Ah! The Irony

Skepticism General Skepticism
#1

they used science to carbon-date the bones and now claim as follows:

Found: bones of John the Baptist June 15 2012 at 09:14am By Daily Mail

London - When archaeologists claimed to have found the bones of John the Baptist, experts were sceptical.

But carbon dating tests carried out at Oxford University have provided scientific evidence to support the extraordinary claim.

A knucklebone taken from the remains – which include a skull, bones from a jaw and an arm, and a tooth – has been dated to around the 1st century AD, when John is believed to have lived. The fragments were found two years ago in a stone box in a ruined Bulgarian monastery.

Oxford professor Thomas Higham said: “We were surprised when the radiocarbon dating produced this very early age. We had suspected that the bones may have been more recent than this, perhaps from the third or fourth centuries.” - Daily Mail

I suppose John was the only person alive at that period though, it would simply be inconceivable to claim the bones could belong to a peasant…

#2

Oh my science! He WAS a peasant! this must be true!

#3

So if I understand this correctly, the methods of carbon dating are perfectly acceptable to prop up theories about Johnny Wetknees, but not when it is used for scientific research.

Rigil

#4

he does work in mysterious ways… >:D

#5

Lol… I can’t help but chuckle every time something like this happens. I think you might be right Rigil. Radiometric dating only works when applied to religious artifacts. Inluding the manuscripts of their holy book…

#6

Genesis 1 (New Science Edition): “And on the eve of the seventh day, God cleared out his toolbox, and behold, an embarrassing excess of neutrons fell out. And God became angry with them, for they were disobedient and lazy neutrons, and He took them to a tree in the middle of the Garden, and He said unto the neutrons: go forth into this tree. And it was so. And God locked the neutrons into the tree, and it’s wood becameth their prison, and it’s branches were heavy and unstable. And His secret layeth safe.”

R.