Though I concur with a lot of ICR conclusions, the following exerpt from the above site hits on one of their conclusions which does not fit the literal Genesis one model:
quote:
Since we can measure the present half life we can calculate the age of a sample of an isotope if we also know how much of each isotope was there at the beginning of the process, and that nothing changed during the process that we did not know about. Since we cannot observe the beginning amounts that existed in the distant past, we have to make some assumptions in order to make dating calculations.
Well, they are flat-out wrong, and no-one with a slight acquaintance with radiometric dating would make such a false statement.
The vast majority of radiometric dates use methods for which the initial amount of daughter isotope is known from basic physics (e.g. no significant lead ever appears in a zircon at solidification, acknowledged by the RATE group
1) or the method actually
produces the amount of daughter product at solidification (isochron or Ar-Ar methods). Whether or not the system has been disturbed is also indicated by the vast majority of methods in use today, and some methods (U-Pb concordia-discordia, Ar-Ar) often produce a valid datge even if the system has been disturbed.
Sorry, Buz, your reference is crap. If you are actually interested in the reality of radiometric dating,
Radiometric Dating: A Christian Perspective.
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1HELIUM DIFFUSION RATES SUPPORT ACCELERATED NUCLEAR DECAY:
quote:
Samples 1 through 3 had helium retentions of 58, 27, and 17 percent. The fact that these percentages are high confirms that a large amount of nuclear decay did indeed occur in the zircons. Other evidence strongly supports much nuclear decay having occurred in the past [14, pp. 335-337]. We emphasize this point because many creationists have assumed that "old" radioisotopic ages are merely an artifact of analysis, not really indicating the occurrence of large amounts of nuclear decay. But according to the measured amount of lead physically present in the zircons, approximately 1.5 billion years worth at today’s rates of nuclear decay occurred. Supporting that, sample 1 still retains 58% of all the alpha particles (the helium) that would have been emitted during this decay of uranium and thorium to lead.
{emphasis in original}
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