Different methods have their own limitations, especially with regard to the age range they can measure and the substances they can date.

A common problem with any dating method is that a sample may be contaminated with older or younger material and give a false age.

So, we have a “clock” which starts ticking the moment something dies.

Obviously, this works only for things which were once living.

This problem is now reduced by the careful collection of samples, rigorous crosschecking and the use of newer techniques that can date minute samples.

Volcanic rocks – such as tuff and basalt – can be used in dating because they are formed at a particular moment in time, during an eruption.

This method relies on the uptake of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope of carbon, carbon-14 by all living things.

Following death, however, no new carbon is consumed.

Progressively through time, the carbon-14 atoms decay and once again become nitrogen-14.

C) dating usually want to know about the radiometric[1] dating methods that are claimed to give millions and billions of years—carbon dating can only give thousands of years.

People wonder how millions of years could be squeezed into the biblical account of history. Christians, by definition, take the statements of Jesus Christ seriously.