YoursTrue
Faith-confidence in what we hope for (Hebrews 11)
(This post is longer than I like, but anyway, here goes)Well, there are many different dating methods. For example, the details of fission tracking dating will be different than the details of C14 dating. Also, different labs will have slightly different procedures, but will give results based on the processes they use.
All are limited to some extent by our technology and the cost. In general, more precision is more costly.
So, for example, it is impossible to count each atom of C14 in a macroscopic sample individually. That is simply beyond what we can do at this point. But we *can* do a chemical analysis and find that the amount of C14 in our atmosphere today is about one C14 atom for every 754 billion carbon atoms. For older samples, the number of C14 atoms left is even smaller. So we are looking at levels of parts per trillion or less.
In fact, for each 5700 years, the amount of C14 is cut in half. After 11400 years, it is cut into a quarter of the original, etc. The sheer difficulty of determining the number of C14 atoms is part of why dates over 50,000 years are unreliable.
The fact that the number of C14 atoms is so small in samples to be dated is one reason why contamination is so important to avoid: even a small amount of modern C14 can overwhelm the amount in a sample, giving a falsely young result.
Different labs will use slightly different procedures: use different cleaning techniques, different extraction techniques, etc. Each lab will then give results based on the methods they used along with error bars: how much uncertainty is there in the results. Recall that ALL measurements have some sort of error bars along with them.
Usually, a sample is sent to a lab. The collection of the sample is the responsibility of the researcher. After the sample is sent to the lab, it is the responsibility of the lab. The research papers will usually say which methods were used in sampling and often say which lab was used to get the results. You can then go to the lab to learn their specific procedures.
The reason there is not much discussion *today* is that this was all debated out long ago. So, for C14 dating, most of the work to learn the necessary processes was done in the 1950's. The discovery that concentrations in the atmosphere can vary was a bit later, with the standard calibration results done by the mid 1980's.
Frankly, I find is somewhat disingenuous for you to ask for details like this given that you aren't going to put the time and energy into learning what needs to be learned in order to understand them. If you consider the *basics* that all things are made of atoms and that radioactivity is a change in the nucleus,
I appreciate your answer--BUT--it's not only the dating method I question. Because lots of stuff gets into whatever is being dated. Like I don't think one can really know what happened to that item that's being tested for age. Silt, flooding, rock erosion, corruption of the item itself and more. I recently read that the charcoal was analyzed insofar as figuring how old the tools or writings found in a cave. Can't remember where I read that, but it makes sense although I can't see how an accurate timetable for the humans involved would be drawn from that.
I understand that a 1/2 life estimate has to be given for one dating process, and that is, I hate to say, somewhat reliant on guesswork. I have a lot of things to do but I will try again to go over the dating processes.
I would like to say that I believe the earth is very, very old, not having been created in a 24-hour day period(s).
I do not consider humans animals, and the Bible says animals were created before humans. I know there's a belief that humans are apes. I do not believe that is categorically correct, but that is because my idea about humans and apes really comes from the Bible's description.
So that is my belief about the age of mankind because I believe the Bible's narrative although I cannot explain all of it, that's for sure.
Human dating is my main concern. I know scientists may assert that they found bones or tools of humans of some sort (however they name them--hominids, Neanderthals, Denisovans, saying who knows how old as if they were humans types or precursors of "homo sapiens." There's still a lot of connection with the Biblical narrative as to where Adam and Eve were created that coincides with discoveries of what is considered human remains but since I don't believe humans in the form of what we are now were alive 200-300,000 years ago, I won't go any further with this now. And because I have so many questions about the dating process and categorizing I guess you're right in that it would be a daunting endeavor to look into the statements made by scientists. From the reports I've seen, few cite the dating process used and what they based their dates on.
Again, I do thank you very much for your kindness in your response and I'll stop here, I don't like long posts anyway. So thank you. I'll try to get back to this.