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Study Section15: More Difficulties Faced by Evolutionists

15.1 Connect.

Evolutionists use various “scientific” dating methods to determine the age of a fossil or rock
they find in the earth. These methods give them very old dates in the million of years as
results. They use these methods to support their view that the earth is billions of years old
and that there was enough time for evolution to occur. Today we want to look at the
reliability of these “scientific” dating methods. Are the fossils they find really that old? Are
their dating methods accurate? Let’s see if we can answer these questions….

15.2 Objectives.

1. The student should be able to explain the assumptions that form the basis upon which
modern dating methods are based.

2. The student should be able to describe various fossils whose age we know, but which are dated
by various scientific dating methods as extremely old.

3. The student should be able to describe the methods of Radioisotope Dating and how this method is
used to date fossils.

4. The student should be able to cite many illustrations of scientific dating that are inaccurate and
unreliable.

15.3 More Difficulties Faced by Evolutionists

Introduction:
In most of the major scientific publications and textbooks, on television, and in almost
every major museum and university, our students are told that the earth is billions of years
old. The age of the universe is presented a CONCRETE FACT! Various fossils are dated in
the millions of years. How do the scientists know the rocks and bones are millions of years
old? Do they just make these dates up or are they using some good scientific method that
proves their dates correct? And if they are correct, then is not the Biblical account of
creation suspect? Don’t the generations in the genealogies indicate that the earth is
relatively young (between 6,000 – 10,000 years old)? Are Christians who believe the
creation account committing mental suicide by believing in dates that are proven by
science to be in error? Let’s look at this apparent conflict today.

Dating methods…how they work
Let’s use a measuring cylinder to illustrate how scientific dating works. This picture
shows a water tap dripping into the cylinder. It holds exactly 300 ml of water. Water is
dripping at a rate of 50 ml per hour.

How long has the water been dripping into the cylinder? Six hours? How did you
figure it out? You did it by dividing the amount of water in the cylinder (300 ml) by the
rate (50 ml per hour).
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