How old? - Radioisotopic dating research confirms the biblical record

One of the chief ways scientists determine an age for the earth is by measuring the rates of decay of radioactive isotopes.

Within the Earth's crystalline rocks, daughter isotopes are found alongside their radioactive parent isotopes (including whole decay chains), scars (radiohalos) are visible due to the a-particles produced by radioactive decay, the a-particles themselves have been retained as the nuclei of helium atoms, tracks are visible from decay by fission, and the heat produced by radioactive decay is present.

Based on this evidence geologists analyse the relevant radioisotopic ratios in rocks and minerals, and then use those ratios to calculate multi-million year ages for the rocks and minerals. However, it must be stressed that these radioisotopic dating techniques are only successful because it is assumed the rates of radioactive decay have been constant at today's measured rates throughout Earth history.

Another critical observation is that there is an apparent systematic trend in radioisotopic ages in the geologic record. Rock units at the base of the record appear to consistently yield ages of billions of years, while overlying younger strata yield progressively younger ages upwards through the record. Of course, there are also anomalies. Modern and historically dated lavas often yield ages of hundreds of millions, or even billions, of years, so it has then been argued that these are the ages of the mantle sources of the magmas rather than the ages of the lavas.

Christian responses

Faced with this seemingly incontrovertible evidence, many Christians have chosen to abandon the view that Genesis 1 is an historical narrative describing fiat creation by God in six literal days, the view held for millennia by most Jews and Christians alike, including those who were scientists. Most current alternate views posit that the Earth is billions of years old, so the days in Genesis 1 are interpreted as either aeons or figurative and Genesis 1-11 is relegated to prehistory or even myth. But if the Scriptures cannot be trusted in matters of history and science, how can they be trusted in what they say about salvation and eternity? Jesus referred to the early chapters of Genesis as real literal history (e.g., Matthew 19.4-5; 24.37-39; Mark 10:6-7; 13.19; Luke 11.51; John 8.44).

However, such views sacrifice the authority and integrity of the Scriptures, largely on the basis of the assumption that radioactive decay rates have been constant at today's rates throughout Earth history. Yet the apostle Peter warned that those who dogmatically assert 'the present is the key to the past' are willingly ignorant of God's hand at work in both creation and the Flood (2 Peter 3.3-6).

New look at the evidence

In contrast, the seven scientists (with PhDs in geology, geophysics and physics) who are collaborating in a research project called RATE (Radio-isotopes and the Age of the Earth) are staunchly convinced that all of God's Word can be trusted absolutely, and that the assumption of uniformity of process rates is not only unproven, but demonstrably false. However, they are committed to the integrity of the experimental and observation evidence (radioisotopic ratios, radiohalos, fission tracks, etc.) and thus have been undertaking new experiments and making original observations to resolve how all the radioisotopic and nuclear evidence is compatible with the biblical record of a young created Earth and a recent global Flood.

The RATE research

A major thrust of this research effort has been radioisotopic dating case studies which have involved sampling particular rock units, such as basalt lavas in the Grand Canyon (USA), and submitting them to reputable commercial and university laboratories for potassium-argon, rubidium-strontium, samarium-neodymium and lead-lead radioisotopic analyses. Whole-rock and mineral, model and isochron, ages calculated from the analytical results have been compared. Most published rock dating studies have only relied upon one or two of these radioisotopic systems, so using all four of these radioisotopic systems in these case studies has enabled important systematic patterns to be detected.

Occurrences of uranium, thorium and the enigmatic polonium radiohalos in granitic rocks at all levels in the geologic record globally are being investigated. This has never been attempted before, the polonium radiohalos in particular, being largely ignored by the scientific establishment as 'a very tiny mystery', to quote Dr. G. Brent Dalrymple, the former UC Berkeley and US Geological Survey geochronologist.

The three polonium radioisotopes involved in radiohalo formation have extremely short existences (half-lives), so the timescale for them to have parented radiohalos would seem to have been fleetingly short. This, it has been argued, implies that the host granitic rocks must have rapidly formed and cooled.

Volcanic ash beds (tuffs) have also been sampled at several levels in the geologic record and crystals of zircon within them separated for fission track dating. This measures how much nuclear decay has really occurred. Similarly, the amount of helium (an inert gas) still present in rocks and minerals is a direct measure of how much radioactive decay has occurred, but this is dependent on how readily the helium diffuses (leaks) out of the minerals and rocks. Thus the helium diffusion rates in zircon (where helium is generated by uranium decay) and biotite (which often encloses the zircon crystals) have been experimentally determined by those best qualified and equipped to do so, and the results likewise have dramatic implications.

The carbon in coal, oil and other fossilised organic material is usually regarded by the scientific establishment to be radiocarbon 'dead', that is, such fossil carbon is supposedly so old that the radiocarbon it originally had in it has all decayed. Most regard 50,000 years as the upper limit for radiocarbon dating. However, detectable levels of radiocarbon in ancient fossil carbon have been repeatedly reported by reputable laboratories in the relevant scientific literature. Some samples submitted 'blind' to reputable laboratories have already confirmed these data, but further testing is in progress. The implications seriously challenge the conventional timescale, because even samples conventionally dated at more than a billion years old yield radiocarbon ages much less than 50,000 years.

The results

So this concerted RATE research effort is already reaping a plentiful harvest of significant results that overwhelmingly confirm the biblical record. The conventional techniques of radioisotopic dating of rocks have been repeatedly found to be unreliable, because there are consistent systematic discordances (disagreements) between the four regularly-used radioisotopic systems. It is also now well-recognised in the copious isotope geochemistry and geochronology literature that the Earth's mantle today is radioisotopically heterogeneous, due to massive global radioisotopic mixing between the mantle and crust through Earth history. Thus radioisotopic inheritance and mixing in mantle-derived magmas and crustal rocks are known to be common, which renders the radioisotopic dating of such rocks highly questionable. Furthermore, the a-decaying radioisotopes consistently give older ages than the b-decaying radioisotopes, and the longer the half-life of the a- or b-decaying radioisotope the older the resultant ages, all of which is contrary to the popular perception that the dating of the same rocks by the different radioisotopic systems nearly always yields the same ages.

Haloes

The widespread occurrence of dark, fully-formed uranium radiohalos in granitic rocks at many levels in the geologic record, is physical evidence that massive radioactive decay has occurred through Earth history, at least 100 million years' worth at today's decay rates. However, the ubiquitous joint presence of the 'mysterious' polonium radiohalos indicates that the cooling of these granitic rocks must have been completed within the fleeting timeframe for the existence of these polonium radioisotopes. This thus removes many millions of years of conventional ('the present is the key to the past') Earth history and suggests that the massive radioactive decay the uranium radiohalos record must have occurred at greatly accelerated rates. Furthermore, the fission track dating results seem to provide evidence of only about 30% of the nuclear decay that is claimed has occurred during accumulation of the macro-fossil record.

Helium

Radioisotopic dating of the granitic rocks tested for helium has determined them as 1.5 billion years old, yet most of the helium generated by that amount of radioactive decay is still resident in the minerals in these rocks. However, based on the experimentally determined rates of helium diffusion from zircon and through biotite within these same granitic rocks, the helium should have all leaked out in less than about 10,000 years. Consequently, 1.5 billion years worth of radioactive decay must have occurred less than 10,000 years ago! In other words, an event during which radioactive decay was catastrophically accelerated occurred less than 10,000 years ago, which is consistent with the biblical account of a global cataclysmic Flood in Noah's day. Such accelerated radioactive decay is also consistent with the catastrophic rates of the global tectonic and geologic processes unleashed during the Flood, which the Scriptures describe, the massive pulse of heat re-leased helping to drive those processes.

Studies in theoretical physics, as part of this RATE research effort, have explored possible mechanisms for varying nuclear decay rates. Consequently, feasible subatomic-scale mechanisms for this accelerated nuclear decay have been found. These would have produced different rates of variation for a-decay and b-decay that would also have been proportional to the respective half-lives of the decaying radioisotopes. Thus the longer the half-lives of the radioisotopes the greater would have been the acceleration factor, which also would have been greater for a-decaying radioisotopes compared to b-decaying radioisotopes. This is totally consistent with, and thus confirmed by, the pattern recognised in the ages generated in the radioisotopic dating case studies.

Concluding comments

Scientific research cannot unerringly reconstruct the Earth's history, because the past cannot be directly observed, only inferred based on assumptions. Such reconstructions are only as valid as the assumptions on which they are based. Furthermore, utilitarian claims that assumptions must be correct because the reconstructions based on them 'work', are bogus, because the assumptions have not been, and cannot be, rigorously proven. On the contrary, there are now significant field and experimental data that contradict the constant radioactive decay assumption, and the resultant reconstruction of Earth history is consistent with the biblical record of a young created Earth and a recent global Flood. However, ultimately the real issue is whether we place our faith in the reconstructions of Earth history made by finite, fallible unbelieving men, however convincing the claimed evidence may seem to be, or humbly submit to the authority of the eyewitness testimony of the infinite, all-knowing, all-powerful Creator God as recorded in his infallible Word, that is 'true from the beginning' (Psalm 119.160).

Dr. Snelling is giving a series of lectures throughout the UK this autumn. For further details visit www.GenesisAgendum.org.uk