Furthermore, different types of plants discriminate differently. That is, they take up less than would be expected and so they test older than they really are. First, plants discriminate against carbon dioxide containing 14C. In fact, if a sample contains 14C, it is good evidence that it is not millions of years old. That is why radiocarbon dating cannot give millions of years. Anything over about 50,000 years old, should theoretically have no detectable 14C left. This is the “half-life.” So, in two half-lives, or 11,460 years, only one-quarter of that in living organisms at present, then it has a theoretical age of 11,460 years. The rate of decay of 14C is such that half of an amount will convert back to 14N in 5,730 years (plus or minus 40 years). It cannot be used to date volcanic rocks, for example. Obviously, this works only for things which were once living. So, we have a “clock” which starts ticking the moment something dies. In other words, the 14C/ 12C ratio gets smaller. However, as soon as a plant or animal dies, the 14C atoms which decay are no longer replaced, so the amount of 14C in that once-living thing decreases as time goes on. In living things, although 14C atoms are constantly changing back to 14N, they are still exchanging carbon with their surroundings, so the mixture remains about the same as in the atmosphere. Because 14C is so well mixed up with 12C, we expect to find that this ratio is the same if we sample a leaf from a tree, or a part of your body. We can take a sample of air, count how many 12C atoms there are for every 14C atom, and calculate the 14C/ 12C ratio. When the 14C has been formed, like ordinary carbon ( 12C), it combines with oxygen to give carbon dioxide ( 14CO 2), and so it also gets cycled through the cells of plants and animals. So a bone, or a leaf or a tree, or even a piece of wooden furniture, contains carbon. Ordinary carbon ( 12C)is found in the carbon dioxide (CO 2) in the air, which is taken up by plants, which in turn are eaten by animals. Unlike common carbon ( 12C), 14C is unstable and slowly decays, changing it back to nitrogen and releasing energy. These displaced neutrons, now moving fast, hit ordinary nitrogen ( 14N) at lower altitudes, converting it into 14C. One rare form has atoms that are 14 times as heavy as hydrogen atoms: carbon-14, or 14C, or radiocarbon.Ĭarbon-14 is made when cosmic rays knock neutrons out of atomic nuclei in the upper atmosphere. Familiar to us as the black substance in charred wood, as diamonds, and the graphite in “lead” pencils, carbon comes in several forms, or isotopes. How the carbon clock worksĬarbon has unique properties that are essential for life on Earth. We will deal with carbon dating first and then with the other dating methods. It makes no sense at all if man appeared at the end of billions of years. This only makes sense with a time-line beginning with the creation week thousands of years ago.

“But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female” ( Mark 10:6). People wonder how millions of years could be squeezed into the biblical account of history.Ĭlearly, such huge time periods cannot be fitted into the Bible without compromising what the Bible says about the goodness of God and the origin of sin, death and suffering-the reason Jesus came into the world (See Six Days? Honestly!).Ĭhristians, by definition, take the statements of Jesus Christ seriously. People who ask about carbon-14 ( 14C) dating usually want to know about the radiometric dating methods that are claimed to give millions and billions of years-carbon dating can only give thousands of years.

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