Soft Tissue and Carbon-14 Found Inside Dinosaur Bones - What Does it Mean?

Assignments at a Glance (see videos below):

1. Learn:
Watch: Video 1 (5 min) and Video 2 (3 min)
Read: Article 1 (about 5 min) and Article 2 (about 2 min)
Watch: Video 3 (12 min)
Total: 27 minutes

2. Research: Further Study (suggestions below)

3. Teach: Comment with question, thought or insight below

----------------------------------------------

Assignments - Soft Tissue and Carbon 14 in Dinosaur Bones
Thank-you for your comments and questions last week. I enjoyed thinking about the things you brought up. An analogy hit me as I was hiking (after a comment about how the age of rocks is measured.) Correct me if I'm wrong, but I learned that some rocks are "born" after they cool to a certain temperature that closes up the changing atoms and isotopes within them. This is when the rock starts to "decay" (or the unstable atoms start loosing matter and energy from their nuclei).

The atoms can turn into different elements or isotopes as they loose this energy and matter. Scientist measure the rate of decay, and that is how they come up with the age of the rock. We learned last week that they need to make several assumptions in this measurement, such as the assumption that the enclosed rock had 100% parent atoms (atoms that have only the original radioactive element in them) and 0 daughter atoms (atoms that have lost some of the matter and energy from the nuclei). Yet, this has never been the case in any "newborn" rocks they measure.

Anyway, it occurred to me that when we have the spirit of God in our hearts - our hearts are open to change and ready to love. It is when our hearts grow cold that they start to "decay" and we loose that energy, or life force, that helps us feel and love. So it is important that we keep our hearts warm by doing things that invite that Spirit into our hearts. Gospel principles are found all over nature. It's like God's book for us to study.

Ready for more interesting discoveries? Here are the videos and articles for the week:
1. Watch and Read:

Video 1:


And:

Video 2:
Following are some findings that conclude that chemical bonds in the DNA structure have an average half life of only 521 years at 13.1C. They then summarized that it is impossible to find DNA from creatures living tens or hundreds of millions of years ago. One calculation claimed that DNA, even several million years old, would be undetectable:

Read:  https://news.ncsu.edu/2012/10/tpschweitzer-bone/
and http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/32799/title/Half-Life-of-DNA-Revealed/

In particular, pay attention to the assumptions in these videos and readings and the conclusions drawn from the assumptions.

Also watch:

 

2. Further study:

• Anything of interest to you in these topics (including things that refute the evidence presented here.) I was going to add a video that refutes the evidence for you to study - they all blame it on contamination -  but I couldn't find any without swear words, so be cautious as you search.
• Webpage of the group that did the testing:  http://www.dinosaurc14ages.com/carbondating.htm
• Video of their presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbdH3l1UjPQ

3. Comment below with assumptions and conclusions you noticed, and/or with questions or principles you learned from your study.

Getting Started

Welcome to the first assignment. Each week is broken down into 3 parts (learn, study and teach). "Learn" gives you information, "Study" gives you understanding as you work to make sense of the information. "Teach" will ask you to formulate that information into your own thoughts or questions - which helps it stay in your mind and opens you up to inspired application. I try to keep each week to less than one hour of work, but it may be more depending on your curiosity. This week is a little longer than an hour because the second video really clarified the dating methods for me, but it is a little long.

At a Glance:
1. Learn:
Watch Video 1 (11 min)
Video 2 (25 min)
Video 3: (10 min)
Total: 46 min

2. Research (see further study ideas below)

3. Teach: Comment below with a question, thought or insight


"Getting Started" Reading and Assignments:

I was warned not to start with the age of the earth when bringing up alternate viewpoints to evolution. It is too unconventional and it turns people off. There is lots of other evidence against evolution that has nothing to do with the age of the earth. However, this sparked my interest so I am asking others to keep an open mind and look at some of these theories just to be aware that they are out there and that the evidence shows that they are plausible. Most of us believe that the Earth is very old. We were brought up on the evidence that shows it to be so. Maybe it is, but we tend to think that anyone who thinks otherwise is a little delusional or uneducated - at least that's what I used to think when I would hear such talk. I felt bad for those stubborn enough to look past the evidence and insist on a literal reading of the Bible.

Then I met some of these people in person. They were very intelligent, leaders in their fields, and passionate about finding truth and evidence. They were kind, respectful, and practical. I was forced to ask myself if they knew something I did not know. Given my scientific background, that was an easy jump to make.

I started looking at some of the books, videos and articles they referenced in their conversation... I was surprised to find that there is a world of evidence that I was never told about in school. I learned that the understanding of what it means to separate church and state makes it so that schools do not teach anything that testifies of a creator. Instead they teach evolution. And evolution requires a very old earth.

Since I want to have a balanced understanding of the evidence, and I want that for my kids and those I mentor, I started this study group for us to research it together. I hope others will join us in our journey.

I thought it would be best to start our studies with some information about the methods used to date the Earth. The reason for this is that it helps to open our minds to the fact that these dates may not be as accurate as we have been led to believe. Once we are open to that, we may be more open to evidence based on different assumptions.

1. Learn - Watch:
Video 1:

Video 2:

And Video 3:
 

 2. Study - Do your own research about anything you want to study in more depth about dating methods or anything else mentioned.

Some Further Reasearch Ideas: 
- Do a word study on "Rock" (look up the definition, look up scriptures and words of prophets, write your own definition that includes an application to how you live your life).

-Read or research more about:

• Radiodating-
• The history of skull 1470 (some info can be found in Complete Creation part 21 on Wazooloo)
• Mars Rock alh84001 
• Dr Steve Austin- Mt St Helens Radiodating
• Analysis Calibration 
• Paluxy river in Glenrose Texas (famous for dinosaur and human footprints) 
• Analysis of Excess c14 in geologic record by Sanders
• Rate project volume 2
• Co2 Wells and c14 - deep Wells - deep time? By Daughty 
• C14 in oil, coal, fossils, dinasour bones or diamonds 
• Dinosaur Amber c14 by Miller et al

3. Teach: Post what you learned about below and any thoughts you had as you watched and studied. Be sure to share something that will be applicable to your life (someway you can live better because of what you learned - if you phrase it in the form of a goal or action item that's a bonus!)