# Carbon-14 Dating **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 30, 2000, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carbon-14-dating/20905 "2000-05-30T17:48:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2000, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carbon-14-dating/20905/61 "2000-07-20T21:10:58Z")
[QUOTE] Why 4004 B.C.? Because, at the time Usher did his calculations, 4 B.C. had been agreed upon by Biblical scholars as the year that Jesus was born. And Usher really, really, really liked the idea of Jesus being born an exact multiple of 1000 years after the Creation.{/QUOTE] I have pointed outt before that the date $ B.C. is derived from clonclusions made by historian and translator William Whiston, when he rendered the works of Josephus into English. Josephus is however often inconsistent and the date of 1 B .C.–or even A.D. 1–could be reckoned from Josephus’ works. I once wrote out on a blackboard, after class, at El. Camino College in Torrance, CA, a sequence of Scriptures that showed that Jesus was in fact born about October, 2 B. C. The instructor later told me that a colleague of hers–the redoubtable and revered Professor Julius Sumner Miller (she and he are both since deceased) was watching my disquisition–and he was, to my surprise, quite impressed. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2000, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carbon-14-dating/20905/62 "2000-07-20T21:12:53Z")
Excuse me–4 B. C. !! :o :o ---
**Author:** ![Zabes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b19c9b/32.png) [@Zabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabes)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carbon-14-dating/20905/63 "2000-07-21T13:42:37Z")
doughie\_monty… I’m a little confused, how old do you believe the earth/universe is? You said… > [@](#): > > Another clarification: Someone in this thread apparently said ‘According to the Bible, the earth was created 6000 years ago.’ Make no mistake–Idid not say this and I don’t think the Bible says it either. There could have been X number of years–millions, billions, or whatever–between the time of creation (vs. 1 of Genesis Chapter 1)and the periods (“days,” if you prefer) thereafter involving preparation of the earth for man and various flora and fauna. How big a number “X” was, no one knows. If X is, say, a million years, then the earth is ~6 million years old, right? In fact, if X is anything greater than ~10,000 years, then C14 dating shouldn’t pose a threat to your beliefs. I don’t think that anyone uses it to date anything older than 50K-60K years. So C14 might be useful and accurate for dating things since God zapped the whole universe into being. There seems to be a lot of evidence (see the multiple posts above) that it is. Change to this perspective, and look at the evidence surrounding C14 dating again. If you still can’t trust C14…well…I don’t know what to say… ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carbon-14-dating/20905/64 "2000-07-21T16:56:55Z")
The biggest reason for supposing that Jesus was born circa 4 BC was that the scriptures clearly state that Herod was king of Judea at the time. Herod died in (I forget) either 3 or 4 BC from Roman sources. 1 AD was assigned by a monk who didn’t have that extra data, so the system was screwed up from the get-go. But in any case, Jesus wasn’t born in 1 AD. ---
**Author:** ![oldscratch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2000, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carbon-14-dating/20905/65 "2000-07-21T17:13:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lemur866 \* > \*\*The biggest reason for supposing that Jesus was born circa 4 BC was that the scriptures clearly state that Herod was king of Judea at the time. Herod died in (I forget) either 3 or 4 BC from Roman sources. 1 AD was assigned by a monk who didn’t have that extra data, so the system was screwed up from the get-go. > > But in any case, Jesus wasn’t born in 1 AD. \*\* semihijack. The idea that the scriptures clearly state **anything** has me laughing right now. Anyway, sorry to interupt. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carbon-14-dating/20905.md?page=3)