Even Less Controversial than 100,000 years of Arctic Ice Cores?

I just learned about this 60,000 year record. It may not cover as many years as the arctic ice cores… but is it less controversial?

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@davidson had a great talk on this at the BioLogos conference last year. I haven’t read any YEC arguments against this data, but I suspect it is indeed less controversial (or arguable) than the ice core data.

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Here is one:

Good old Mount St Helens and the global flood. The answer to everything.

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@Bill_II ( & @cwhenderson )

And here is the counter-argument for the YEC counter-argument!:

“What is amazing about most of the varves of Lake Suigetsu is that as one moves down the cores retrieved from below the center of this lake, the varves formed in the past several hundred years for which climatic and lake-conditions are known look similar to those formed 10s of thousands of years ago.”

“This provides researchers with increased confidence that the varves represent annual years and that the climatic influences on this lake in the past have been very similar to those of the present.”

No doubt a reasonable argument, George, but that has never mattered. I always felt ice cores were quite straightforward and uncontroversial also, but that doesn’t matter either. It never ceases to amaze me that people make up arguments like these and expect it to advance their cause. The only explanation is that it is purely to pander to their adherents and win internal support, and is really not done with the expectation of furthering understanding, as I see it.
Of course with both valves and ice cores, such things as layers of volcanic ash can be correlated with known dates of eruptions giving an independent dating method for historical time periods, as well as the radiometric dating into the distant past.

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The June issue of Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith has an article (by Ken Wolgemuth and I) on how we know age-dating is reliable that makes use of the latest round of measurements from Lake Suigetsu. The article includes descriptions and assessments of the common YEC counter arguments. If you are an ASA member (or know a member), you can get access to a color version online. The article becomes open access in January.

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I shall read the first page over and over until I memorize it!

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Glad you like at least page one! :sunglasses:

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Greg, just read through your article in the ASA journal, and thank you for work well done. It does a great job of explaining how C14 dating is reliable and accurate, as well as general info regarding varves and rings. I would encourage its reference whenever questions arise on the dating question as it is well written and understandable, as well as anticipates the most common arguments.
Also, the journal articles alone are worth the cost of ASA membership, so join if you can!

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