I don't know about carbon dating being popular so much as a dating tool for a specific set of circumstances. It has its limitations, which are known and understood by those in the field. As long as no-one's doing the radiometric equivalent of using a calendar to time an egg, everything works. The other point you raised, human error, can be cancelled out as much as possible by measuring a range of samples, in different labs, and seeing if they agree with each other. Science is rather more than just one bloke in a labcoat getting everyone to agree with his latest idea.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
