Photosynthesis a Billion Years Ago?

Exodus 20:11
“For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

In another Creation Moment, we talked about the complexity of photosynthesis and how the process could not have evolved by chance. Evolutionary scientists like to point to what they refer to as simple systems from which more complex systems might have evolved, and so a recent scientific article discusses the earliest known organisms that use photosynthesis. Evolutionists assume that more complex plants could have evolved from single-celled algae, many of which use photosynthesis.

In order to confirm their belief, the scientists from McGill University examined micro-fossils of an algae called bangiomorpha pubescens, found on Baffin Island. They assigned the rock containing these fossils an age of 1.047 billion years. This was achieved using Rhenium-Osmium dating.

The popular article that reported this stated that the Re-Os dating was done on the sedimentary layer in which the fossils were found. This, of course, is not possible, but the original academic article correctly states that the dating was done on adjacent layers.

Re-Os dating works by the beta (β) decay of ¹⁸⁷Re. Half of the rhenium decays in a given period, known as the half-life (t_½). The half-life has been measured at 42Ga. Given that the half-life should not change, if we know the initial quantity of Re, and the current measured quantity of Os, we should be able to calculate the age of the rock. Unfortunately, the half-life of Re is notoriously difficult to measure, and is subject to great uncertainty. One published measurement was just 33 years – a billion times smaller than the accepted value.

The Bible gives us a better, authoritative method of measuring age.

Prayer: The world will try to believe anything, Lord, rather than accepting Your word. Help those of us who believe in Your name to stick tight to the word that You revealed. Amen.

Ref: McGill University. (2017, December 20). Origins of photosynthesis in plants dated to 1.25 billion years ago: Maybe the ‘Boring Billion’ wasn’t so boring, after all. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 27, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171220122032.htm. Image: Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.5 Generic.