Uranium-Lead Dating

Isaiah 33:15-16
“He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.”

Many people assume that carbon dating is used to date rocks and fossils. It is not. Carbon dating is specifically used to provide a date for material which was previously part of a living organism, and even if such ages were possible, does not give an age of over 100,000 years.

Many geologists will rely on uranium-lead dating to find the age of a rock. This technique involves measuring the amount of the uranium isotope U-238 in a rock and also the stable isotope lead-206, into which U-238 decays. It is important to emphasize that neither this technique, nor any other, actually directly measures the age of the rock. Rather, the age is calculated from the measured amounts of uranium and lead, using three assumptions:

1. It is assumed that all of the lead present in the rock originally came from uranium. But why should this be the case? Could not the rock have been formed with lead in it?

2. None of the lead produced has been lost. But since lead compounds are partially soluble in water, it is unlikely that millions-of-year-old rocks would have escaped water erosion.

3. It is assumed that the half-life of uranium-238 has never changed over the lifetime of the rock. Half-life gives us the rate at which uranium turns into lead, but we now know that this value can change a great deal.

So all three assumptions under-girding uranium-lead dating are suspect. Better to trust the Bible’s account of where rock came from.

Prayer: Lord God, Your word is true, and we praise You for all Your mighty deeds. Amen.

Author: Paul F. Taylor

Ref: Snelling, A., Radiometric Dating, < https://answersingenesis.org/geology/radiometric-dating/ >, accessed 1/28/2019. Image: CC BY-SA 4.0 International.

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