Tässä kirjassa John Woodmorappe (M.A., Geology) kumoaa noin 120
evolutionistien väitettä ajoitusmenetelmistä. Itse hän esittelee kirjan
näin (sivu vii):
"Isotopic (radiometric) dating is the cornerstone of the
uniformitarian belief that the earth is very old. There
seems to be no end to the dogmatic claims which are
incessantly repeated in favor of these dating methods.
Both the humanists and their compromising, evangelical
devotees have, with no small amount of intellectual
arrogance, attempted to hammer home the absolute
factuality of the dates derived from these methods - all
the while ignoring and belittling the fatal flaws inherent
in them.
The present author did an extensive critique of isotopic
dating, and this study was published in the September 1979
issue of the Creation Research Society Quarterly, and then
reprinted in my 1993 (and 1999, 2nd edition) book Studies
in Flood Geology. While scientific creationists have done
individual studies on the isotopic dating methods in recent
years, no one has performed an overall review of isotopic
dating. This particular book accomplishes just that, while
offering a broad-based, yet incisive, rebuttal to the status
of these presumed geochronometers.
Much has changed in isotopic dating in the last 20
years, but, as shown throughout this book, these
"advances" actually serve to highlight the invalidity of
these dating methods. In addition, a wealth of silly
arguments have been advanced by apologists for isotopic
dating. I address the various bogus claims based on the
alleged rarity of discrepant dates, the imagined
self-checking properties of these dating methods, the
supposed discrediting of the Gospel by questioning the
old earth, ostensible "conspiracies" to fabricate
agreement on "good" dates, alleged "younging up"
trends in isotopic dates, alleged mutual corroboration
of biostratigraphic/magnetostratigraphic/isotopic-dating
information, concordances between different dating
methods, and much more. I also delve into the question
of the measurements of decay constants, the alleged
convergence of dating results at 4.5 billion years for the
age of the earth, and the questionable significance of
extinct radioactivity.
There are now several isochron-based methods of
isotopic dating in widespread use. Because of the fact
that the principles (and fallacies) of the isochron-based
methods are essentially the same, I discuss all of these
methods in a single chapter. This includes an exposé of
some little-known fatal flaws pertinent to all of these
methods.
The Ar-Ar method has been widely touted for its
presumed ability to distinguish valid vs. invalid dates
by analytic criteria alone. I devote an entire chapter
demonstrating how widespread acceptance of this
method has actually forced its users to abandon such
rosy claims. Likewise, the U-Pb method has been
revolutionized by the dating of individual zircon grains,
inadvertently betraying the composite "ages" of most
zircons.
Finally, I tackle the question of how often results of
different dating methods can agree by chance. A variety
of simple analyses using random numbers clearly shows
that fortuitous concordances are not at all
unlikely."
Sisällysluettelo:
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
1. Rebuttal to Critics’ Misrepresentations of my Previous Work . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Overview of this New Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Bogus Arguments for the Overall Validity of Isotopic Dating Methods . . . . 7
A. Geologic Implications of Dating Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
B. On "Conspiracies" and Data Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
C. "Stratigraphic Trends" in Isotopic Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
D. "Dating Consensus" on Earth’s 4.5 Ga Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4. "Malfunctioning Watches:" False Claims about the Rarity of Discrepant Dates 27
A. Assessing the Frequency of Dates not Accepted as the Age of the Rock . 27
B. "Rigorous Testing" of Geochronometric Systems: Past and Present . . . . . 33
5. "Reliability Criteria:" Are Isotopic Systems Truly Self-Checking? . . . . . . . 37
A. "Self Checking:" Proved or Assumed? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
B. Credible/Non-Credible Dates: A Real or Contrived Dichotomy? . . . . . .
42
C. Arguments Based on Consistency and Concordance of Dating Results . . 49
D. "Mutually Corroborated" Biostratigraphic, Magnetostratigraphic
and Geochronometric Systems . . . 54
E. Do High "Closure Temperatures" Accredit Prolonged Closed Systems? . . 57
6. Isochron Methods (Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd, Lu-Hf, Re-Os, Pb-Pb, and Some K-Ar) . . 61
A. Analytic Data and the Collinearity of Points on Isochron Plots . . . . . . . . . 61
B. The "Inherent Geologic Reliability" of Isochron Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
C. "Distinctions" Between "True" and Non-Chronometric Isochrons . . . . . . . 70
7. The 40Ar/39Ar Method and its Imagined Diagnostic Properties . . . . . . . . . . 73
8. Single-Grain U-Pb Dating of Zircons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
9. How Often do Dating Methods Agree by Chance? An Exploratory Study . . . 87
10. Future Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
11. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Study Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Myös omistuskirjoitus (sivu iv) antaa ajattelemisen aihetta:
"This work is dedicated to the memory of Robert Witter
who, while in the process of researching isotopic dating in graduate
school and courageously writing about its fatal flaws, was forced to
endure open discrimination for doing so. May his rewards in Heaven
be great."