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The Oldest Known Life Keeps Getting Older
Porfiry writes: "Remnants of organic matter in ancient soil more than 2.6 billion years old may be the earliest known evidence for terrestrial life, according to a team of Penn State astrobiologists. 'Our work shows that the organic matter in this soil very probably represents remnants of microbial mats that developed on the soil surface between 2.6 and 2.7 billion years ago,' says Dr. Hiroshi Ohmoto, professor of geochemistry and director of The Penn State Astrobiology Center. 'This places the development of terrestrial biomass more than 1.4 billion years earlier than previously reported.'"
Carbon-14 isn't what's used for those kinds of timelines. It's longer-lived substances like Uranium. And the fact of the matter is your concerns would have some weight if it weren't for the fact that something like five separate methods, using separate radioactive isotopes, achive dating results that are in precise agreement with each other.
Also, if radioactive decay rates were greater in the past (by the extent required to explain the Creationist timeline) then the ambient radioactivity on the surface of the earth would have wiped it clean of life in Biblical times.
Also, If rates of radioactive decay varied even by a little bit such devices as atomic bombs and nuclear reactors would simply not work. Fission explosions require nanosecond timing in the machinery of the bomb.
Finally, you can postulate all you like about exterior conditions to radioactivity but you have not established causality. You have proposed no mechanism that could be used to explain variable radioactivity, let alone put forward a testable hypothesis. Just because you don't understand it does not mean that it's incomprehensible.
Creationists try to make this subject sound much more subjective than it is. Don't take my word for it. Read up on the subject, if you're as open minded as you claim. Nuclear physics is really not that hard to understand when you want to know the whys and wherefores of these kinds of issues. But don't appeal to your own ignorance. I already know how it works and am comfortable with it. So is anyone who bothers to understand what they're talking about. And if you're too lazy to, well I'm sorry. You'll get the same kind of RTFM responses that any other kind of clueless newbie would get.
Curiously, the shape of these organic mats seems almost to form the letters of two english words, "First post". Of course, no conclusions can be drawn from this, and it has been attributed to mere happenstance...
End of lesson. You may press the button.
The Oldest Known Life Keeps Getting Older
As opposed to all those things that don't get older everyday???
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Don't let the headline fool you. By no means does this push back the age of the oldest known life. The paper reports on new evidence of terrestrial life. But, as stated in the article, there is evidence that the oceans were teeming with life as far back as 3.8 billion years ago (just after Heavy Bombardment ended). And by teeming, I mean there are fossilized structures (stromatolites) that can be many meters high, which were created solely by ancient bacteria.
Don't get me wrong. Very old terrestrial life is a big deal. But 2.6-2.7 bya isn't all *that* long ago.
4-star general in a one-man army.