Slide 21 of 22
Notes:
Young Earth creationists have a fundamental problem in trying to establish a young age for the Earth - that problem is the belief that Noah's flood completely destroyed and rearranged the Earth down to its very basement rocks. Almost all of the young Earth evidence is actually evidence for either Noah's flood (such as the sudden appearance of advanced civilizations around the world at approximately the same time) or the quick formation of the Earth (such as radio halos). There are few global Earth processes that can be extrapolated back beyond the time of the flood (about 5,000 years ago); the slowing down of the rotation of the Earth and the rate of lunar recession are a couple of good remaining arguments. Radiometric dating is certainly fundamentally flawed if Noah's flood is true, as the basic assumption of finding an undisturbed sample can never be satisfied. It is also known that many radiometric measurements are discarded if they don't fit the anticipated result, and there are many cases of inconsistent results between different dating methods and results known to be wrong (such as old dates for recent lava flows). Invoking the flood and/or the concept of maturity, plus something like Humphreys white hole cosmology to explain cosmic phenomena appears to provide a reasonable defense of the young Earth position.
