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What if it was proven wrong?

May 20th, 2010 18 comments

What if we find out, in our time or after, that the way we date things could be wrong? or that it is wrong?

Would you easily say that you just don’t know?
Or would you be forced to wonder if the story of creation is actually true?

Romans 8:38-39

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ.”

As we learn more about the history of our planet, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the earth has had many faces over its history. Remains of tropical forests have been found within 400 miles of the North Pole. Dinosaurs once lived in the tropical lushness of Alaska. At one time you could even walk to Australia from Asia.

It’s also been known for some time that the great Antarctic continent was once much warmer than it is today. However, only recently have we learned that the frozen wastelands of Antarctica were forested hills not very long ago. In the 1980’s, the remains of a forest were discovered along the Transarctic Mountains. The forest stretched over an area of 1,300 kilometers. When the Antarctic forest was growing, the mountainous area looked like the fjords of Chile and Norway. Scientists have continued looking for evidences of the animals that might have lived in the forest.

How long ago did the forest grow where there is now only ice and snow? Scientists have found wood from the forest. It’s not very fossilized. In fact, it still floats and it can be burned. Scientists who typically assign great ages to the earth say that the evidence now says that the changes that took place in Antarctica happened much more rapidly than they once thought.

Our earth is dynamic, changing much more rapidly than most ever thought. That is, unless one has believed the catastrophic history of the earth recorded in the Bible.

If your just going post an insult, rather than an answer, don’t bother.
@Justin, How was I trying to prove the bible, with the bible? Why not read the question before commenting.

That is an interesting question to ponder. There would be wide sweeping, devastating consequences for not only science, but theology as well. If our dating methods are wrong, it means nature itself is inconsistent, has no laws or constants. Our dating methods rely on well-known universal constants and fundamental laws of nature. They are not something that science has invented; they are what science has discovered to be true about the universe. For example, the Uranium-Lead (U-Pb) radiometric dating method uses the known radioactive decay rate of uranium into lead to date samples. Some dating methods can be used to cross-check each other for accuracy. Science would crumble if the universal constants and fundamental laws of nature were not consistent. Science relies on those constants and laws to describe the universe.

Theology, on the other hand, would suffer a great blow as well. Theology has always promulgated a perfect, all knowing, all powerful, loving God. An inconsistent, imperfect universe that has no laws or constants would totally debunk the notion of a perfect God. There would be no need to even consider the creation myth because theology would have to rewrite itself.

Also keep in mind that conflicting dates between the creation myth and reality is just one in the plethora of conflicts the myths has with reality. Incorrect dating does not address the issues of incest, talking serpents, global flood, boats that hold millions of animals, or all the evidence of evolution that exists. It also does not address the obvious issues like the vengeful, evil God that the Old Testament portrays. If the dating method was found to be wrong, it would make me question science and what we think we know about the universe. It would not, however, make me think the creation myth was true.