Dating Systems

The belief that the earth is billions of years old is an essential foundation for the theory of evolution. This belief was introduced to the Christian world by two events: the first was the exploration of the Americas by the European Christians in the late 1500’s and the second was a mysterious “female voice” heard by a brilliant scientist on November 2, 1667.

The carbon-14 method is slightly different from other dating methods. Normal carbon has an atomic weight of 12. Carbon-14 is the unstable form produced by cosmic ray bombardment of nitrogen in the earth's upper atmosphere. The C-14 combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide, which then takes its place in the great carbon cycle. That is, the carbon dioxide becomes the food for plants and trees, and these in turn become food for animals and humans. The net result is that every living thing contains normal carbon (C-12) and some C-14.

From a strictly human standpoint, the claim that the earth is young is just so much double-talk. But the question of whether the earth is billions of years old, or just a couple of thousands of years old, occupies a central place in the creation/evolution debate. For some, it is the question of whether there was time for the impossible to happen - life to arise from non-life. In the mind of the Biblical Christian, however, it is not a question of defeating evolution but of what is true, what does the Bible say?

The Babylonian Calendar. The earliest times for which we have archaeological and historical evidences are those of the Babylonian empire. The Babylonians, or an earlier civilization, celebrated the year as 360 days, that is, the time taken for the Sun to complete its cycle. This is known as the "solar year" but today we understand that the Earth takes 365.2422 days to orbit the Sun. The Babylonians divided the circle into 360 degrees - one degree per day. The Moon's orbit around the Earth takes 29.5 days and orbits the Earth just over 12 times a year.