wow... take a day off and 100 posts to read
Can I ask some questions Fred/anybody else who knows the answer? (I'll just assume the answer is yes
)
Do Fossils contain enough radioactive material to make C14 dating a viable method for finding out how old they are?
AFAIK, many fossils are dated by association - that is, by dating (usually volcanic) rocks assumed to be from the same time period... I take this to mean they can't be dated using C14?
If fossils can't be dated using C14 and instead must be dated by association (using K-Ar on volcanic rock) and the rocks themselves are <500,000 years old wouldn't this produce erroneus results? (like several million years - as observed when dating 25-50 year old rocks)
According to the Bible, the earth is only about 6500 years old (having begun around 4500 BC). If this was true, then radioactive dating of fossils would all be wrong. (bummer)
Yautja: There are 157680000000000000 seconds in 5 billion years... but the chances against amino acids creating proteins that could be used in living cells are far greater than that... there just isn't enough time for a single living cell to be produced by random elements. (a living cell is very complex)
plenty of good reading material in this thread... I can feel my brain learning already