The constancy of radioactive decay rates isn’t an assumption, as you (and other creationists) fondly believe.

Creationists simply don’t know enough science to be able to decide when something is an assumption, and when it is a deduction from some other law.

One of the fundamental principles of modern physics is that the laws of physics do not change under what is known technically as a Poincare transformation.

In popular language, this means that the laws are the same in Australia as in USA, that they are the same if you are facing north as if you are facing east, that they are the same today as they were last week, that they are the same in a laboratory on earth as they are in a moving satellite, allowance in all cases being made for slightly different gravitational fields and a few other minor things.

From this it can be shown – but you need much more advanced mathematical training than creationists seem to have to follow the proofs – that radioactive decay rates are constant.

And there are a whole range of other deductions which have been made as well.

If any of these deductions were shown to disagree with experimental data, the fundamental assumption – invariance of the laws of physics – would come under challenge.

However, so far, all the deductions have been in line with experiment.

This, of course, does not prove that the assumption of invariance is valid, but the amount of evidence is so vast that anyone who wants to challenge it bears the whole burden of proof.

So if you have any evidence that the fundamental laws of physics change, it is up to you to present it – and be prepared for it to be gone through with the traditional fine tooth comb.

Salaam

Ken Smith

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