Radiometric Dating is often portrayed by Evolution Scientists as absolute proof that rock layers are millions or billions of years old. However, there is no way to prove the age of anything older than recorded history (approx. 5,000 years) for the simple reason that the accuracy of long age dating methods cannot be verified. Nothing is known for a fact to be millions or billions of years old that can be used for testing, so it is not known if long age dating methods give meaningful dates. Nevertheless, most Evolution Scientists put a lot of trust in ancient dates obtained by Radiometric Dating.
For such trust to be justified Radiometric Dating would need to be calibrated for the range in which it is being used. To do that, Radiometric Dating would need to be successfully tested on specimens of known age and of similar age. This obviously cannot be done, so consequently there has never been a single case in which long-age dating methods were proven to be correct. However, there have been several cases in which long-age dating methods were proven to be wrong…
There is a case1 on record in which a drilling rig cut a core of volcanic rock that contained embedded wood. It was apparent that a lava flow encased the wood in lava which then hardened into rock around the wood. Although the ages of the wood and rock are unknown, they must be similar in age.2 Samples of both were age-tested with radiometric dating. There is no radiometric dating method that works on both wood and rock, so the wood was dated with Carbon Dating and the rock was dated with Potassium-Argon dating. The Carbon Dating of the wood yielded an age of roughly 40 thousand years, while the Potassium-Argon dating of the rock yielded an age of roughly 40 million years. This calculates to a 99.9% difference between the two dates. That is a problem for scientists who trust long age dating methods because the difference should have been close to 0%. Obviously, one or both dating methods failed miserably. In the notes below I have included a link to this case, as well as links to additional cases3 that document massive discrepancies between Radiometric Dating methods.
In summary, there has never been a single case in which long-age dating methods were proven to be correct, but there have been several cases in which long-age dating methods were proven to be wrong. Therefore, Evolution Scientists should stop portraying Radiometric Dating as absolute proof that rock layers are millions or billions of years old.
References and Notes for Chapter 13:
1. http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v20/i1/dating.asp
2. Carbon Dating measures how long something has been dead. At the time of burial, the wood could not have been dead for long or it would have rotted away before being encased by the lava. Potassium Argon Dating, which was used to date the rock, measures the amount of time that passes after lava cools enough to harden into rock. Therefore, if both the wood and rock had been dated accurately, they would have yielded similar ages.
3. In addition to the link in (1), here are additional links to cases of conflicting dates by Radiometric Dating:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v21/i3/fossilwood.asp
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v22/i2/geology.asp
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v19/i2/dating.asp
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v20/i4/dogma.asp
https://cdn-assets.answersingenesis.org/doc/articles/pdf-versions/Radiocarbon_Ammonites_Wood.pdf
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