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Radiocarbon Dating: Tool or Magic Wand? 79

26,000 and 40,000 years B.P. (Guthrie, R. Dale, process has its own limitations. The influence
Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe, 1990, of the Earth’s magnetic field can be compen-
pp. 9-10). Fat and blood samples from the sated to some extent, but the large differences
Berezovka mammoth were dated at 39,000 years due to geographical locations can only be
B.P., but the plant and pollen remains found in guessed at. Carbon 14 is not the useful tool it
its stomach were dated between 6,000 and 7,000 was thought to be, but it is often used as a kind
years B.P. (Ginenthal, op cit., p. 163). These ex- of magic wand in attempts to provide validity
amples tend to indicate that older samples can for establishing dates of ancient fossils. And
give a variety of dates, many of which may have because of the general commitment to using
little direct correlation to dates obtained by other C14 dates, Charles Ginenthal commented, “I
methods. This
brings to question
the validity of many
C14 dates found in
the literature. When
the material being
dated has an un-
known past history,
how can the mea-
sured date be con-
sidered valid?

Contamina-
tion is a potential
problem with old
samples if the con-
tainers they are kept
in are made of wood Were radio carbon tests seriously off the mark in dating this lower jaw of an
or wood products or extinct sloth, a megathere, at 20,000 years old?
are exposed to the
air. Carbon 14 can be absorbed by the sample believe that because radiocarbon dating is the
and made to appear younger than its normal C14 one, great backbone and support of the super-
date. How much this effects the real date is ques- structure of the uniformitarian history of the
tionable because of the other variables in the sys- past,...all of this evidence for a distorted ra-
tem. This brief summary of the C14 dating tion of C14/C12,...will be denied”
problem shows that the assumptions on which (Ginenthal, op cit., p. 184).
the process was originally established need to be
reconsidered. It is not independent of time; it is A word to the wise is said to be suffi-
dependent on geographical location; it is species cient. Let’s hope that there are some wise in-
dependent; the generation activity is changing, dividuals willing to acknowledge the
and it is subject to contamination. problem. Old paradigms are hard to replace.

There have been a number of “correction
factors” proposed in attempts to normalize C14
dating. Tree ring dating has been used, but that

The Berean Voice September-October 2002