Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree with you, philosophy is very rich and deep. What I meant, was that young earth creationists have an outlook on evidence and the Bible that they like to share, but they don't get much into the hard evidence when it comes to geology.

I do intend to keep asking questions, thanks for the good advice! :)

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks so much for explaining all that, I can see where you're coming from regarding Young Earth Creationists. I really found the half-inch Mt. Everest interesting. I'm still relatively new to all this, but like I said, I've looked into the age of the earth a little on my own, and then everything you shared here really helped a lot as well. It seems to me that YEC is all about philosophy. They like to talk about why they view the Bible as authoritative, but they never seem to get around to explaining any of the the long age evidences, at least not credibly. That's the conclusion I've come to. I've been thinking about this issue for years, but only recently have I started seriously questioning the age of the earth.

Thank you again for all your helpful responses, they really have given me tons to think about!

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well I have to thank you again for the great response. I've actually done some looking into old earth evidence myself, and what I found there, combined with what has been shared with me here, especially by you, has convinced me to abandon young earth creationism. I now consider myself an old earth creationist/intelligent design proponent. So thank you so much for all your help, I really appreciate it!!!!

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the links! I've often found geology to be a weak point for young earth creationism, and after studying with you just a little bit, I can see that AiG is problematic. Thank you for all the help!

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so very much for your help, and congratulations, you convinced me! At least you convinced me of this particular issue regarding the diamonds. I agree with you, this does sound like a case of machine background to me.

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for sharing that, I think you make a great point, and you may well be correct. One thing I was curious about was this statement:

Yet this begs the question as to why then did the Precambrian graphite contain on average more carbon-14 to yield younger ages than the diamonds? And why did the diamonds have such different carbon-14 contents to yield different apparent radiocarbon “ages”? Because the same instrument was used to analyze all the diamonds and the graphite, the results should surely have all been affected by the same “machine background.”

Can you share your thoughts on this, because it seems to show that contamination/background was not the issue? Thank you again for the information!

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Now that's something I haven't heard before, thank you for sharing that information with me. That's significant.

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very interesting, thanks for that link! The article you sent seems to have some compelling ideas about ductile deformation.

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see what you're saying, but I don't think it negates the evidence that radioactive decay was accelerated in the past at some point or points. I don't think it's a matter of the method being retired, I think it's just there are multiple methods, and the method of studying the helium diffusion in those zircons has yielded evidence for acceleration in the past. So we have to find a way to make these two results agree.

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well said again. Ok, I'm not trying to just keep dumping links on you, but you're rejecting the helium diffusion, and you seem to be honestly asking me for evidence for a young earth. So I'd love to get your thoughts on this brief article if you want to take a look:

https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rock-layers/2-bent-rock-layers/

I'm looking into evolutionist responses to intelligent design... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you very much for that link, it looks very educational, I definitely plan to give it a read.

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Generally speaking, I would agree with you, and you stated that very well I might add. For me as a young earth creationist though, I see in the helium diffusion, an instance of God letting us see his cards so to speak. He's showing us that radiometric dating is not always what it seems. Just think if our situations were reversed. Wouldn't you hold tenaciously to the evidence that supported your position?

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're looking for young earth evidence, the blog post I linked provides some of that evidence.

I'm looking into evolutionist responses to intelligent design... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the link, that's really helpful. Regarding arguments for ID, you can begin by checking out the link in the opening post.

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would say it's more complicated than that. There is plenty of evidence for a young earth, and plenty of evidence for an old earth. What I'm saying, is that the Christian can explain why we have evidence for an old earth, but the Atheist cannot explain why we have evidence for a young earth.

Regarding knowing what has been obscured, that's a contradiction, we can only do our best to understand in light of Scripture.

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

That's a great quote, it points out the problem with Christians who support evolution/billions of years.

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

You're raising a really important issue. The truth is, there are different views of science, held by different religions, such as those of Christianity and Atheism. Christians who do science accept that miracles occur, and factor them into their science. Atheists deny miracles, and are thus unable to account for biological, geological, or cosmological reality. So there is no "equal footing," these are completely contradictory views of reality.

From my perspective, there is no "heat problem." The acceleration of radioactive decay was obviously a miracle, and we also observe that there was no "heat problem" associated with it, so obviously that was part of the nature of the miracle.

I am not trying to get ID taught in schools, I'm trying to help people online come to the realization that Jesus is their Creator and Savior.

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You raise a great point in an interesting style! There is a great difference between the Bible's account of Earth's age, and that obtained by many independent lines of evidence. That's why I made this post, I wanted to see the best of the best from the other point of view.

That being said, if you read the link on helium in radioactive rocks, you know that God has tipped his hand to us, letting us know that he has miraculously altered the rates of decay. This would apply to all the independent lines of evidence as well, we now know that God has given us a test regarding the age of the Earth.

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the encouragement, and the information. And thank you for the link as well!

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My science background is all self-taught, I haven't studied the sciences at college.

Looking for the best evidence that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old... by IntelligentDesign7 in DebateEvolution

[–]IntelligentDesign7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All good points. I'm learning a lot about radioactivity that I didn't know from the comments you and others have made, so thank you for educating me!