, the amount of carbon-14 in the spe-

Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar)