Letters to the editor

    Dear Editor:

    In her viewpoint, KC Jones suggests that paleontologists are employing circular logic in their use of fossils to date rocks.

    Prior to 1900, her argument may have had merit as scientists had only two dating methods. Relative age dating uses principles based on logic to establish the sequence of events in a particular area. Relative age dating can also be used to establish the sequence in which fossils appear and therefore allow them to be used for age correlation.

    However, while this might allow one to say that Trilobites are everywhere older than Triceratops, there was no way of determining if Trilobites are thousands, millions or even billions of years old.

    The discovery of radioactivity in 1896 provided the basis for a new dating technique. The highly accurate absolute ages provided by radiometric age dating confirmed the antiquity of the fossil record with the remains of primitive organisms found in some of the oldest rocks known.

    It also verified the sequence in which fossils appear in the geologic record, and pattern of initially primitive organisms becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated over time. This pattern is observed at all scales and culminates in the appearance of the first fossil hominids five million years ago.

    The efforts of thousands of paleontologists have established the fossil record. The sequence in which fossils appear can be explained in two ways. Either organisms are capable of change over long time periods of time, or some omnipotent power beyond our understanding has placed the fossils in the rocks. These two alternatives differ most pointedly in that the former relies upon natural processes whereas the latter involves the supernatural.

    The Greek historian Polybius wrote two thousand years ago, “Whenever it is possible to find the cause of what is happening, one should not have recourse to the gods.” As a scientist, I am also predisposed to explain the world around us through natural processes.

    While I cannot rule out supernatural explanations, I emphasize that these explanations are inherently untestable through the scientific method. This is a critical shortcoming.

    The scientific method has shown itself to be a powerful and versatile tool for gaining knowledge of the physical world around us. Indeed, the standard of living we now take for granted is possible only because of our understanding of nature gained through the scientific method.

    Doug Oliver
    Associate Professor, Geology
    SE Campus