The Mythology of Modern Dating Methods

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."



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