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Show 269 December 16, 196‘ Elder Adam S. Bosnian Council of the Twelve Church Office Building Salt Lake City, Utah ' Dear Brother Bonniens President Joseph Fielding Smith's book "Han-Hie Origin and Destiny' poses a variety of interesting questions. First it is an impressive compilation of scriptural references on Earth History and of statements of selected church leaders. One must any selected because our trained scientists among the general authorities are not only not quoted but are not even mentioned. It would be instructive to have President Smith comment on "The Earth and Hen" by James E. Talmage, delivered from the tabernacle August 9, 1951, and "published by the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints;" or on "Science and the Gospel" by Brother John A. Widtsoe, the Young Ben's mutual Inprovernnt Association manual of 1508-1909. Both 21:1: these latter brethren regard the earth as having a very great antiquity. ‘ The consensus of opinion among the foremost earth scientists places the beginning of life on this earth back at about one billion years and the earth itself as two or three times that old. hhethcr or not these scientists are right is something which is best discussed disapassienately on the basis of a careful weighinfi of the evidence. Any ofller approach will not influence serious scholars. Here I will briefly sketch a few of the more or less {aniliar lines of 'evidenco on the are of the earth. The world is filled with radioactive clocks which can be read with varying accuracy but usually within ten per cent or so and . often considerably better. "The principle involved is eséentiaily"single.' The-* " heaviest elements such as uranium are unstablevand fly apart sending out particles which can be counted in a Geiger Counter. From the number of counts one can tell how much of the radioactive substance one has. As the substance continues to decompose, the counts decrease, always renainin: proportional to the number of particles not yet decomposed. low the particles that are shot out are helium so that if the decomposing uranium is enclosed in a rock this helium will also be entrapped. Thus by determining how much helium is entrapped and how much uranium is present in the rocks one can tell exactly how Ion: it has been since the rocks were laid down in their present form, since it always takes exactly the sane amount of time for a given fraction of the uranium to decompose. There is another check on this. Each time a uranium aton decomposes it leaves a lead eta: behind as well as ejecting the helium atom. Thus the ratio of these residual lead atone tc uranium is another wonderful clock. Four and one half billion years must elapse in order that half of the uranium present will be none. Half of that remains will decomnose in another four and a half billion years and so on. Thoriun, another radioactive clock, has a half life of fourteen billion years and there are a variety of other lone time clocks as well as some short time ones like carbon fourteen with a half life of five and one half thousand years. The radioactive clocks, together with the orderly way are laid down, prove that the earth is billions many sediments containin: fossils , -\ of years old. Q © [FD Y " ' ' ' |
