Across the Pastor’s Desk by Kent Otterman

 

One of the areas of debate between creationists and evolutionists is the age of the earth. Prior to the widespread adoption of evolution in the 1800s, much of the Western world believed the Bible to be reliable history and therefore thought that the earth was relatively young, around 6,000 years old or so. However, when the philosophy of evolution was adopted and applied to science, people began to believe that the earth was very old, millions if not billions of years old. After all, it would take a long time for pond scum to change into parrots, porpoises and people. The first 11 chapters of the Bible were then considered to be myth. In this view, which is taught by most seminaries today, theological truth can be taken from these chapters, but the events they record did not actually happen.

However, there is much scientific data that points to a “young” earth. Take carbon-14 for example. Carbon-14 dating can only be done on things that used to be alive. All plants and animals contain carbon, including some carbon-14. As they continue to live, carbon is added to their tissues. After they die, no more carbon is added. Then the unstable carbon-14 begins to decay to nitrogen-14. To determine the age of something, scientists measure the amount of carbon-14 left. Scientists have found that carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,720 years. So after 5,720 years only ½ of the original carbon-14 would be left. After another 5,720 years, one-fourth would be left and so on. Since the carbon-14 keeps decaying, after about 18 divisions (representing about 100,000 years) there is not enough left for a mass spectrometer machine to measure. After about 40 divisions (representing about 220,000 years) there should not be a single atom of carbon-14 left.

For years, Bible-believing scientists have been radiocarbon dating materials such as fossils, coal and diamonds found at various levels in the geological rock layers. Evolution-believing scientists never bother to radiocarbon date such things   because they have been conditioned to believe that the surrounding rock layers are millions of years old. Therefore, in their minds, it is impossible to find any carbon-14 within any of these items.

Yet fossils, coal and diamonds do contain carbon-14. And the amount of carbon-14 left in the samples always seems to fall within the same range — 5 to 12 percent of modern levels. The same 5 to 12 percent level is found regardless of where the sample came from in the rock layers. Thus the very earliest forms of life in the rock layers (assumed to be 500 million years old) have essentially the same amount of carbon-14 as things found in upper rock layers (assumed to be 5 million years old). The means that all the rock layers were laid down during one event because all the life found in these rock layers is essentially the same age!

So what do evolutionists do with this evidence?  Basically, they assume that such carbon-14 is just “background contamination.”  However, what the evidence of measurable levels of carbon-14 in fossils actually reveals is that these layers were laid down a “short” time ago and all at once. When we put on our Biblical glasses, these fossils were laid down about 4,400 years ago in the flood of Noah’s time. The carbon-14 level is so low probably because before the flood less carbon-14 was produced and it was spread through more biomatter.

There is other scientific data that points to a young earth, such as soft tissue found in dinosaur bones, the earth’s rapidly decaying magnetic field and helium found in radioactive rocks. But most people have never heard of these things because this evidence doesn’t fit into the evolutionary philosophy that has been adopted by our culture.

Could it be that the real myth is not the Bible, but molecules-to-man evolution?

Kent Otterman is chaplain of Good Samaritan Society of Albert Lea and pastor of Round Prairie Lutheran Church of rural Glenville and Faith Lutheran Church of London.