In response to your question 7, "Appearance of Age: I know we have
discussed the reason why most of us on list do not agree with the
"appearance of age" being comparable to the wine at Cana. Can someone
re-explain WHY the analogy doesn't hold?"
I have maintained that it is possible, in principle, to synthesize a
chemical solution that is indistinguishable from a vintage wine (although it
would not be easy!). If I were to take a vintage wine and analyze its
contents by gas chromatography couple with mass spectrometry (GC/MS),
fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and other chemical analysis
techniques, I would know its chemical composition. I could then synthesize
these chemicals and make a synthetic chemical solution that would be
identical to a vintage wine. It might take some time to do the analyses,
but I could make the chemical solution up in very short time and produce an
"instant 'wine'" that would not require an aging process. I could even
tinker with the Carbon 12 Carbon 14 ratio and confound age dating of the
"wine." But, if I were to present my chemical solution as the real thing, I
would be guilty of deceiving the public.
I don't believe that God would stoop to this sort of thing and plant
fossils in geological formations to deceive us. Pretty well all evidence
that we find in the geological record indicates that the earth is quite old.
I have, on occasion, stated my conviction that Oklo phenomenon, the uranium
deposit at Oklo in Gabon, Africa, that went critical a long time ago,
clinches the case for an old earth. Unless we postulate that God "tricked"
us, scientists, by depleting the U235 in the ore and plant stable daughters
of fission products!
Hope this will do.
best regards
Chuck Vandergraaf
> T.T. Vandergraaf
> Geochemistry Research Branch
> Whiteshell Laboratories
> Pinawa, MB R0E 1L0
> Canada
> *vandergraaft@aecl.ca
> *(204) 753-2311 xt. 2592
Adjunct Professor
Providence College
Otterburne, MB