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Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2004
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Claim CG010:

The oldest living thing (a bristlecone pine) is younger than 4,900 years, supporting a recent date for a worldwide cataclysm.

Source:

Morris, Henry M., 1974. Scientific Creationism, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, p. 193.

Response:

  1. The age of the oldest living thing does not indicate dates of events happening before it. It merely shows that no global cataclysm happened less than 4900 years ago.

  2. Tree rings give an unbroken record back more than 11,000 years (Becker and Kromer 1993; Becker et al. 1991; Stuiver et al. 1986). A worldwide cataclysm during that time would have broken the tree ring record.

  3. The King Clone creosote bush in the Mojave Desert is 11,700 years old.

Links:

Matson, Dave E., 1994. How good are those young-earth arguments? A close look at Dr. Hovind's list of young-earth arguments and other claims. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/hovind/howgood-yea2.html#proof27

References:

  1. Becker, B. and B. Kromer, 1993. The continental tree-ring record -- absolute chronology, 14C calibration and climatic change at 11 ka. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology 103 (1-2): 67-71.
  2. Becker, B., B. Kromer and P. Trimborn, 1991. A stable-isotope tree-ring timescale of the late glacial Holocene boundary. Nature 353: 647-649.
  3. Stuiver, Minze et al., 1986. Radiocarbon age calibration back to 13,300 years BP and the 14C age matching of the German oak and US bristlecone pine chronologies. Radiocarbon 28(2B): 969-979.

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created 2003-5-8