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Mike Humphrey wrote:

Hi, Robert —

Because of your biochemical background, I would appreciate it if you would please comment on the video I gave to you titled:

The Young Age of the Earth — by Alpha productions

Thanks,

Mike

  { Can you comment on this documentary: — The Young Age of the Earth — by Alpha productions? }

Rob replied:

Hi, Mike —

I watched the film concerning the correct age of the Earth. It had many interesting facts (yes, facts) in it. In addition, I would point out to you the cave carving shown by the photograph in Buried Alive.

The evidence for dinosaurs coexisting with man seems to be growing (we now have at least two possible pieces). I cannot speak to the claims about the colorful spots in the granite. You would need to consult an Earth scientist or a geologist. My entire training in Earth science consisted of nuclear fall-out rates (when I was a chemical officer in the Army).

As for the logical fallacies in the film, I will address them: please remember that many of these are used by the evolutionists as well — but they still remain logical fallacies!

  • Just because coal can be created in a few thousand years does not mean that all coal was created in a few thousand years.

  • The same is true for granite.

  • If the entire Earth were suffering massive volcanic blowout, where are all the magma concentrations?

  • Also, how did the inhabitants survive the dust-filled air (the film never mentioned it!) and the extreme cold due to loss of sun for an estimated 450 years?
    (I told you, I did learn about fallout due to explosions.)

  • If all the animals on Earth (not just those in a particular region) moved out from
    Mt. Ararat:

    • Why are there snakes in the Americas?
      <If a land-bridge was formed during an Ice age, the snakes would be unable to cross since they are cold-blooded. Ditto, for all other reptiles and amphibians.>

    • Why are tigers found only in Asia?
      <They are warm-blooded, so they should have been able to cross a land bridge much easier than the snakes.>

    • Why are kangaroos and other marsupials found only on the Australian continent?
      <There is not one piece of evidence that these animals ever existed anywhere else.>

    • If they did not evolve there (or get created there since a world-wide flood would have knocked them off as well), why are they only in Australia?

    • Why were dodo birds only on the South Pacific Islands?

    • Many other cases can be cited, but why bother?

    I think you can see the problems with an all-encompassing, world-wide flood.

  • If the coal and oil were created very recently, carbon-14 dating should be possible on them. C-14 dating seems to be reasonably accurate as follows, according to the CRC Press Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. (You can trust this book as much as anything of this world; as for the after-life, it is strangely quiet.)

    Carbon 14 has a half-life of 5,730 years. This means that, effectively, one should be able to date any stationary carbon-containing products up to about four to five times that length. After five half-lives, the product is assumed to be essentially gone.

The math works as follows:

  • half of the Carbon-14 would be gone after 5,730 years.
  • After 11,460 years, 3/4ths would be gone.
  • After 17,190 years, 7/8ths would be gone, and so on.
  • After five periods of time, it is usually considered to be essentially gone, 31/32nds of the stuff would have decayed.

Up through the period in question, however, one should be able to date carbon-containing products which are no longer exchanging carbon. It is important to note that as we breathe, we are constantly exhaling carbon; we ingest new carbon as we eat. Thus, one has to die before the carbon exchange ceases. Then, the ratio of Carbon-14 to the rest of the Carbon will start to decrease.

To sum up , if the flood caused all of the coal to be produced some 6,000+ years ago, a very large portion of coal should easily be carbon-dated. The film did not address this point.

The film, as I said, does present some facts. Especially true, are that both coal and oil can be created much faster than what is being proposed by the entrenched establishment. Again, I caution you to remember that coal does not have to be created quickly and that it could then sit for an unspecified amount of time.

Thus, the conclusions, although not incorrect theories (scientifically), are, never the less, not proven.

In addition, any good theory (and there are painfully few out there) addresses as many pieces of data as have been previously documented. The film fails to address many other pieces of data that have been reported in the literature.

In summary, the film raises interesting possibilities and suggests rethinking about the entrenched establishment's point of view. It does not, however, mount a crushing blow, or even a devastating challenge, to the establishment.

It shows that the establishment simply has not done all of its homework.

God bless you,

Robert Coutinho

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