The evolutionary age of the earth is about 4.5 billion years. How was that age determined since there is no date stamped of on the rocks regarding its time of origin? According to evolutionary history, the earth was born out of hot molten mass of material that somehow was product of the Big Bang. As the time went on and as things moved away from the center of the cosmic explosion, the earth—including the solar system—began to cool. Much speculation exists regarding earth’s origins in how it specifically formed. So then, how do you date an object that is in a molten hot stage? You can not! The only way is through dating the meteorites which are rocks that fall through space that eventually hit the earth. Evolutionary scientists believe that meteorites are remnants of planets that came from somewhere in our solar system and is thought to have the same age as earth. Meteorite samples are sent out to a laboratory to be tested by a special method called radiometric dating. This system is used to date rocks with long ages measuring in billions and millions of years.

Radiometric Dating, the primary tool to date rocks, although discovered in the early 1900s, was not used until the 1950s. That’s when scientists developed sensitive instruments to detect radioactive isotopes. Today, evolutionists cherish and hold on to this method of dating rocks firmly as their Holy Grail because it gives them the long ages they need for evolution to exist.

The problem is that the method of radiometric dating is based on countless assumptions. There are certain minerals that contain elements that decay through the process of radioactivity. These elements are generally called isotopes. The amount of radioactivity is minuscule and therefore not dangerous, but it causes the original isotope to decay, which then causes it to lose mass and becomes smaller. It begins with the original isotope—the parent—and decays into a new isotope appropriately named the daughter isotope. The dating of the rock can be determined by comparing how much parent to daughter isotope is in the sample. If the rock is young, it contains more parent isotopes than daughter, and if the rock is old, it would have more daughter to parent. This process of radiometric dating is very similar to an old-fashioned hourglass. You start the timer with all the sand on the top and watch the sand pass through a small opening in the glass gradually emptying to the bottom. The parent isotope would be the sand on top while the daughter would be the sand on the bottom. The rate of decay in the isotope is determined by how fast the sand is dropping in the hourglass.

Radiometric dating uses a variety of isotopes that have a slow decaying quality that can be measured. To date the earth at 4.5 billion years old it would use a variety of isotopes pairs. There are underlining assumptions that are made using these pairs of isotopes in dating samples with long ages that need to be addressed and have strong implications that they are coming to incorrect conclusions.

The first assumption predicts that the rate of which the isotopes change from parent to daughter are always constant. In the August 23, 2010 Stanford Report, it challenged that assumption by stating, “Researchers found an unusual linkage between solar flares and the inner life of radioactive elements on earth.” Scientists from Purdue and Stanford University demonstrated that solar flares can change the rates of radioactive decay, which scientists thought would never happen. We also have to assume from a creationist perspective that these rates could easily have changed when the universe was expanded, not by the Big Bang, but by God, in the creation of cosmos as stated in Genesis 1. In the beginning he stretched out the cosmos. As it states in Isaiah 42:5, “This is what God the LORD says– the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it.” Such spreading out can easily cause time to speed up according to the laws of relativity that Albert Einstein proposed. The theory proposes that time will travel faster as the universe is spread apart. Such a proposal is behind our human understanding, which can only come from the realm of an infinite God who exists outside time. It is accepted fact by many creation scientists that as time sped up, so did radioactive decay. What we are really observing is a mature earth with evidence of age. Would it make logical sense that God in the beginning created everything with appearance of age including Adam and Eve, the plants, the animals and the earth? This is what we are observing – not billions or millions of years but just the appearance of age.

The second assumption is based on the evolutionary belief that the decay process began as the earth hardened with just the existing parent isotopes. This assumption follows the same faulty logic as the above, that everything came into existence from nothing without any maturity. Certainly if we had the appearance of age we have both parent and daughter isotopes. There are many geological exceptions to this assumptions also as newly formed volcanic rocks have demonstrated long ages in the scientific literature. The final assumption predicts that rocks are totally isolated so that there is no outside leaching with other isotopes. There are only certain type of rocks selected for dating and there never in the fossil layers because there is always a dynamic exchange occurring in these layers of rocks.

Again we see exception after exception in the literature. The real problem lies in the fact these rocks are contaminated with other isotopes. The overwhelming problems with radiometric dating methods is summarizes by the geologist A.K. Beski in the publication Geology in 1990. He writes, “Subjective and, in many instances, incorrect use of radiometric data has become endemic in science literature. Mathematical analysis of imperfect and, in many cases, highly subjective data sets lead to dubious conclusions.” We can conclude that there is good reason why there is such a strong adherence to such faulty system of dating is because evolutionists need it to sustain the most horrific lie of the times defying the Creator and the word of God.

Tom DeRosa is the Executive Director and Founder of Creation Studies Institute, He is an author, teacher, and sought out speaker with a passion to equip other believers with the tools needed to refute the lies of evolution. Tom can be reached at [email protected].