Matt Damon's Rant

Apparently one of the requirements to be the next vice president of the United States is for Matt Damon to know you. In an interview recently, he stated that he does not know Sara Palin and doubts he will know her any better over the next eight weeks so...Sara Palin is not qualified to be vice president.

What I want to know is this: what qualification does Mr. Damon have that would cause me to give his views any more weight than say...my eight year old son? He is an actor, and therefore gets media attention, but then he uses that power to spread fallacies and falsehoods about a potential candidate. I would say the latter half of that statement would disqualify him from being seriously considered to be any sort of resource on who should be the next vice president.

The interview is disturbing as he throws out words and statistics that sound impressive, that is unless you know what they actually mean or care to look them up. For example, he states that according to the actuary tables, there is a very real possibility that McCain could die in office. John McCain is 71 years old. According to the actuarial tables, John McCain has 12.64 more years to actual live, statistically speaking. Mr. Damon stated that there was a 1 in 3 chance that McCain would die in office. If my math is correct, and we are conservative in our numbers, McCain should live until the ripe old age of 81, and that more than covers two terms.

Mr. Damon goes on to talk about two questions he would like Pain to answer: the first is if Palin believes that dinosaurs roamed the earth 4,000 years ago? And, the second is this: he would like to know if she burned books? We know the latter is a solid no, but what about the first? Did dinosaurs roam the earth 4,000 years ago? This geological time frame question is as controversial as this election. The real facts are that neither side has concrete scientific proof that supports an answer. Please, do not give me the carbon 14 dating answer as that is just as unreliable as the next answer.

Carbon-14 is created in the upper atmosphere as nitrogen atoms are bombarded by cosmic radiation. For every one trillion carbon-12 atoms, you will find one carbon-14atom. The carbon-14 that results from the reaction caused by cosmic radiation quickly changes to carbon dioxide, just like normal carbon-12 would. The carbon-14 dioxide is utilized by plants in the same way normal carbon dioxide is. This carbon-14 dioxide then ends up in humans and other animals as it moves up the food chain.

There is then a ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 in the bodies of plants, humans, and other animals that can fluctuate, but it will be fixed at the time of death. After death, the carbon-14 would begin to decay. In 1948, Dr. W.F. Libby introduced the carbon-14 dating method at the University of Chicago. The premise behind the method is to determine the ratio of carbon-14 left in organic matter, and by doing so, estimate how long ago death occurred by running the ratio backwards. The accuracy of this method, however, relies on several faulty assumptions. I will only mention one as that should be all that is needed when testing a scientific hypothesis.

For carbon-14 dating to be accurate, one must assume the rate of decay of carbon-14 has remained constant over all years. Evidence indicates the opposite. Experiments performed using the radioactive isotopes of uranium-238 and iron-57 have shown that rates can and do vary. In fact, when the environment's surrounding changes for the samples, decay rates do alter.

To make carbon-14 dating work, one must assume that the amount of carbon-14 being presently produced had equaled the amount of carbon-12, assuming that they had reached a balance. The natural formation of carbon-14 will increase with time; at the time of creation, it was probably at or near zero. Of course there will be those who refute even these claims and continue to trust the carbon 14 dating method because it supports what they believe.

For me there are some fairly sizable assumptions that one must make to trust carbon 14 dating. So far, science has made many past assumptions that have been proven false, and God's word, as of today, is still not yet been proven false as every archaeological discovery has affirmed the truth of the scriptures.

Back to Mr. Damon's rant, he fulfills my prophecy of a week ago. He hates her, and he does not even know her because...she is the anti-him. I encourage you to click HERE to watch the interview.

We must demand the truth from those who wish to speak publicly about issues. Those who have the power of media must be made to back up their comments with facts. When we, Christians, speak in public about issues we must also speak the truth, and speak it in love with facts to back up our claims. Blessings!