Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: November 21, 2024, 7:37 am

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Scientific Dating
#1
Scientific Dating
I did not get really deep into chemistry.  I have had more biology classes.  What are all the dating methods scientists use?  I know one is carbon dating which has something to do with the carbon isotopes which is probably the most popular one used in the scientific community. 

How accurate are the different dating methods? 

The reason I ask this is because of the ever changing atmosphere, then how do scientists know how much the isotopes have been affected by the atmosphere and if scientists compare those isotopes of dead things such as fossils or rocks to living things, then would this also allow room for human error. 

The other reason I ask that too is because science has humans involved just like religion does and look at the error that has caused.  No need to get into the religious deal.  I was just making a statement.  Please no comments on thoughts of religion to my questions asked above.  Thanks in advance.
Reply
#2
RE: Scientific Dating
Honestly, I prefer online dating. Angel

But, in answer to your question... Google is your friend.
Thief and assassin for hire. Member in good standing of the Rogues Guild.
Reply
#3
RE: Scientific Dating
(October 19, 2015 at 11:58 pm)SnakeOilWarrior Wrote: Honestly, I prefer online dating. Angel

But, in answer to your question... Google is your friend.

Who doesn't? Can't get busted being a player that way.  Big Grin
Reply
#4
RE: Scientific Dating
Dendrochronology is accurate to 1 year back (IIRC) 7000 years for Europe.

Sorry Bishop Usher . . .
 The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it. 




Reply
#5
RE: Scientific Dating
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.'
Reply
#6
RE: Scientific Dating
Quote:http://www.sciencemeetsreligion.org/evol...dating.php

Of course, C14 dating is useful for only a mere 50,000 years. 

For the age of the earth you need Uranium-Thorium dating which has a far longer half-life.
Reply
#7
RE: Scientific Dating
Carbon dating is not very accurate.
The earth is 6000 years old!
Alright guys! We all cool?

If that's the case, then the wheel was invented about 7 seconds ago....
No God, No fear.
Know God, Know fear.
Reply
#8
RE: Scientific Dating
For the biblical timeline to be true, though, Blondie, the error would literally have to be nominally 100%.

We are talking billions of years here. That's 4.7 thousand thousand thousand years. For them to be so wrong that it's off by 4.699994 billion, the multiple dating methods would have to, like, be colluding with each other to trick us or something.
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great

PM me your email address to join the Slack chat! I'll give you a taco(or five) if you join! --->There's an app and everything!<---
Reply
#9
RE: Scientific Dating
There are different decay pairings used for different timescales and different geological conditions.

A good overview can be found here: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/dating.html

Reply
#10
RE: Scientific Dating
(October 20, 2015 at 12:38 am)SteelCurtain Wrote: For the biblical timeline to be true, though, Blondie, the error would literally have to be nominally 100%.

We are talking billions of years here. That's 4.7 thousand thousand thousand years. For them to be so wrong that it's off by 4.699994 billion, the multiple dating methods would have to, like, be colluding with each other to trick us or something.

... and not just ALL mistaken, but all mistaken at variable rates which just so happen to give the same numbers.

Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Scientific facts that freak me out. Brian37 33 4090 November 9, 2023 at 11:53 pm
Last Post: Gawdzilla Sama
  [split] Radiometric Dating Creatard 92 19020 November 26, 2014 at 8:40 am
Last Post: Cyberman
  Sir Isaac Newton Time life magizines "Greatest scientific thinker of our time" franca 6 6111 October 6, 2012 at 1:48 pm
Last Post: Cyberman
  Research shows radiometric dating still reliable (again) orogenicman 7 3331 November 16, 2010 at 6:14 pm
Last Post: orogenicman
  Radiometric Dating littlegrimlin1 20 10437 November 28, 2009 at 2:20 am
Last Post: littlegrimlin1



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)