User talk:SouthWriter/sandbox/An atheist's objections/@comment-1943951-20100810201651

when i said the "same principles", i meant that the same laws which explain the process through which DNA and other living systems work are the same as those which govern the decay of carbon isotopes. the "pure isotope" of carbon dating is Carbon-14, and always will be Carbon-14. since we know the approximate amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere, we can calculate the amount of Carbon-14 per gram of organic matter in a living being. once you know this, and Carbon-14's half-life it's child's play to calculate how long something has been dead. i do acknowledge that there are several ways that this process could be interrupted, the simple fact is that evidence from this mostly accurate process overwhelmingly points to a world that is more that 6000 years old.