How Can Schools Teach This Stuff?
The lies our children learn.
Many textbooks today teach that the Earth is around 4.6 billion years old. I used to believe this until I learned more about science and about the methods in which a scientist dates material.
The Earth’s crust is composed of different layers of rock. Reason tells us that the deeper the layer is, the older it is. This may be true, but when you read a science book on how to determine the age of a layer of rock, it usually states, by examining the fossils found in that layer. That would make sense because a dead animal can’t walk on its own, so the layer of earth and the fossil found there must be similar in age.
However, if you skim to the next couple of chapters where the book talks about how to find the age of the fossil, it usually states people can determine the age of the fossil by looking at what layer it’s found in. So from what the book is saying, you can tell the age of the layer of rock by using the fossil, and find the age of the fossil by determining the age of the layer of rock it’s found in. That’s circular reasoning!
Well I did some research and an alternative for determining the age was found. Scientists can determine the age of fossils through the Process of Carbon Dating. To learn more about Carbon Dating, please check this out.
With Carbon Dating, scientists are able to discover the age of fossils. And with the age of fossils, they can find the age of the layer of earth the fossils are found in. Except there is one problem, a Fossil is a completely mineralized object that was once organic. Which means all of the carbon whether it is radioactive or not gets replaced by minerals. So how in the world do scientists find the “age” of fossils? This is why when scientists claim that the Earth is about 4.6 billion years old, they are mistaken because Carbon Dating cannot work on an object if that object has no radioactive carbon to be found! Another thing is, Carbon Dating tends to result in failure if the object is around 50,000 years old or older.
What children are learning in school is flawed but many schools still use science textbooks that teach students that the Earth’s age is 4.6 billion years old. If you happen to find your child learning about the Earth and they happen to come across the section that claims the Earth is 4.6 billion years old, teach them the truth.
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10 Responses to “How Can Schools Teach This Stuff?”
On November 19, 2008 at 1:59 pm
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.” (Exodus 20:16 KJV)
There are several types of radiometric dating other than Carbon dating. Here are some examples:
Samarium-neodymium dating which has accuracy levels of less than twenty million years in two-and-a-half billion years
Potassium-argon dating. Potassium-40 has a half-life of 1.3 billion years, and so this method is applicable to the oldest rocks.
Rubidium-strontium dating. Rubidium has a half-life of 50 BILLION years and this technique is used to date old igneous and metamorphic rocks, and has also been used to date lunar samples.
There are several other techniques which provide a wide variety of useful dating ranges and often many techniques will be employed on the same sample in order to narrow down the dates as much as possible. Radioactive decay rates and the formation of secondary products from that decay are absolutely precise and predictable.
On November 19, 2008 at 2:16 pm
I heard about those types of dating, but I want to know how come it works? Doesn’t the weather affect the rocks? I’m pretty sure a rock won’t stay perfectly fine without being touched by wind, water, or other elements that screws up the element used for dating.
On November 19, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Yo, I get your confusion but afraid you can’t denounce a proved hypothesis without empirical evidence.
In other words: how old IS the Earth, then?
On November 19, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Yes Nay but you can’t prove a hypothesis with flawed evidence either. I don’t need to disprove it when it was based on flawed evidence in the first place. Know what I mean? I’m sorry, I’m not very good with words.
On November 20, 2008 at 5:41 pm
so what? shoould we take out all the school science text? or are you trying to reach pplz that scientist are all liars?
On November 20, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Not at all Ngoc Le! I’m just saying there is a glitch in the system, that doesn’t mean destroy the whole system! Just fix the minor glitch and everything should be fine.
On November 21, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Dallas has a good point. Your arguments are extremely flawed. You should have reconsidered and chose another purpose to base your argument on. Be more careful next time because it may damage your reputation as a writer.
On January 3, 2009 at 1:01 pm
what is the truth we should teach them?
On February 17, 2009 at 6:55 pm
I’m sorry, who are you to tell scientists they are wrong??? Isotopic techniques tend to focus on the millions and billions of years in fossils and rocks, but Carbon dating can only date back to around 40,000-50,000.
On February 22, 2009 at 9:41 pm
thorshammer: I’m not sure myself, I just noticed a fallacy, I myself don’t know how to fix it.
RD: The techniques in which scientist use to measure the age of Earth seems to have a lot of possible problems. I believe that nature, climate, and many other variables affect them.
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