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Carbon-14 and Genesis - Chapters 6-9
Dr. Gary Parker
From Confident Living, 3/87
When Libby proposed the carbon-14 dating method back in the '50's, he assumed that carbon-14 must be in balance since, in his "unbiased" evolutionary opinion, "everyone knew" the earth was older than 30,000 years. His assumption was dead wrong!
The atmospheric scientists knew it then, and all informed scientists know it now. The "atmospheric barrel" is only about one-third of the way to its carbon-14 balance point. On the face of it, there's only about enough carbon-14 in our atmosphere for an earth about 10,000 years old.
One scientist who knows that well is William Stansfield, In college-level textbook written by an evolutionist for evolutionists (The Science of Evolution, Macmillian, 1977, pp. 80-84), Stansfield points out that creationists are right about the facts: Carbon-14 is out of balance. He goes a step further and admits that one logical interpretation of the data would be an earth less than 20,000 years old. He even goes on to say, in a truly inspirational display of academic freedom and scientist honesty, that creationists submit evidences (he describes about a dozen) that can be used as scientific support for a young earth.
But Stansfield is an evolutionist who believes in an old earth. So he offers this answer to the carbon-14 argument for a young earth: "It is possible that a greater concentration of water vapor existed prior to the Biblical flood (presumably 5,000 years ago)."
Wow! Now there's an evolutionist argument a biblical creationist can live with! Stansfield's reference to a greater concentration of water vapor may remind you of the vapor canopy concept creationists have built by inference from Gen. 2:7 and the fossil data related to past climate. His dating for the biblical flood is better than many theologians, it seems to me, and he even uses a capital "B" for biblical too!
So there you have it. If the interpretation of carbon-14 data is to be based on a scientific respect for logic and observation, then either the earth is young, or the more likely, our atmosphere was radically upset by the catastrophic biblical flood 5,000 years ago!
If evolutionists can see such evidence so clearly, surely Christians should be encouraged to take God at His Word–His every word!