Re: Challenge for Young Earth Creationists: the clock is now

Bill Hamilton (hamilton@predator.cs.gmr.com)
Fri, 28 Aug 1998 08:32:18 -0400

At 11:17 PM 8/27/98 -0600, Bill Payne wrote:
>Bill Hamilton wrote:
>
>> If no
>> one has provided the answer by 1 December, I will post it.
>
>One question I've posed elsewhere and didn't feel was answered, except
>by slamming a certain YEC, is: How do we know that daughter products
>are not included in the magma when it is extruded? I know that
>evolutionists say that xenoliths (fragments of older "country" rock) can
>be identified and eliminated, but if the xenoliths are completely melted
>then the individual molecules of the older daughter products would
>become part of the magma and should give the magma an apparent age that
>is false. If that's not your question, I would still like to know the
>answer to this one.
>
Nope. This is, however, a good question. I believe I have seen an answer
to it, but don't remember the details.

There is one particular question I am looking for. I think it should be
obvious to anyone with a scientific/engineering background, and my
intention is to challenge the creationists to think of the question. If
they fail, I hope they will take such failure as an incentive to do their
homework more carefully and completely. Succeed or fail, I hope they they
will actually ask the question of people who have some expertise in
isochron dating. The resulting discussion could be valuable to both the
creationists and the advocates of isochron dating.

A number of the other questions that have been submitted are also good
questions. If you submit a question and I say that's not the one, that
doesn't necessarily mean the question has no value. I'm just looking for a
particular kind of challenging attitude towards claims made from
experimental data that I believe any scientist should have.

Just so you don't feel I'm asking the impossible, one individual I believe
to be a noncreationist sent me the correct answer last night at home.
Bill Hamilton
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
William E. Hamilton, Jr., Ph.D.
Staff Research Engineer
Chassis and Vehicle Systems, GM R&D Center
Warren, MI
hamilton@predator.cs.gmr.com / whamilto@mich.com (home)