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The distinction between 'observational' and 'historical' is a matter of political and social convenience. Consider carbon dating. Since it's been observed, we
by SworDsy 13y ago
The distinction between 'observational' and 'historical' is a matter of political and social convenience.
Consider carbon dating. Since it's been observed, we should assume it's observational. carbon dating indicates that dinosaurs existed hundreds of millions of years ago instead of mere thousands. but that's historical and therefore this is a contradiction, so we can't assume the distinction.
the only logical conclusion is that we have a false premise.
- jurassic 13y agoMinor nit pick here, but carbon dating is not used to date fossils and rocks because C14 has a half-life of only ~5k years. With such a short half-life, the C14 all decays away to trace levels in only a few tens of thousands of years. Other radioactive isotopes with much longer half-lives are more appropriate for geologic dating. The U-Pb system is really good for most geologic applications.