What is RATE? "Scientists associated with the Institute for Creation Research have finished an eight-year research project known as RATE, or Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth" and they claim that "the team of seven creation scientists have discovered incredible physical evidence that supports what the Bible says about the young age of the earth." {from ICR's homepage for RATE}
You can explore educational web-resources that explain the principles of radiometric dating in the homepage for AGE OF THE EARTH — SCIENCE where you'll see different perspectives (conventional and young-earth) on the reliability of scientific conclusions about the earth's age.
• In an 8-part series during
May-June 2007, Randy Isaac (executive director of the American Scientific Affiliation)
outlined principles of Integrity
in Science regarding Scientific Methodology, Skepticism in Science,
Fraud, Phases of Science, Removing Unconscious Bias, Nine Lives of Offbeat Ideas,
and Age of the Earth; the final part
explains
why
he "is
concerned
primarily
with the integrity of the reporting of the work [by RATE] rather than
the
claims
themselves"
in Assessing the RATE Project where
he reviews
RATE's
book, Radioisotopes and the Age of the
Earth,
Volume 2. His review (June 2007) was followed (in March 2008) by a
response
from RATE and replies by Randy Isaac & Kirk Bertsche. The 4-part
dialog (essay review, response, and replies) is in Perspectives on
Science
and
Christian
Faith, the journal
of ASA.
An examination of RATE continues with further analyses and evaluations:
• To supplement an introductory paragraph and a brief semi-technical
overview in the papers above (Assessing the Rate Project and a response
from RATE and replies...),
Randy Isaac wrote Helium
Diffusion and Retention in Zircons to describe a Standard
Model (used
by scientists to gather clues about the thermal history of a zircon crystal)
and two models proposed by RATE: a New Creation Model (used
by RATE) and Uniformitarian
Model (used
by nobody, since "the [uniformitarian] model has
no relationship to the standard model... [or] any model
used in thermochronology.")
• Helium Diffusion in Zircon: Flaws in a Young-Earth Argument, Part
1 and Part
2 by Gary Loechelt, plus his technical paper, Fenton
Hill Revisited: The Retention of Helium in Zircons and the Case for Accelerated
Nuclear Decay
• RATE-Project Claims [about Helium in Zircons] by
Rodney Whitefield
• RATE's Radiocarbon: Intrinsic or Contamination? by Kirk Bertsche, is an expansion of his reply in PSCF, which you can read above in a response from RATE and replies...
• Polonium Halos and Myrmekite in Pegmatite & Granite by Lorence Collins, who also has a links-page (halos are examined in 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 14)
• Flaws in a Young-Earth Cooling Mechanism by Glenn Morton & George Murphy
• Review
of a RATE Conference by Steven Smith
I.O.U. — This links-page will offer more resources later, from supporters
and critics of conventional radiometric dating.
| Views in the pages listed above are those of the authors, and don't necessarily represent views of the American Scientific Affiliation. |