The Earth is Young

Note that part of the arguments that I will present in this round are taken from the team debate that we unfortunately could not finish. The arguments that I will present are the ones that I wrote. I will also present a few new arguments that are not from the debate. Note that I had an issue putting images into my debate. I linked it to the photo album where necessary. Argument 1: Radiometric dating According to scientific estimates, the Earth is roughly 4.5-4.6 billion years old. How do they come to such a conclusion and under what basis do they make this claim? One of the ways to test this is through radiometric dating. Radiometric dating is a technique that is used to date material such as rocks or carbon by the decay in the radioactive elements. There are over 40 elements that are used for radiometric dating [1]. Figure 2-1 (. http://bit.ly...) gives a good diagram of how radiometric dating works [2]. The mathematical expression that relates radioactive decay to geologic time is D = D0 + N(t) (eλt − 1) where t is age of the sample, D is number of atoms of the daughter isotope in the sample, D0 is number of atoms of the daughter isotope in the original composition, N is number of atoms of the parent isotope in the sample at time t (the present), given by N(t) = Noe-λt, and λ is the decay constant of the parent isotope, equal to the inverse of the radioactive half-life of the parent isotope times the natural logarithm of 2. [2] So, how do we know that these dating methods are reliable? For one, scientists have tested radiometric dating against the historical record. If the dating techniques match up to what we know the age is, then we make a good case for the reliability of such a method. Mt. Vesuvius erupted in the early afternoon on August 24, 79 C. E. In 1997, scientists from the Berkeley Geochronology Center and University of Naples wanted to test the 40Ar/39Ar method of radiometric dating to see if it could accurately measure the age of this very young volcanic material. Incremental heating experiments on 12 samples of sanidine yielded 46 data points that resulted in an isochron age of 1925 94 years. The actual age of the flow in 1997 was 1918 years. This is only a 7 year deviation from the actual date of the material [3] Based on the oldest known zinc, radiometric dating has found the Earth to be at least 4.3 billion years old [4]. Furthermore, dating ancient meteorite impact showed the Earth to be around 4.5 billion years old: “The ages measured for Earth's oldest rocks and oldest crystals show that the Earth is at least 4.3 billion years in age but do not reveal the exact age of Earth's formation. The best age for the Earth (4.54 Ga) is based on old, presumed single-stage leads coupled with the Pb ratios in troilite from iron meteorites, specifically the Canyon Diablo meteorite. ” [5]. Argument 2: Things older than 10,000 years old It is incumbent on the affirmative to prove that the Earth is younger than ~10,000 years old. Thus, if we can show that there are objects and items on the Earth that are older than 10,000 years old, we negate that part of the resolution. Although it would not fulfill our burden to show the Earth is ~4 billion years old, it will add a much stronger case for our side. Example 1: Oldest DesertThe oldest desert on Earth is the Nambid Desert, a desert located in Africa. It is estimated to be 55 million years old [6]. Example 2: Oldest fossilThe oldest known fossils, and most likely the oldest known life form on the planet, dates back to 3.4 billion years. [7]Example 3: An AxeRecently, an axe ws found that dates back to 45,000 years. According to NatGeo [8]:"The team’s geologists dated the youngest of the terraces associated with the hand axes to at least 45,000 years ago using radiocarbon dating, and they estimated the oldest terrace with stone tools to be at least 130,000 years ago. " Conclusion In order for Pro to effectively refute my case and affirm his own resolution, he must show why we must reject the scientific evidence for radiometric dating and also account for the history that we see that suggests a much older date for the Earth. The data is clear that Earth is far older than 10,000 years old and the scientific consensus is clear that the Earth is roughly 4.56 billion years old. Sources1. . http://bit.ly...;2. . http://bit.ly...;3. . http://bit.ly...;4. . http://bit.ly...;5. . http://on.doi.gov...;6. . http://bit.ly...;7. . http://www.nature.com...;8. . http://news.nationalgeographic.com...;