Radiocarbon Dating: Merits and Drawbacks

The method of radiocarbon dating and its potential usefulness was discovered and developed by a team of scientists led by the late Dr. Willard Libby. He later received a Nobel Peace Prize for chemistry. Since the formation and calibration of radiocarbon dating, it has risen to become the field standard for dating all carbon containing substances. Radiocarbon dating has lead to the development of other radioisotope dating methods, such as potassium-argon and uranium-238. Because of its relatively short half-life, radiocarbon dating has been most useful to archaeology (geology requiring a much larger time span, hence the development of uranium-238 dating).
Because radiocarbon dating is the cornerstone of conventional views of archaeological pre-history, it has been targeted by those who do not hold true to conventional theory. Most notable are the Christian creationists who believe the world is no more than 6,000 years old. …