Young earth evidence



Young earth evidence consists of observations that support a belief in a "young" earth (i.e., recent creation) that is only thousands of years old more easily than belief in an "old" earth that is billions of years old. Such evidence may be found in logical arguments regarding scientific data, historical documents, or some combination of the two.

Age is an effect of time, not an intrinsic property of matter. The only way to indirectly determine the age of an artifact is through comparative analysis against a similar artifact of known age. But how can we know the age of this second artifact? The only means to absolutely know the age of anything is through a "birth certificate", that is an eyewitness who saw it happen and documented the event for later examination. Otherwise, age is only a human perception through comparative analysis, not a property of matter itself.

Some forms of evidence simply place an upper limit on the age of the Earth, solar system, or universe, which is inconsistent with "deep time". For example, Steven Austin's and Russell Humphreys' argument based on the amount of salt in the ocean is designed to show the maximum possible age of the oceans based on uniformitarian assumptions, and thus shows that the oceans could not be as old as claimed. The argument is not designed to show the actual age of the oceans, so the resulting "age", although far too great for the young Earth view, is not inconsistent with it. Other evidence more directly verifies the Biblical chronology, which has its basis primarily in genealogies (such as the one in ), the lengths of reign of various kings, and the lengths of two key intervals in the history of the people of Israel.

Geomagnetic field decay

 * Main Article: Geomagnetic field decay

Dr. Thomas G. Barnes, a physics teacher at the University of Texas, has authored a widely used college textbook on electricity and magnetism. His examination of the data of 135 years shows that the earth's magnetic field is decaying exponentially, according to a decay law similar to that observed in radioactive decay.

In 1835 the German physicist Karl Friedrich Gauss made the first measurement of the earth’s magnetic dipole moment. Additional evaluations have been carried out every decade or so since then. Since 1835, global magnetism has decreased 14 percent. The record of measurements from 1835 to 1965 shows a magnetic half-life of. Thus even 7,000 years ago, the earth would have had a magnetic field 32 times stronger than it now has. 20,000 years ago, this field would have generated enough Joule heat to liquefy the earth. One million years ago the earth would have had greater magnetism than all objects in the universe, and would have vaporized. Thus the earth could not be over 6,000 or 7,000 years old. The over-all intensity of the field is declining at a rate of 26 nanoteslas per year...If the rate of decline were to continue steadily, the field strength would reach zero in 1,200 years. In the next two millennia, if the present rate of decay is sustained, the dipole component of the [earth’s magnetic] field should reach zero.

This magnetic decay process is not a local process, such as one would find in uranium, but is global. It has been accurately measured for over 150 years, and is not subject to environmental changes since it is generated deep in the earth’s interior. If any fundamental planetary process ought to be a reliable indicator of the earth’s age, it should be our earth’s magnetic field–and that field indicates an upper limit significantly less than 10,000 years for the age of the earth.

Pleochroic halos

 * Main Article: Pleochroic halos

Radioactive inclusions in rock often cause concentric spheres of discoloration due to the damage caused by alpha particles as they are emitted by the radioactive substance. Pleochroic halos are the scars of radioactive decay, particularly alpha decay. These scars appear as spheres (rings when views in cross-section) in the rock surrounding a crystal rich with decaying radioactive atoms. The size of the halo is a signature of the energy of the emission and therefore the element and isotope involved. Creationists use these halos in several ways to suggest problems with the standard uniformitarian model.

Zircon Elemental Ratios
This and the next discovery were made by R. V. Gentry; both are discussed in detail in chapter 3, Origin of the Earth, and in his book, Nature’s Tiny Mystery.

Zircon lead ratios
Zircon crystals were taken in core samples from five levels of a 15,000-foot (45,720 dm) shaft in New Mexico, with temperatures always above 313 °C (595.4 °F). The sea-level boiling point of water is, of course, defined at 100 °C.

Radiogenic lead gradually diffuses out of zircon crystals, and does so more rapidly at increased temperatures. But careful examination revealed that essentially none of the radiogenic lead had diffused out of the examined zircon samples.

Zircon helium ratios

 * Main Article: Helium diffusion

Uranium and thorium are subject to alpha decay, i.e. they emit alpha particles, which are actually nuclei of helium. Analysis of the helium content of those same zircon samples revealed strikingly high helium retention in those crystals. The helium should have diffused out of the zircon samples even more rapidly than the lead would have, if the earth were more than several thousands of years old. Thus if the zircons were really 1.5 billion years old, as conventionally assumed, then nearly all the helium should have dissipated from the samples. Furthermore, accelerated decay appears to have produced a billion years worth of helium within not more than 6000 years, give or take 2000.

Helioseismology

 * Main Article: Helioseismology

The core of the sun produces deuterium from hydrogen fusion at 5 million degrees K. The heat is transferred from the core by convection currents so it could reach surface in days, not a million years. It also leads to an age for the sun based on the deuterium/hydrogen ratio of the local interstellar medium of 6,000-12,857 years.

Faint Young Sun

 * Main Article: Young solar system evidence

The Earth's crust has recorded the presence of water since the earliest days of Earth's existence. Likewise, the early Earth needed liquid water for life to form, but this would not be available to the Earth if the standard model of a faint-young-Sun is true. The "faint young Sun" is the presupposition that the early Sun had to be quite faint and substantially lacking in enough radiant strength to melt water-ice on the Earth (into liquid water for life to form).

Carbon 14 in Diamonds and Strata

 * Main Article: Carbon-14 dating

The RATE Group from Institute for Creation Research performed extensive tests with diamonds to detect measurable levels of carbon 14. As a carbon-based substance, diamonds are a perfect candidate to contain the isotope. As the world's hardest natural substance, a diamond is not subject to contamination/adulteration from external sources over time as may be the case with softer substances. As one of the oldest substances on Earth, diamonds should not contain any measurable Carbon-14.

The RATE group detected measurable Carbon-14 in diamonds. The opponents of this assertion attempted to show that other isotopes such as Uranium could cause the spontaneous formation of Carbon-14. The samples in this case were sufficiently isolated and their context documented such that no such evidence of other isotopes ever existed in the near-term since the purported formulation of the detected Carbon-14.

The same is true, however, for strata. In general the strata ostensibly laid down by gradual processes should have carbon-14 measurements increasing as the samples rise through the surface. No detectable carbon-14 should be in lower strata (generally speaking, owing to water percolation and the like). Pervasively however, carbon-14 measurements are inconsistent with the notion of gradual deposition of strata and as a rule have inconsistent measurements throughout the rock layers.

Accelerated Nuclear Decay

 * Main Article: Accelerated Nuclear Decay

The main assumption of radiometric dating is that the decay rates are constant with time. If the decay rate has varied significantly over time then any date based on radioactive decay is worthless. However, if radioactive decay has been happening for Billions of years then there is insufficient argon diffusion, insufficient lead diffusion, insufficient helium in the air, and too much Helium in Rocks. Recent experiments commissioned by the RATE group indicate that "1.5 billion years" worth of nuclear decay has taken place, but in one or more short periods 4000 - 8000 years ago. This would shrink the alleged 4.5 billion year radioisotope age of the earth to only a few thousand years.

The ability for electromagnetic waves to accelerate decay is experimentally known and mature area of scientific study.

Researchers have also noted that solar flares measurably affect nuclear decay rates. Such events are common and intermittent, effectively nullifying nuclear decay as a valid means of determining age. Another study shows that nuclear decay is affected by the Earth's proximity to the Sun because the Earth's orbit is slightly elliptical and passes nearer the Sun once per year. This also throws-off the "constant" rate of nuclear decay required for deep-time extrapolation with nuclear clocks.

The Sun's magnetic field is declining in strength. This field the foundation of the heliopause, the boundary of the heliosphere which keeps cosmic radiation at bay. This decline naturally leads to an increase of cosmic radiation on the Earth. Cosmic radiation is what produces carbon-14 and can generally affect the rate of nuclear decay. While some have suggested that the rate-change necessary to deliver a 6000-year-old earth would be very dramatic, this ignores the fact that all nuclear clocks have been steadily accelerating over the entire duration of Earth's history. If nuclear clocks ran very slow in the beginning and accelerated as years passed by, this throws-off every known nuclear clock and invalidates every old-age assertion that is based on nuclear decay, regardless of whether it supports a very-young age of the earth. If methods are invalid, they should be replaced with valid methods.

Lunar samples
Project Apollo is the most successful and extensive sample-return project to date. Six two-man teams landed on the moon and returned various samples. The project was curtailed before it could achieve its ultimate objectives, after many began to question the value of repeated sample collections and the other stated mission objectives.

However, two rather striking findings from the study of these samples are seldom mentioned.

Short-lived isotopes
One of these findings is the presence in those samples of the short-lived isotopes Uranium-236 and Thorium-230. Short-term radioactive isotopes decay quickly into lead. If the moon were even 50,000 years old, these short-lived radioisotopes would not be present, but indeed they are abundant in the collected samples. The moon therefore cannot be older than several thousand years.

Paleomagnetic signatures
In addition, many of the lunar samples were magnetic. This in itself is remarkable, because the magnetic dipole moment of the moon is very low. Magnetic lunar samples are of two types: basalt and breccia. A magnetic basalt sample returned by the crew of Apollo 16 had formed in a magnetic field of flux density 0.12 mT, corresponding to a magnetic dipole moment of 6.3 * 1021N-m/T. A magnetic breccia sample returned by the crew of Apollo 15 had formed in a field of flux density 2100 nT, corresponding to a magnetic dipole moment of 1.1 * 1020N-m/T.

The problem for old-earth theories is evident and considerable. How could the moon have had a magnetic field as strong as it must have been when either of the two lunar samples formed, and not have nearly as strong a magnetic field today? By uniformitarian theories, any celestial body either has a magnetic field or it doesn't&mdash;and if it doesn't, then it never did. And so, while some evolutionist scientists insist that the moon had an internal dynamo that later ran down (and cannot explain how that happened), others insist that the moon never had a dynamo, and never had a magnetic field, and therefore the magnetism in the two lunar samples resulted from a magnetic field outside the moon (and, like the first group, cannot explain where this external field came from or where it went).

Russell Humphreys calculates that the moon's magnetic dipole moment at creation was, with a half-life of. Given that the radius of the lunar core is 350 km, the conductivity of the lunar core is 75 percent of that of the Earth's core. Thus the earth and the moon could have cores of similar composition. He then suggests that the basalt, a remnant of the lava flows that created the lunar maria, formed about 370 years after creation, and that the moon then suffered a meteoric bombardment less than two centuries following the global flood.

Meteorites
Meteors of various types fall to earth continually; some reach the surface and are then called meteorites. Nearly all the rocky bodies in the solar system have suffered similar bombardment, which according to uniformitarian theories occurred at least 3.5 billion years ago. Yet all the meteorites discovered on earth, without exception, are present in the most superficial stratum. No meteorites have ever been found in the deeper ("older") sedimentary strata. This finding shows that the sedimentary strata were laid down rather quickly and far more recently than is conventionally supposed.No meteorites have ever been found in the geologic column.

Isaac Asimov has propounded a theory that "crustal mixing" has removed all trace of the meteorites. But the constituent elements, especially nickel, from those meteorites should still be present and would not have been removed. The lack of nickel bears further witness against this theory. For many years, I have searched for meteorites or meteoric material in sedimentary rocks [the geological strata]. . I have interviewed the late Dr. G.P. Merrill, of the U.S. National Museum, and Dr. G.T. Prior, of the British Natural History Museum, both well-known students of meteorites, and neither man knew of a single occurrence of a meteorite in sedimentary rocks.

Earth's Rotation
The rotational speed of the earth (about ) is gradually slowing down on account of the gravitational drag forces of the sun and moon along with other factors. If the earth were really billions of years old, as claimed, it should already be in tidal lock with the sun.

Lord Kelvin (the 19th-century physicist who introduced the Kelvin temperature scale) used this slowing rotation as a reason why the earth could not be very old. He calculated that had the earth existed for 7.2 billion years, its rotational speed would have been twice the present speed. This would have produced a difference of 86 kilometers between the equatorial and polar radii of the earth. The actual equatorial radius is, and its polar radius , a difference of 21 km, not 86.

The decline in rotation rate is now known to be greater than previously thought. If the earth had existed for 5 billion years, then the difference between polar and equatorial radii would still have been significantly greater (64 km) than it actually is. Furthermore, the continents would have been distributed in the tropical regions, and the world's oceans would have collected in the temperate and polar regions. This is a distribution that Kelvin also would have predicted, and he cited the lack of such a finding as a falsification of a great age of the earth. Thus by either Lord Kelvin's original calculation or a more modern one, the earth cannot be more than a few thousand years old.

Ocean Salt Levels

 * Main Article: Ocean salinity

The accumulated salt in the world's oceans provides a maximum age of the Earth far below 4.6 billion years of age. Sodium ions from weathered minerals is carried to the oceans from rivers and other sources. It has been reliably estimated that 457 million tons of this sodium is added to the oceans annually by river drainage. Sodium also leaves the ocean via salt spray and ion exchange in a measured amount. If these rates were consistent throughout the past, then salt accumulation can be used to measure the ocean's age. It is apparent that the oceans have not yet reached equilibrium. Instead, they keep getting saltier every year. Sodium input and output rates can be used to estimate an Earth's oceans age of only 40 to 60 million years. It should be noted that ocean salt levels are not meant to show the actual age of the oceans, so the resulting "age", although far too great for the young Earth view, is not inconsistent with it.

Soil/Water Ratio
The soil beneath our feet is still in a partially water-soaked condition that dates from the global flood. This is shown by water table levels, which today are rapidly draining.

Sea Ooze
As fish and plants in the ocean die, they drop to the bottom and gradually form an ooze, or very soft mud, that is built up on the ocean floors. This occurs at the rate of about 1 inch (2.54 cm) every 1,500 years. This ooze is far more shallow than it would be if the earth were as old as is conventionally claimed.

Tree Rings
The giant sequoias of California have no known enemies except man. They are not subject to attack by any known insect pest and are nearly impervious to fire. These giant redwoods appear to be the original trees that existed in their timber stands. Sequoia gigantea, in their groves in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, never have any dead trees ("snags") among them. Yet no sequoia has ever been found to be older than about 4,000 years.

History and civilizations

 * For a non-exhaustive list of young Earth evidences in history, see Historical evidences for a young Earth

No truly verified archaeological datings predate about 3000 BC. When larger dates are cited, they come from radiocarbon dating, from methods other than written human records, or from Manetho's Egyptian king-list, which is highly suspect.

Indeed, modern Egyptian chronology now shows that ancient Egypt most likely has existed only since the global flood, and does not predate the flood. The suspicion that Egyptian civilization was older than the flood was one of the key causes of the initial decline in the acceptance of flood geology and the rise of uniformitarianism.

The finding of out-of-place artifacts provide confirmation, not so much of a young earth per se as of an advanced antediluvian civilization that might have existed before the global flood and was destroyed by it.

Population Growth
A present-day observation for human population growth is to double every seventy (70) years. Currently the Earth's population produces some 74 million people per day.

Using uniformitarian assumptions, that present-day processes may be extrapolated into the past, if we cut the world's population in half (as of 2-20-2014 around 7 billion people) each time we subtract 70 years, we will reach a population of zero in a few thousand years. If we were to double this value to 140 years, and halve the world's population every 140 years going into the past, we still end up at zero population within a few thousand years. In fact, starting with today's population to reach a population of 1 million just 1 million years ago, means that the population could only double every seven-thousand years which makes no sense whatsoever. Clearly the present-day observations cannot be reconciled with an old-earth.

Cultural Growth
Secularists claim that in order for evolution to gain a genetic foothold for increasing human functionality, at least one million new individuals per year are required. This means one billion people every thousand years. Going backwards into the past, at just 100,000 years (1/20th of the time that secularists claim humans have been on the Earth) would yield 100 billion people.

The logical question to ask: Where are all the bodies? Where is the evidence of their culture? Realistically speaking, every square mile of the Earth's habitable surface should be a graveyard many times over. A reasonable assumption is that we don't see the evidence of their culture because they were never here. Mankind has not been on the Earth for very long at all.

Cultural Explosion
Historians and archaeologists readily recognize the "Cultural Explosion" that occurred in Mesopotamia some 5000 years ago. In a very short period of time, civilization saw the advent of arts, metallurgy, war weapons, fashion, furniture, language, writing, mathematics, science, architecture, music, large-scale construction and many other aspects of human culture.

Either we are led to believe that all these millions of "evolved" humans simply walked around "waiting for a cultural traffic light to change" or the simpler explanation: that this explosion naturally followed the proliferation of humans as they departed the Ark on Ararat and moved toward Shinar and Babel (Babylon) in Mesopotamia, what is modern-day Iraq. In Genesis Chapter 10 is the Table of Nations. Each nation mentioned in the table can be traced down to a modern-day country, and it is considered to be one of the most accurate records of the ancient world.

In 1964, the city of Ebla was discovered, including a library of over 17,000 clay tablets. Ebla dates back to before 2000 BC and was a thriving cultural center. Its records contain references to Sodom and Gomorrah.

Articles

 * Many Earth Clocks Indicate Recent Creation by the Institute for Creation Research
 * Age of the earth -101 evidences for a young earth and universe by Creation Ministries International
 * How old is the earth? First published in Refuting Evolution, Chapter 8 by Dr. Jonathan Sarfati.
 * Evolution Handbook, Chapter 4: The Age of the Earth
 * Young age of the Earth & Universe Q&A by Answers in Genesis
 * Young age of the Earth & Universe Q&A by Creation Ministries International
 * Humphreys, R., Evidence for a Young World, ICR Impact No. 384, June 2005.
 * Evidence Supporting a Recent Creation by the Northwest Creation Network

Books

 * Virtually any book concerning creation and Christian apologetics published by MasterBooks

Movies

 * Is Genesis History? (2017)

Témoignements pour une jeune terre Evidência de uma Terra jovem