Out of the
Plan for Fall Enrollment NOW! MULTNOMAH SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE NEWCAMPUS "■“ T ^ 4*4444™ "^™ IOV 4 acres, increased facilities, homelike atmosphere. BIBLE EMPHASIS — more than 50% of curriculum. If it's Bible you want, then you want Multnomah. ACCREDITED COURSES — Th.B degree offered. Fully accredited on college level. 1 F n i Tiition «WRITE FOR CATALOS MULTNOMAH SCHOOL OFTHE BIBLE Willard M. Aldrich, Th. D., President 8435 N. E. Glisan Street, Portland 16, Oregon {0r better tomorrow.^ ...today 's opportunities SAH FRANCISCO BAPTIST COUffir That ye may know . . .
Lab Donald S. Robertson, Ph.D. Chairman, Dept, of Science, Biola Bible College
Carbon 14
T he scientist and the theologian have both been sufficiently interested in the antiquity of man to have made guesses as to the date when the first human appeared bn the earth. For many years the church used Ussher’s chronology which was derived from a study of the genealogies of the Scriptures to arrive at this date. As a result of this work an estimate of about six thousand years was made for the age of man. However, when the scientist began unearthing fossils of ancient men along with human artifacts which appeared to be older than six thousand years, an apparent conflict developed between the dis coveries of science and the Word of God as interpreted by many Chris tians. For some the problem was solved simply by concluding that the scientist had made an error in his dating. This argument sufficed for many years because the scientist in numerous cases did not have any means for checking his estimates. Since the last war, however, the sci entist has developed a method that can now be used to date more ac curately organic remains. This technique makes use of ra dioactive carbon 14 which is formed when neutrons produced by cosmic rays react in the upper atmosphere with nitrogen. This isotope of carbon then mixes with the regular carbon of the atmosphere and as such enters into the carbon cycle of the organic world. As a result living things al ways incorporate a certain amount of carbon 14 into their structure along with regular carbon. Since during life there is a continual turnover of carbon the proportion of carbon 14 to regular carbon in the tissues of the living organism remains the same as that found in the atmosphere. But when death takes place this exchange of carbon ceases and the carbon 14 is now locked within the tissues. Since this isotope of carbon has a half life of about 5500 years it means that the carbon 14 in the tissue at death will start disappearing (due to the emis sion of beta particles) at a rate that will reduce the amount in half every 5,500 years. This rate of disintegration
is constant under all testable condi tions. Thus there is locked within the tissue of dead organisms a clock which can be read by one who has had the proper training. Since carbon 14 is radioactive all one needs to do is measure the amount of radioactivity found in the carbon of any organic remains. Those organisms that re cently have died should show an amount of radiation approximating living forms. But those that died cen turies ago will show less radiation and the amount will be inversely propor tional to the length of time since death. Now, since the rate with which carbon 14 disintegrates is known it is possible to estimate how much time must have elapsed since death to give the observed level of radioac tivity. This technique was applied to mate rial which had accurately been dated by other means. The results estab lished that this was a reliable tech nique. For example, wood taken from the ring of a redwood tree that was formed between 1381 and 1373 years ago was determined by carbon 14 dat ing to have an age of 1430 ±150 years. Or in other words the true date of this ring according to carbon 14 methods most likely lies between 1280 and 1580 years ago which includes the dates already assigned by -Count ing the rings. Other tests with mate rial dated by independent means have revealed similar reliability so that today it seems safe to assume that this is a dependable technique for deter mining dates back as far as 30,000 years before the present. With present methods they cannot go beyond this time. However, new techniques are being developed which, if they prove successful, might push the limit back to 100,000 years ago. The results of these tests are of immense importance to the Christian. They will help us to answer questions about the age of man and of certain cultures and ar tifacts that have a bearing on Scrip ture. Next month we will consider some of the objects that have been dated by this method and their sig nificance. END.
Liberal Arts training with majors in Bible, Pre-theology, Christian Edu cation, Education, Sacred Music. And grow . . . Spiritual development is stressed as the function of true education. And go!
Directing lives into channels of use fulness is the purpose of education at San Francisco Baptist College. For com plete catalog w rite: 121 Haight St. • San Francisco 2, Calif. SAN FRANCISCO BAPTIST COLLEGE
P*a®i^g
«H itt THE g g
where the roads are muddiest. ..
where the need is greatest. . . there you will find PTL Gospel teams taking theWord of God tothepeople of Japan, Formosa, Korea. Go with them, through your prayers and your gifts. ALFRED A. KUNZ, Executive Director The Pocloeb Testament/ League i 156 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 10, N. Y. Have Your Eyes Examined Now! Student Rates DR. W . LA VERN SALTER DR. JOHN WM. SALTER Optometrists 226 Story Bldg., 610 So. Broadway Serving Bible institute students and instructors since 1926 Loa Angeles 14, Calif. TUcker 4855
22
THE KING'S BUSINESS
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter