Evolution Impossible (22 page)

Cornell University genetics researcher Dr. John Sanford points out that when the whole genome is considered, assuming the currently observed mutation accumulation rates, human DNA accumulates a huge 90,000 errors in just 6,000 years. That is, about 0.003 percent of our DNA becomes inoperative in less than 10,000 years. By 6 million years, 3 percent of our DNA or one in every 33 pieces of code would be damaged, and it is inconceivable that a genetic code would still function.
²⁶
In other words, we would have died out long before 6 million years. What we observe in research laboratories today is DNA slowly deteriorating, not new DNA evolving. This means we actually observe the very opposite of evolution.

The extremely complex and interdependent biochemistry of all higher organisms such as birds and mammals is encoded for in the DNA of the organism. For example, if the beta cell production code is damaged, we will quickly die from diabetes. If the synthesis code for one of the proteins in the blood-clotting mechanism is damaged, we will soon bleed to death. The outcome is similar for thousands of crucial biochemical pathways. When one biochemical synthesis pathway breaks down, the whole organism is affected. It has also been discovered that parts of the genetic code are themselves interdependent. For example, the genes that code for the micro-RNA make up only about 1 percent all human genes, yet they regulate the protein production for 10 percent or more of the total genetic code.
²⁷
Thus, mutations in micro-RNA genes can therefore have much amplified effects in terms of disease. For example, damage to certain micro-RNA genes has been linked to many human proliferative diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and several other cancers, as well as the loss of function of the fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), which causes fragile X syndrome, the most prevalent form of mental retardation.
²⁸

While there are a certain number of back-up systems and repair mechanisms encoded for, these also are vulnerable to mutation damage. For complex organisms like humans, it is likely that extinction would occur at damaged DNA code levels of one in a thousand or possibly even at one in ten thousand, corresponding to only 200,000 years and 20,000 years of accumulated mutations, respectively. That is, on the basis of the accumulated ongoing breakdown of human DNA that we observe at the present time, homo DNA is unlikely to be more than 200,000 years old and probably less than 20,000 years old.

Further, Cornell University geneticist Dr. John Sandford, who was called as an expert witness in the area of DNA mutation rates, stated at the Kansas State Board of Education Science Hearing, that his best estimate for the age of life on earth was less than 100,000 years.
²⁹

The DNA mutation rate data that we observe and measure at the present time indicates very much shorter ages for life on earth, compared with the long ages calculated from radiometric data. I have also shown that present-day data for continental and mountain erosion rates, ocean sediment deposition rates, and volcanic material deposition rates all indicate that the continents cannot be hundreds and thousands of millions of years old. Furthermore, if catastrophic events are factored in, the age of the continents and fossil life on them is shortened further. If a global catastrophic flood model is adopted, which provides a very good fit for just about all the data we observe, the age of the continents and the fossils can be relatively young — only thousands of years. So if we have very strong and consistent evidence that life on earth cannot be anywhere near as old as the radiometric dates suggest, we need to look closely at the radiometric dating methods and in particular the assumptions that underpin them.

1
. See
www.expelledthemovie.com
; also J. Bergman,
Slaughter of the Dissidents: The Shocking Truth about Killing the Careers of Darwin Doubters
(Port Orchard, WA: Leafcutter Press, 2008).

2
. S.H. Beaver, editor,
Geographies for Advanced Study,
3rd edition, “Geomorphology,” by B.W. Sparks (London: Longman Group, 1986), p. 509–510.

3
. S. Chernicoff and R. Venkatakrishnan,
Geology: An Introduction to Physical Geology
(New York: Worth Publishers, 1995), p. 217.

4
. Ibid.

5
. S. Judson and D.F. Ritter, “Rates of Regional Denudation in the United States,”
Journal of Geophysical Research
, vol. 69 (1964): p. 3395–3401; R.H. Dott Jr. and R.L. Batten,
Evolution of the Earth,
4th edition (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1988), p. 155.

6
. Ibid.

7
. R. Huggett,
Catastrophism: Systems of Earth History
(London: Edward Arnold, 1990), p. 232; A. Kröner, “Evolution of the Archean Continental Crust,”
Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences,
vol. 13 (1985): p. 49–74; S.M. McLennan and S.R. Taylor, “Continental Freeboard, Sedimentation Rates and Growth of Continental Crust,”
Nature,
vol. 306 (1983): p. 169–172.

8
. S.H. Beaver, editor,
Geographies for Advanced Study,
3rd edition, “Geomorphology,” by B.W. Sparks (London: Longman Group, 1986), p. 509–510.

9
. B.P. Luyendyk, “Ocean basin,” Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., Jan. 11, 2012,
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/424338/ocean-basin
. Note average sediment thickness varies between oceans, e.g., in the Pacific it ranges around 1,000–2,000 feet (300–600 m), while in the Atlantic it is about 3,280 feet (1,000 m). In some ocean areas it is only about 320 feet (100 m) thick.

10
. B.P. Ruxton and I. McDougal, “Denudation Rates in Northeast Papua from Potassium-argon Dating of Lavas,”
American Journal of Science,
vol. 265 (1967): p. 545–561.

11
. Ibid.

12
. J. Corbel, “Vitesse de L’erosion,”
Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie,
vol. 3 (1959): p. 1–28.

13
. H.W. Menard, “Some Rates of Regional Erosion,”
Journal of Geology,
vol. 69 (1961): p. 154–161.

14
. H.H. Mills, “Estimated Erosion Rates on Mount Rainier, Washington,”
Geology,
vol. 4 (1976): p. 401–406.

15
. C.D. Ollier and M.J.F. Brown, “Erosion of a Young Volcano in New Guinea,”
Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie
(1971): p. 15–28.

16
. Colin Mitchell,
The Case for Creationism
(Alma Park, Grantham, England: Autumn House Limited, 1994), p. 78–80.

17
. Ibid., p. 80. Note that Mitchell uses an ocean area of 139.4 square miles (360.9 million square km) and a bulk density value for the sediments of 1.7 tons per cubic yard ( 2.3 tonne per cubic meter).

18
. Ariel A. Roth,
Origins: Linking Science and Scripture
(Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1998), p. 265.

19
. Ibid. p. 267–268.

20
. S.E. Bryan, I.U. Peate, D.W. Peate, et al., “The Largest Volcanic Eruptions on Earth,”
Earth-Science Reviews,
vol. 102 (3–4) (2010): p. 207–229.

21
. Roth,
Origins: Linking Science and Scripture
, p. 268.

22
. M.H. Schweitzer, “Biomolecular Characterization and Protein Sequences of the Campanian Hadrosaur B. Canadensis,”
Science,
vol. 324 (2009): p. 626–631.

23
. C.L. Satterfield, T.K. Lowenstein, R.H. Vreeland, et al., “New Evidence for 250 Ma Age of Halotolerant Bacterium from a Permian Salt Crystal,”
Geology,
vol. 33 (2005): p. 265–268.

24
. T. Beardsley, “Mutations Galore: Humans Have High Mutation Rates. But Why Worry?”
Scientific American,
vol. 280, no. 4 (1999): p. 32, 36.

25
. L. Loewe, “Quantifying the Genomic Decay Paradox Due to Muller’s Ratchet in Human Mitochondrial DNA,”
Genetics Research, Cambridge,
vol. 87 (2006): p. 133–159.

26
. John C. Sanford,
Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome
(Waterloo, NY: FMS Publications, 2008), p. 153.

27
. B. John, A.J. Enright, A. Aravin, et al., 2004, “Human MicroRNA Targets,”
PLoS Biology,
vol. 2, no. 11, (2004).

28
. Ibid.

29
. From transcript. See http:/www.talkorigins.org/faqs/Kansas/kangaroo4.html#p1705.

Chapter 10

Radiometric Dating Methods Give Old Ages for Young Rocks, and Other Evidence of Major Problems with This Method of Dating

Radioactivity was first discovered in 1896 when it was found that the element uranium slowly emitted nuclear radiation. Since that time a considerable number of elements have been found to undergo radioactive decay. The half-lives of some radioactive elements were initially measured in the early 1900s, and the first radiometric-based time scale was proposed by A. Holmes in 1913. It was based on relatively coarse measurements. However, a revised edition was published in 1947, based on the dating of uranium found in minerals from five locations at different levels in the geologic column.

Sedimentary strata cannot usually be dated directly by radiometric methods. Instead, the fossil layers are dated by measuring the ages of the surrounding igneous or volcanic rocks. When the geologic column was dated, interpolation of dates between the five points was done on the assumption that the length of the geologic period is proportional to the maximum thickness of sedimentary rocks formed during that period.
¹
This uniformitarianism-based “assumption” of sedimentation rates was used to estimate the dates of the intermediate time periods in the column even though, as we have seen in previous chapters, there is clear evidence of a catastrophic past in the earth’s history. Holmes’ dates for the various sections of the geological column continued to be used until the early1960s when subsequent new data was obtained. Since that time, the ages assigned to the various strata have been updated in accordance with new radiometric dating results.

Radiometric dating relies on a number of assumptions — it is not a direct dating method. For example, in the uranium-thorium-lead dating method, uranium atoms with an atomic weight of 238 (uranium isotope 238, or simply uranium 238) decay via a series of isotopes to lead 206. The half-life for this reaction, that is, the time for half the unstable uranium 238 to decay into the stable lead 206, has been measured as being 4.47 billion years. Uranium 235 has a half-life of 0.704 billion years and decays via a series of isotopes to lead 207. Thorium 232, with a measured half-life of 14.1 billion years, likewise decays to lead 208.

Other commonly used isotope dating systems are rubidium-87 to strontium-87 with a half-life of 48.8 billion years, potassium-40 to argon-40 with a half-life of 1.25 billion years, samarium-147 to neodymium-143 with a half-life of 106 billion years, and the well-known carbon-14 to nitrogen-14 with a half-life of just 5,730 years.

Rocks are dated by very accurately measuring the concentration of the various isotopes of radioactive elements they contain. From the ratios of the mother-daughter elements and equations for the rate of nuclear decay, the age of the rock can be calculated. That is, for a simple system, the “model” age of the rock T (millions of years) would be given by the following formula:

T = (t/0.693) ln{(B+1)/A} where t is the half-life in millions of years, A is the concentration of radioactive parent atoms, B is the concentration of stable daughter atoms, and ln is the natural logarithm to the base e, that is, 2.71828, etc.

In more complicated systems involving more parent and daughter isotopes, calculations of age can still be made, but the mathematics is considerably more complicated. For example, sometimes there is need to take into account by estimation the effect of stray neutrons from other radioactive material.

The radioactive dating method relies on a number of assumptions. These are as follows:

1. That when the rock was formed there were no daughter atoms present. That is, that all the daughter atoms present are the products of the radioactive decay of the parent.
   
2. That over the claimed time period — usually tens to thousands of millions of years — none of the parent or daughter element has been physically removed, for example, by leaching.
   
3. That during the same period no additional parent or daughter element has accumulated that cannot be accounted for by a known radioactive process.
   
4. That the rate of decay has not changed in the past.