Lara also wrote:
I also find that YEC in particular have an interesting way to use science, as long as it suits their purpose. For example, the age of the crolls of Qumran (sp?) has been established with C14-dating(among other methods, but this method is explicitly mentioned in a source I got from a YEC), which is given as proof of their age. (No counterargument from me.) But should the very same C14-dating indicate an age of more than 6000 years for anything, you'll hear the very same YECs clamor that C14-dating is unreliable and thus cannot be used as evidence for anything.
Carbon-14 dating is based on comparing the amount of the mildly radioactive isotope carbon-14 to the amount of its inert byproduct, carbon-12, in a given organic sample. The half-life of carbon-14 (at which point it has lost half of its previous radioactivity) is about 5,730 years. Once a given sample has gone through seven half-lives, it cannot be dated any further back. So the maximum time a carbon-14 dating can give any organic sample is about 40,000 years.
I say this to state that I am an "young earth" creationists, but I do not hold to an absolute limit of 6,000 years in the Bible. The Bible never makes any claims about the age of the Earth, only about how it and the life on it came to be. I personally have no problem with dating the Earth at around 50,000 to 60,000 years of age. Not all YECs are as dogmatic (and selective) as the ones you have encountered.
Of course, let's not forget that everyone is selective and views the world through certain lenses. I am very up front about my lenses. Others on this board, both among those who agree with me and those disagree with me, are equally up front about their lenses. Some are not.
Here is a link to more fully explain carbon-14 dating.
