OLD AGE METHODS—What evidences are used to support the idea of a multiple billions of years old Earth?

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Watch. List of Processes Suggested by Some as Evidence for a Multiple Billions-of-years Old Earth

(in alphabetical order and not necessarily complete — Inclusion on this list is NOT an indication of the author’s opinion of their relative validity.)

References & Endnotes

1
Coral “reefs” thickness

Dan Wonderly, God’s Time-Records in Ancient Sediments (Flint, Michigan: Crystal Press Publishing, 1977).

For rebuttals to this argument, see:

2
Nuclides

Stanley Freske, “Evidence for Supporting a Great Age for the Universe,” Creation/Evolution, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1980), pp. 34-39.

Isochron problems

The isochron method, which was thought by many to be quite reliable, has come under increasing suspicion. Isochron expert Y.-F. Zheng of Geochemical Institute of the University of Gttingen, Germany:

“…Some of the basic assumptions of the conventional Rb-Sr isochron method have to be modified and an observed isochron does not certainly define a valid age information for a geological system, even if a goodness of fit of the experimental data points is obtained in plotting 87Sr/86Sr vs. 87Rb/86Sr. This problem cannot be overlooked, especially in evaluating the numerical time scale. Similar questions can also arise in applying Sm-Nd and U-Pb isochron methods. [p. 14] …As the method was gradually applied to a large range of geological problems, it soon became apparent that a linear relationship between 87Sr/86Sr and 87Rb/86Sr ratios could sometimes yield an anomalous isochron which had no distinct geological meaning. A number of anomalous isochrons have been reported in the literature and various terms have been invented, such as apparent isochron, mantle isochron and pseudoisochron, secondary isochron, inherited isochron, source isochron, erupted isochron, mixing line, and mixing isochron. Even a suite of samples which do not have identical ages and initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios can be fitted to isochrons, such as areal isochrons. [p. 1] …The theoretical basis of the classical Rb-Sr isochron is being challenged and some limitations of its basic assumptions are being revealed. [p. 2] As it is impossible to distinguish a valid isochron from an apparent isochron in the light of Rb-Sr isotopic data alone, caution must be taken in explaining the Rb-Sr isochron age of any geological system.” [from Abstract, p. 1]

[Y.F. Zheng, “Influences of the Nature of the Initial Rb-Sr System on Isochron Validity,” Chemical Geology, Isotope Geoscience Section, Vol. 80, No. 1 (December 20, 1989), pp. 1-16 (emphasis added).]

Sedimentation rates rebuttal

It is questionable whether there is any reliable way to determine the speed at which many sediments were deposited. And there is no way to measure the original thickness of rock laid down during the supposed geological periods. In regard to sedimentation rates, Evolutionist Adolph Knopf has stated:

“The great differences in the estimates of maximum thickness of many of the systems [geologic periods] manifestly indicate that thicknesses are unreliable measures of geologic time. As long ago as 1936 the conclusion had already been reached by Twenhofel that estimates of time based on thickness of strata ‘are hardly worth the paper they are written on’… rocks generally give no internal evidence of the rate at which they were formed.”

[J.F. White, Study of the Earth (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1962), p. 46 (emphasis added).]

Rebuttal of Varve Unit Sedimentation argument

There is increasing evidence that various varves and laminations in sediment were deposited far more quickly than had been thought. Examples of recent downscales:

John Horgan, “Blame It on the Moon: Australian ‘Solar Varves’ Turn Out to be Mostly Lunar,” Scientific American, Vol. 260, No. 2 (February 1989), p. 18. / David I. Nutting, “Origin of Bedded Salt Deposits: A Critique of Evaporative Models and Defense of a Hydrothermal Model,” Unpublished M.S. thesis (Santee, California: Institute for Creation Research, 1984), 107 p. / D.J.W. Piper, “Turbidite Origin of Some Laminated Mudstones,” Geology Magazine, Vol. 109, pp. 115-126. / Henry M. Morris and John D. Morris, Science, Scripture, and a Young Earth (El Cajon, California: Institute for Creation Research, 1989), pp. 33-36.

Resources in rebuttal of starlight argument

Author: Paul S. Taylor, Christian Answers. Adapted from The Illustrated ORIGINS Answer Book.

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