GEOCHRONOMETERS
"How old is the earth?"

SCIENCE:
" Systematized knowledge derived from observation, study, and experimentation carried on in order to determine the nature or principles of what is being studied." (Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language)

Scientific evidence for a young earth:

The Bible tells us to look at creation to learn about God, and the origin of creation.
When we look at creation to determine its approximate age, we develop"Geochronometers".
"Geo" = earth and "chronos" = time

“ But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food?" [ Job 12:7-11]

There are no convincing geochronometers that place the age of the earth at 4.5 billion years. Some geochronometers are not 100% slam-dunk young earth proofs, but they do place a “time-crunch” on the old-earth argument. Other geochronometers are highly convincing and accurately show that our earth is indeed young.

1) Rate of cooling of the earth’s crust, heat of the interior, and temperature of space
The earth’s crust is about 12 miles thick on average. In a universe that approaches absolute zero, which is -459 degrees F. The earth has a hot core that is over 7,000 degrees F. Hot lava bursts out of the earth's crust from volcanos all around the world on a regular basis! If the earth were billions of years old, it should have turned into an ice ball long ago, many times over.

Image that I came home from work one day and opened the freezer and found some chocolate chip cookies inside. I picked one of them up and the hot chocolate chips in the cookie got on my hand and burned me. I screamed and dropped the cookie and looked at my wife and said, "When did you make these cookies?!?!?!? They burned my hand!" And she said, "Oh, about 3 months ago!"
Now we all know that a hot cookie in a cold freezer can't be very old. Now imagine a 7,000 degree ball [Earth] in -459 degree space. Does this argue for a young or old earth? We know the current rate of cooling of our crust and know that approximately 10,000 years ago, the earth would have had no crust based upon this known rate of cooling. The Bible says that God made the earth with land [crust], thus giving it some semblance of age. So our scientific data is consistent with the Biblical age of the earth being approximately 6,000 years.

2) Comets
There are approx 5 million comets in our solar system. Comets can exist no longer than 10,000 years due to their known ‘melting rate’. This has forced evolutionists to fabricate a supposed orbiting cloud of “pre-comets” that is just beyond Pluto and so hasn’t been seen. This cloud (once known of as the “Oort cloud”) would throw off comets periodically into our solar system. The Oort cloud was supposed to be the source of "long-period" comets [comets with a greater than 200 year orbit]
“ There is no evidence that any cloud of cometary material surrounds the solar system—the so-called ‘Ort cloud’. It’s creation in the minds of some was done to preserve the multi-billion year age of the solar system.”
Astrophysics and Space Science
Recently a lot of talk about a "Kuiper Belt" [pronounced "Kiper"], just beyond Neptune has surfaced to explain the short period comets [those with a less than 200 year orbit]. Several hundred objects have been found beyond Neptune that are characteristic of asteroids, but are not consistent with a "pre-cometary" material. Pre-cometary material would need to consist of large ice-sheets, and there would need to be billions of them to account for the large number of comets we see.

Summary: No satisfactory explaination exists in an old earth model to explain the large number of comets we observe. Comets support a young earth model strongly due to their short lifespan.

3) Thickness of “dust” on the moon
Dust influx rates seem to change over time, varying from 14 million+ tons/year, down to 20 or 30,000 tons/year. Either the space dust density is not uniform, or our measurements are not always accurate. At this time, neither side can confidently use this argument, much is simply not known yet. But this does put a time crunch on the old earthers!!!
Creationist’s common argument:
If the moon were billions of years old, it should have accumulated a thick layer of dust from meteoritic bombardment. Before instruments were placed on the moon, scientists were very concerned that astronauts would sink into a sea of dust—possibly a mile in thickness. This did not happen. There is very little space dust on the moon. In fact, after examining the rocks and dust brought back from the moon, it was learned that only about 160th of the one or two inch surface layer came from outer space. Recent measurements of the influx rate of dust on the moon also do not support an old moon.

Current state of the "moon dust" argument:
If dust influx rates average only 20,000 tons/year onto the moon, then the thickness of moon dust we see is consistent with either an old moon, or a young moon.
If the dust influx rates average more than about 100,000 tons/year, then the thickness of moon dust we see is ONLY consistent with a young moon. It is likely that dust influx rates do not average only 20,000 tons/year, nor is it likely that they average as high as 14.3 million tons/year. If the average is inbetween those figures, then only the young moon model fits.

4) The shrinking sun
The Sun is shrinking at a rate of 0.1% per century
Therefore: 1 billion years ago the sun would be so large as to totally engulf the earth and mars, and be half way to Jupiter. And around 4-5 billion years ago, it would have been past Jupiter!

Since 1836, over one hundred different observers at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and the U. S. Naval Observatory have made direct, visual measurements that indicate that the sun’s diameter is shrinking at a rate of about .1% each century or about five feet per hour! Furthermore, records of solar eclipses indicate that this rapid shrinking has been going on for at least the past 400 years. Several indirect techniques also confirm that the sun is shrinking, although these inferred collapse rates are only about 1/7th as much. Using the most conservative data, one must conclude that had the sun existed a million years ago, it would have been so large that it would have heated the earth so much that life could not have survived. Yet, evolutionists say that a million years ago all the present forms of life were essentially as they are now, having completed their evolution that began a billion years ago.

5) The Earth's Magnetic Field
The magnet is thought to be formed by circulating electrical currents in the outer core, which would then decay as any other magnet would. [See Genesis 1:2]
The half-life of decay of the earth’s magnetic field is 1,400 years. The magnetic field has declined by 10% since 1829. The magnetic field is only 1/3 as strong as it was when Jesus walked the earth.
Current magnetic moment is 8.0 x 1022 amp-meter2
3400 AD = 4
4800 AD = 2
6200 AD = 1
7600 AD = 0.5
9000 AD = 0.25
This half-life would mean that 100,000 years ago, the earth’s magnetic field would have been comparable to a neutron star.
In 8,000 years there will effectively be no magnetic field.
A magnetic field protects the earth and its inhabitants from harmful cosmic irradiation.
Old earth advocates claim a perpetual self-exciting “dynamo” mechanism that would continually replenish the magnet exists.

Summary: The old earth model requires a "perpetual motion" self exciting mechanism to sustain our magnet for 4.5 billion years. This is neither logical, nor proven. At this point, the earth's magnetic field and known rate of decay support a young earth.

6) Atmospheric helium
Helium constitutes 0.0005% of the earth's atmosphere.
Helium is produced underneath the surface of the earth by the alpha decay of different radioactive isotopes, including Uranium. This very small, mobile gas migrates through pores in the rock and dirt and escapes into the atmosphere. This rate of introduction into the atmosphere is 13 million helium atoms/square inch/second [or 67 grams/second]. Helium can escape into outer space at a maximum of 0.3 million helium atoms/square inch/second. Dividing the known amount of helium in the atmosphere by this rate of accumulation gives a maximum age of the earth at no more than 2 million years! This assumes that there was no helium in the atmosphere to begin with, and that nothing [like Noah’s flood!!] has disturbed the earth’s surface to cause the Helium to bubble out quicker. The only way to get an old earth out of this measurement of atmospheric helium is to invent unknown ways of Helium escape into outer space, ways that do not exist now.

Helium escape the atmosphere?
To escape our atmosphere, Helium molecules must exceed the "escape velocity", which is 24,200 miles/hour. The average Helium molecule velocity is 5,600 miles/hour. This is why very few Helium molecules escape the atmosphere.

Summary: Considering the amount of radioisotopes in the earth’s surface, and the amount of Helium being produced, then an old earth should have an atmosphere laden with Helium, but it does not. Only a young earth model explains our low helium levels satisfactorily.

7) Salt in the sea
If the oceans began as freshwater, then adding all known input and output mechanisms would result in the present sodium concentration of the oceans accumulating in 32 million years. [of course the oceans would have started with salt already, for the fish, and the flood would have caused a temporary, rapid increase in salt erosion into the oceans, this would take that number down to about 6,000 years]
Salt is added by: erosion, volcanic dust, rivers
Salt is removed by: sea spray, ion exchange, sea water laden sediment, deposition on the floor, etc.

Summary: An earth that is 4.5 billion years old would have much more salt in it. So much as to not be able to support life. Only the young earth model explains the current salt concentration.

8) The receding moon
This argument puts a time crunch on old-earthers!
The current rate that the moon is receding from us [6 inches/year] allows us to calculate backwards in time. 2 billions years ago, it would have been impossible for the moon to orbit the earth because it would have been too close inside the ["Roche limit"]. Read this argument from an old earth perspective....
Old Earth argument: The Receding Moon
"A common argument is that since the Moon is receding from the Earth at a rate approaching 6 inches per year, extrapolating backwards indicates that the Moon would have been inside the Earths Roche limit (and thus destroyed) about 2 billion years ago. Thus the Earth-Moon system cannot have been in existence 2 billion years ago. This is wrong because a uniformitarian application of the recession rate is incorrect. The rate at which the Moon recedes is connected with the tides on the Earth. The gravitations interaction of the Moon with the tides causes the Earths rotation to slow. To conserve the energy of the Earth-Moon system, the excess is transfered to the Moon, pushing it into a higher orbit. The current rate is considered to be high because the spin of the Moon and the tides are thought to be nearly synchronous. In the past, the movement of the continents interrupted this, leading to a much lower rate of recession. Evidence from rythmic tidelites and fossil coral 'clocks' support the view that the number of days in a year was higher in the geological past - in line with a faster spinning Earth then."

DO YOU SEE THAT? THE OLD EARTH ARGUMENT REQUIRES THAT WE PRESUME THAT IN THE PAST, THE MOON DIDN'T RECEDE, BUT MAINTAINED ITS ORBIT.
Logic does not allow us to jump to these conclusions. The conclusions are drawn to maintain an old earth model.

The old earth model is accepted as fact and all observations must be adjusted to fit this belief.

9) Radiometric dating | more on radiometric dating
a. Cosmic rays from the sun strike Nitrogen 14 atoms in the atmosphere and cause them to turn into radioactive Carbon 14, which combines with oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide.
b. Living things are in equilibrium with the atmosphere, and the radioactive carbon dioxide is absorbed and used by plants. The radioactive carbon dioxide gets into the food chain and the carbon cycle.
c. All living things contain a constant ratio of Carbon 14 to Carbon 12. (1 in a trillion).
d. At death, Carbon 14 exchange ceases and any Carbon 14 in the tissues of the organism begins to decay to Nitrogen 14, and is not replenished by new C-14.
e. The change in the Carbon 14 to Carbon 12 ratio is the basis for dating.
f. The half-life is so short (5730 years) that this method can only be used on materials less than 70,000 years old. Archaeological dating uses this method
g. Assumes that the rate of Carbon 14 production (and hence the amount of cosmic rays striking the Earth) has been constant (through the past 70,000 years).
h. Carbon 14 equilibrium should be reached in 30,000 years from the beginning of earth's existence.

Summary: The atmospheric C-14 is presently only 1/3 of the way to an equilibrium value which will be reached in 30,000 years. This demonstrates that the earth is less than 10,000 years old.

10) Stars that are millions of light years away.
God made His creation in a mature state. Adam and Eve were not made as fertilized eggs, but as mature man and woman. Likewise, the rest of His Creation exhibited instant maturity, so that they fulfilled the purpose for their creation. For instance, Gen 1:12 says that trees were made with seed-containing fruit on them. So also, man was made in a state that he would be capable of worshipping God, and working in His Creation. Now with respect to the heavenly lights, Gen 1:15; “Let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth. And it was so.” So it looks here that God made the stars in a state where they would instantly fulfill their created function. The stars were created and their light was instantly upon the earth. There are two ways this could happen: 1) God made the stars, and the light paths at the same time. 2) The speed of light was greater, nearly instant, so that stars that are a billion light years away now, would have been the same distance away, but the light would reach earth in seconds, not billions of years. There is some intriguing scientific evidence in the past couple of hundred years that the speed of light is indeed diminishing…

11) Geology— When you see a fossil or a rock, it doesn’t come with a tag telling how old it is!
The geologic column
Evidence against uniformitarian placement
a) Meteoric dust accumulates on the earth at a rate of 14 million tons per year. If the earth started with
absolutely NO crust at all whatsoever, then the earth could be no more than 1 billion years old
b) surface features of ripple marks, animal tracks and rain drop prints throughout columns everywhere [this also argues against neo-catastrophism]

Mt. St. Helens May 18, 1980
a) rapid formation of a geologic column
b) Polystrate trees
c) rapid formation of coal beds

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