Diamonds speak of a young earth. Image from Wikipedia.
Joel Kontinen
Diamonds recently found in eastern Finland caused Aamulehti, a major Finnish daily, to associate them with millions of years. According to the paper, the extremely old (2.5 billion year) bedrock might well contain an abundance of diamonds, bringing about a veritable diamond boom.
While Finland would gladly welcome a new source of revenue, diamonds do not have anything to do with millions of years. Diamonds disclose a very different message.
In 2005, creation scientists completed a comprehensive research project known as RATE (Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth). The research results were astounding.
For instance, doctor John Baumgarder found carbon-14 in diamonds. C-14 or radiocarbon as it is also called is produced as cosmic rays bombard the earth’s upper atmosphere, producing neutrons that combine with nitrogen-14 atoms to form carbon-14.
The carbon atoms drift down, combining with oxygen to form carbon dioxide molecules (CO2). Plants and animals absorb some of this carbon dioxide. Once the organism dies, its C-14 content begins to diminish.
C-14 or radiocarbon is carbon’s unstable isotope that has a half life of 5 730 years. Diamonds estimated to be billions of years should not have any carbon-14. However, all the diamonds in the RATE study had clearly observable amounts of C-14.
Baumgardner’s research indicates that the examined diamonds cannot be older than 55 700 years.
Some skeptics have suggested that the carbon-14 in diamonds might be caused by the background radiation in the detector. This cannot be true since the AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) method that was used to examine the diamonds does not measure background radiation but counts atoms.
Diamonds might thus well be a creationist's best friend.
Sources:
DeYoung, Don. 2005. Thousands… Not Billions. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
Ekholm, Virpi. 2008. Suurten kaivosten ehtyminen toi timanttibuumin Suomeen. Aamulehti 11 July, A5.
Sarfati, Jonathan. 2006. Diamonds: a creationist’s best friend. Radiocarbon in diamonds: enemy of billions of years. Creation 28:4, 26-27. You can read the article here.
Vardiman, Larry. 2008. Diamonds May Be a Creationist’s Best Friend. Acts & Facts 37:8, 6. (June 2008)
Posts
