minarchist
Regular Member
After reading this thread, which is very broad in scope, I decided to start a thread focusing on one [relatively] narrow aspect of the subject of origins.
When multiple independent lines of evidence give the same result, we can be very confident in said result. Various forms of radiometric dating have been challenged by Young Earth Ereationists (hereinafter YECs), but we can be very sure that these radiometric methods are very accurate, as I will outline in this post.
Due to tidal drag, the earth's rotation is slowing. The rate of this slowing can be precisely measured (0.0016 seconds per century). For a certain amount of time ago, one can calculate how long a day would have been. For instance, 400 million years ago, a day would have been about 21.5 hours long. Since a day was shorter, there would have been more days in a year (400 million years ago, there would have been about 400 days per year). Corals have daily and annual growth rings. Corals living today have 365 daily growth rings for every annual growth rings. However, fossil corals have been found that have more than 365 daily growth rings for every annual ring. Specifically, corals have been found in strata dated, via radio-isotope methods, to about 400 million years ago. These corals have about 400 daily growth rings per annual growth ring, indicating that they lived during a time when the year was about 400 days long. Via simple physics, as outlined at the start of this paragraph, one can correlate the number of days per year with a specific amount of time in the past, and vice versa. Since a 400 day year corresponds, via the physics calculations, to 400 million years ago, and since the strata in which the fossil corals were found were radiometrically dated to 400 million years ago, we have excellent independent confirmation of the validity and integrity of radiometric dating.
QED
When multiple independent lines of evidence give the same result, we can be very confident in said result. Various forms of radiometric dating have been challenged by Young Earth Ereationists (hereinafter YECs), but we can be very sure that these radiometric methods are very accurate, as I will outline in this post.
Due to tidal drag, the earth's rotation is slowing. The rate of this slowing can be precisely measured (0.0016 seconds per century). For a certain amount of time ago, one can calculate how long a day would have been. For instance, 400 million years ago, a day would have been about 21.5 hours long. Since a day was shorter, there would have been more days in a year (400 million years ago, there would have been about 400 days per year). Corals have daily and annual growth rings. Corals living today have 365 daily growth rings for every annual growth rings. However, fossil corals have been found that have more than 365 daily growth rings for every annual ring. Specifically, corals have been found in strata dated, via radio-isotope methods, to about 400 million years ago. These corals have about 400 daily growth rings per annual growth ring, indicating that they lived during a time when the year was about 400 days long. Via simple physics, as outlined at the start of this paragraph, one can correlate the number of days per year with a specific amount of time in the past, and vice versa. Since a 400 day year corresponds, via the physics calculations, to 400 million years ago, and since the strata in which the fossil corals were found were radiometrically dated to 400 million years ago, we have excellent independent confirmation of the validity and integrity of radiometric dating.
QED
