My first thought was this this meant an equilibrium between secular people joining the church and believers leaving it.
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Yes, there are; the equilibrium is used in uranium series dating that can give dates up to at least 1,000,000 years. Uranium–thorium dating - Wikipedia
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To summarize the state of the YEC accelerated nuclear decay model as it stands:
For no fathomable reason or purpose, during Noah’s flood the intensity of radioactive decay over the entire planet was arbitrarily cranked up to something like the inside of a nuclear reactor undergoing meltdown. All the evidence YEC offers for acceleration would have been eradicated by the heat inherent to the proposed decay, so the very existence of such evidence falsifies the idea. They have never committed to any solution to this self contradiction. They have no defined field theory. Despite emphasizing the exactness of fine tuning elsewhere as an argument for design, they have not the slightest idea if modifying the relevant constants would immediately extinguish life. They do not apply acceleration to all radioactive isotopes, selectively dismissing acceleration if contradicting their evidence for acceleration. The riddle of what to do about the acute lethal radiation poisoning persists. There is no mention of the million fold spike that could be expected for atmospheric helium from alpha decay.
This hair brained scheme was fluffed to a book length hairball to appear as a serious work, and the RATE project was consecrated into the YEC canon. To some measure, it achieved its objective. To many adherents, that formally qualified scientists produced a dense and technical volume was enough to satisfy their need for the existence of a refutation to radiometric dating. They are not in a position to notice the false witness of omission and commission.
The illogic and daftness of all this demonstrates the challenge that geochronology poses to young earth beliefs.
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You’re being too kind to them there, Ron.
22,400°C according to their own calculations.
That would make the inside of a nuclear reactor undergoing meltdown look like a cryogenics experiment.
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@adamjedgar I would respectfully disagree. I am a Christian and I believe that God can do anything He likes with creation. I affirm every miracle the Bible records, and I believe that Christ will raise believers bodily in the future.
The issue for me is not what God could do, but what He would do. Biblical miracles all have a purpose in God’s redemptive plan, and generally are “signs” done for the benefit of human witnesses to see God’s glory. YEC proposes miracles like accelerated nuclear decay and heat removal which would have no human witnesses and no effect on the world except to create an apparent record of great age. It is hard to see how this would not be deceptive, and that would be contrary to God’s character.
I started a discussion on this at Peaceful Science: The Burning Bush Reversed: the Unbiblical Miracles of Young Earth Creationism
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In her YouTube channel Erika aka Gutsick Gibbon, never one at a loss for words, has occasionally discussed the heat problem, with this being the latest
and @Joel_Duff summarizes and comments on that video here:
Divine Intervention in Geology: How the “Heat Problem” is Reshaping Creationist Theory
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My guess is that … like God … like religion … like war (the kind that is supposed to end all wars) … the death of the subject always ends up ‘having been exaggerated’. The people mourning (or exulting) over the tombstone in the garden are back again the next year … next decade … still fighting the same battles. Human stubbornness and stupidity are the constants that never ever seem to get defeated. And when they seemingly are … resurrection is a thing! The trick is, one just ignores the facts they don’t like. And if you’re one of the few who ‘has seen the light’ - you’ll die off and be replaced by several who haven’t.
Looking forward to some point when our institutions can be ruled by some knowledgeable ‘elites’ again. No populist dentists or plumbers for me please!