'''Radiometric dating''' is a method of determining the age of an artifact by assuming that on average decay rates have been constant (see below for the flaws in that assumption) and measuring the amount of radioactive decay that has occurred.<ref>[http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/radiometric.html Radiometric Time Scale] USGS</ref> Radiometric dating is mostly used to determine the age of rocks, though a particular form of radiometric dating—called [[Radiocarbon dating]]—can date wood, cloth, skeletons, and other organic material.
Because radiometric dating fails to satisfy standards of testability and [[falsifiability]], claims based on radiometric dating may fail to qualify under the ''[[Daubert]]'' standard for court-admissible scientific evidence. It is more accurate for shorter time periods (e.g., hundreds of years) during which control variables are less likely to change.
== Key implausible assumptions ==
Another assumption is that the rate of decay is constant over long periods of time.
There is no reason to expect that the rate of decay of a radioactive material is largely constant,<ref>At least one example of a change in the rate has been observed in laboratory experiments. See Walker, 2000.</ref> and it was almost certainly not constant near the creation or beginning of the universe.
As early as of 1673, John Ray, an English naturalist, reckoned with alternative that ''"im the primitive times and soon after the Creation the earth suffered far more concussions and mutations in its superficial part than afterward"''.<ref name="Rappaport1997">{{cite book |title=When Geologists Where Historians, 1665-1750 |author=Rhoda Rappaport |publisher=Cornell University Press |place=Ithaca and London |year=1997 |pages=194 |isbn=978-0801-433863 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=30U3W2kI7foC |quote=}}</ref> The process of decay is as follows. Atoms consist of a heavy central core called the [[nucleus]] surrounded by clouds of lightweight particles (electrons), called [[electron shell]]s. The energy locked in the nucleus is enormous, but cannot be released easily. The phenomenon we know as heat is simply the jiggling around of atoms and their components, so in principle a high enough temperature could cause the components of the core to break out. However, the temperature required to do this is in in the millions of degrees, so this cannot be achieved by any natural process that we know about. The second way that a nucleus could be disrupted is by particles striking it. However, the nucleus has a strong positive charge and the electron shells have a strong negative charge. Any incoming negative charge would be deflected by the electron shell and any positive charge that penetrated the electron shells would be deflected by the positive charge of the nucleus itself.
=== Outside influences ===
== Acceptance and reliability ==
Although radiometric dating methods are widely quoted by [[scientists]], they are inappropriate for aging the entire universe due to likely variations in decay rates. Scientists insist that Earth is 4.6 billion years old<ref>hypertextbook.com/facts/1997/MollyMoran.shtml></ref> while the Bible (the infallible word of God<ref>http://www.believers.org/believe/bel191.htm</ref>) suggests that the world to be around 6-10 thousand years old.<ref>http://www.independencebaptist.org/6,000%20year%20old%20earth/6,000_year_old_earth.htm</ref>Because [[Atheism|atheists]] commonly hold the positions of [[Naturalism (philosophy)|naturalism]] and [[uniformitarianism]], many atheists are particularly vocal in claiming that the earth is 4.6 billion years old.
{{QuoteBox|C14 dating was being discussed at a symposium on the prehistory of the Nile Valley. A famous American colleague, Professor Brew, briefly summarized a common attitude among archaeologists towards it, as follows:<br />"If a C14 date supports our theories, we put it in the main text. If it does not entirely contradict them, we put it in a footnote. And if it is completely 'out of date', we just drop it."<br />Few archaeologists who have concerned themselves with absolute chronology are innocent of having sometimes applied this method...<ref>T. Säve-Söderbergh and I. U. Olsson, ‘C14 dating and Egyptian chronology’, in ''Radiocarbon Variations and Absolute Chronology'', Proceedings of the Twelfth Nobel Symposium, Ingrid U. Olsson (editor), Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm, and John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, p. 35, 1970. Quoted in Lamb, 2007.</ref>}}
== Bibliography ==
* Lamb, Andrew, [http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/5026 Carbon dating into the future] 24th 24 March, 2007 (Creation Ministries International).
* Faure, G. and Mensing, T., Isotopes: Principles and Applications, Wiley & Sons, 2005.
* Walker, M., Quarternary Dating Methods, Wiley & Sons, 2005.
==Notes and references==
{{reflist|2}}
==See also==
*[[Literalist Bible chronology]] ''cites examples of radiometric dating results of artifacts which support a literalist dating of Biblical events such as the Exodus in'' 1577 B.C.
[[Category:Earth Sciences]]