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From: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: The Scientific Case for Creation: (Part 33)
Message-ID: <539@psivax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 5-Jul-85 18:49:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: psivax.539
Posted: Fri Jul  5 18:49:10 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 9-Jul-85 05:38:07 EDT
References: <387@iham1.UUCP>
Reply-To: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Distribution: net
Organization: Pacesetter Systems Inc., Sylmar, CA
Lines: 35
Summary: 

In article <387@iham1.UUCP> rck@iham1.UUCP (Ron Kukuk) writes:
>
>     THE SCIENTIFIC CASE FOR CREATION: 116 CATEGORIES OF EVIDENCE
>
>II. (Astronomical Sciences): THE UNIVERSE, THE SOLAR SYSTEM, AND  LIFE
>    WERE RECENTLY CREATED.
>
>    B.  TECHNIQUES THAT ARGUE FOR AN OLD EARTH ARE EITHER ILLOGICAL OR
>        ARE BASED ON UNREASONABLE ASSUMPTIONS.
>
>       62.  Geological formations are almost  always  dated  by  their
>            fossil  content,  especially  by  certain INDEX FOSSILS of
>            extinct animals. The age of the fossil is derived from the
>            assumed   evolutionary   sequence,  but  the  evolutionary
>            sequence is based on the fossil record. This reasoning  is
>            circular  [a-e].  Furthermore, this procedure has produced
>            many contradictory results [f].
>

	This is *not* how it is really done, as has been pointed out
several times already. The fossil content is used to *correlate*
spatially seperated strata. This correlation is then combined with
*observed* sequencing in the various regions and reference dates
provided by radiometeric dating for certain local strata to provide
an interpolated dating sequence for the whole geologic column. This
method is *not* circular. Admittedly some individual workers lacking
general training in geology and paleontology have not understood the
situation and erroniously used circular reasoning, but this is *not*
the accepted technique.
-- 

				Sarima (Stanley Friesen)

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