3.3 Million or just a few thousand years?

[KNAPPer]

Looks like evidence of stone tool making may date back as far as 3.3 million years - long before Homo sapiens came around. Either that or the same knowledge base that can cure cancer, create computers, launch satellites and see a distant universe can't figure out how to calculate the dating of materials.....AND doesn't even know what fossils they are looking at....

http://news.sciencemag.org/africa/2015/04/world-s-oldest-stone-tools-discovered-kenya?utm_source=fac...

[BA Deere]

Carbon dating only goes back 50K yrs, they say there`s a whiz-bang method of the reverse magnetism of the earth.  Okay, I can buy a little of that but to have two rocks side by side the one has chips off of it and the other doesn`t, one would think they would both be the exact age affected equally ..chips or no chips.

If one could find a spearhead that was in a T-Rex out of a tar pit, then it would be more conclusive evidence.

* Okay liberals, if you know better please tell me, don`t just mock.  I am bringing up an important point and I am admitting that I don`t know.  If you disagree..great!  just tell me where that I am mistaken. 

[r3020]

I don't know Knapper. These rocks have been laying around for 3.3 million years. Someone just happens to see one laying on the surface. After laying there for 3.3 million years they find one chip that fits perfectly onto another. I would say things had to be awful quiet and stable there for that to happen. I guess anything is possible but I think it could be far from settled. JMHO.

[Canuck_2]

I have been reading about that on other sites and then yesterday heard an interview on Quirks and Quarks raadio program with one of the researchers that filled in a few more gaps i the info.

You should be abe to listen here  http://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks by clicking on the 13 minute segment.

Quite an finding and although some posters are looking for excuse of why this can not be true to suit their 'beliefs' some of the articles I have read go into how the find was dated by several methods to be sure they had the correct age on the objects.

The interview talks about how the type of flaking, the way it was done, is different and how it probably was not the very first manufactured stone tools but an improvement on old technology.

Interesting about how dexterity in different species allows different uses of a stone or stone tool(s).

Will see if I can locate address of other sites i read about this.

I find it very interesting to fill in gaps in how evolution progressed even in tool making.

[KNAPPer]

Well, they found about 149 altered rocks, not just one laying undieturbed in sediments of that age. Rocks don't do a lot of moving through soil layers on their own and these were in datable deposits of volcanic tufts and I think they used a magnet dating method too. You are right about C14 dating having limits. There are unmistakable signs made when knapping rocks that can't be the result of random or natural formation. Lithic analysis is a solid science field and there are indeed experts. Is it a for sure thing? Maybe not - but maybe so. Only time and more analysis and more finds will tell. Oh, and you won't find any stone tools imbedded in a dinosaur body because they died out over 65 million years ago...if you can believe that! All I will say is that there is a possibility some proto human made those artifacts 3.3 million years ago and this evidence is what makes it a possibility.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/oldest-known-stone-tools-unearthed-kenya-180955341/?no-...

[colinnorris1]

This is the sort of stuff that gets those godbotherers stirred up. Watch them come out barking mad with the biblical renunciations.

[KNAPPer]

That's just one of millions of examples of something older than the 6,000 plus years. Heck, a Clovis point dates back more than 10,000 years.

[NewAgJudge]

That is ridiculous, Because if the bible is wrong about that than dare we ask that maybe, just maybe it is wrong about EVERYTHING ???

LOL ha ha ha..... The churches dwindle in the light of science..................:)

[KNAPPer]

You are a little too general (or specific?) about this. There are many truths in the bible. You may draw a separate set of truths for yourself, but there are some basic ideas and truths that are shared among many enlightened people all over the world no matter what religion or what philosophy.  Do you get that? You should not kill, you should not lie etc. I think you need to be clear that you are against Christian  fundamentalism and literal biblical interpretation rather than basic humanistic teachings. Otherwise you oppose the teachings of say the Dali Llama as much as the teachings of Jesus or the teachings of anyone speaking about common morals. You don't have to be a Christian to see some value in the teachings of Jesus or any other moralistic philosopher. 

So the earth is older than the bible says...BFD. That doesn't throw every idea out the window.....some think so, but they are flawed and ill thinking clods.

[BA Deere]

That`s too bad, it would be fun to transcend politics and religion...or lack thereof just once in awhile, but haters gotta hate.

If you`re interested in "out of place artifacts" here`s a doozy for you, an aluminum gear was found inside of a 300 million year old piece of coal.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/23/300-million-year-old-tooth-gear_n_2527424.html 

by the way, don`t let these atheists tell you that this can`t be Biblical. look up a translation of the book of Genisis in the language that it was written, Hebrew and the word "day" is actually a Hebrew word "Yowm" which can mean a 24 hour period or period of light or a period of time that can encompass billions of "our" years.