Circular Reasoning, Fossils, and Deep Core Dating

Although purveyors of an old Earth don't cotton to having people know this, but their wayss of determining the age of our planet are based on bad logic and circular reasoning. Data for radiometric dating are cherry picked, and the method is loaded with assumptions. Then we get into the index fossils... 

How old are the rocks?

"Check the index fossils."

Great, so how do we know the ages of the index fossils?

"Because of the rocks they was found in, ya idjit!"

Graphic based on an image from Clker clipart.

And evolutionists wonder why biblical creationists want people to learn critical thinking, reasonable skepticism, and how to spot logical fallacies!

In a like manner, there is an abundance of circular reasoning in deep core drilling, whether in ice or ocean sediments. Sure seem desperate to avoid admitting that the evidence indicates a recently-created young Earth, don't they?

Many Christians are reluctant to accept the Bible’s clear teaching of a recent creation because they believe secular dating methods prove that the earth is extremely old. The apparent agreement between seemingly independent dating methods is seen as a powerful argument for millions of years. But closer inspection reveals that these methods are not truly independent, and the agreement between them is the result of circular reasoning.

. . .

To study past climates, scientists drill and extract cylindrical rods of ice, known as ice cores, from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. These cores can be thousands of meters long, and secular scientists routinely assign ages of hundreds of thousands of years to the deepest ice within these cores. However, creation scientists can plausibly account for the excessive ages assigned to these cores, as past articles have demonstrated.

Likewise, scientists also extract long cores from the ocean floor. These cores are composed of sediments that have settled on the ocean floor over time. Because deep-ocean sediments are so thick, secular scientists assume they were deposited over millions of years. This might seem reasonable since sediments accumulate very slowly today. But there is good reason to suspect that the bulk of these ocean sediments were deposited in the last half of and very shortly after the global Flood of Noah’s day.

To read the entire article in context, click on "Deep Core Dating and Circular Reasoning".