Pushing Back Noah: Young-Earth Creationists Grapple with Reliable Tree Ring Dating

Young-earth creationists are suddenly talking about dendrochronology — and some of them are admitting it's a bigger problem than they've let on. In this episode of This Week in Creationism, I look at a recent flurry of YEC articles and videos on tree-ring dating, including a new Answers Research Journal paper that attempts to simulate the 8,000-year bristlecone pine chronology using "virtual post-flood trees." The New Creation blog and a growing YouTube channel called Biblical Studies and Reviews have also weighed in — and what's surprising is that several of these authors are now conceding that the dendrochronology is robust and that 4,350 years simply isn't enough time. I also share photos from my own visit to Wheeler Peak in Great Basin National Park, where I hiked to bristlecone pines that are well over 3,000 years old — trees growing in a boulder field that, in the young-earth timeline, would still have been under glacial ice when they supposedly germinated. Chapters 0:00 Introduction and why TWIC has been quiet 1:47 A personal field visit: bristlecone pines at Wheeler Peak 8:56 Brief primer on how dendrochronology works 12:21 New Creation blog admits the chronology is robust 15:57 A second New Creation article: tree rings challenge biblical dates 21:34 The Septuagint workaround and allowing a longer flood date 27:11 Biblical Studies and Reviews: Stephen Hackett goes the Septuagint route 29:26 The Answers Research Journal paper: simulating 8,000 years with virtual trees 37:47 What the ARJ paper actually claims — and why it doesn't work 47:32 The ice age problem: even 4,500 years isn't the real constraint 53:14 Closing thoughts: a window cracking open in YEC chronology ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joel Duff (aka Dr. Duff or The Natural Historian) resources: About: https://joelduff.org Blog: https://thenaturalhistorian.com Twitter:   / naturalhistoria   Facebook:   / thenaturalhi.  . Photography "Portraits of Creation:" https://www.beechnutphotography.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------