I've come up with a reasonable argument for calculating the starting sample of Carbon-14 on Earth, and it's rather simple. Simply, you begin with a sample that already has a known variable for time. Therefore, n can be solved for because the rate of decay and the age of the artifact are known, leaving the variable of the starting sample to be solved for algebraically. However, I have a theory which discounts all half-life dating: external interference. From all of the astrological interference which has and continues to occur, it is unknown if the Carbon-14 levels have been tampered with. Moreover, how can one discern that the Carbon-14 changes simply because the material underwent a physical alteration? Indeed, just because a potter molds the clay into a pot, that does not expunge the Carbon-14 from the material, nor does an erupting volcano restart the aging process of obsidian, or even more startling, the planet, or the moon. we can determine how long Carbon-14 has been present with the atomic specifics of the matter, but not the actual age of the matter. Yet, logically (when looking at only our planet) it seems rather preposterous to believe that the physical features of geological structures such as the multitude of layers in the crust alone, Mount Everest formed from the collision of tectonic plates known as Asia and India, and seeing just how slowly they move now, it is unreasonable to believe that these formations moved instantaneously over a course of ten thousand years or less. Then looking at the universe, judging by the radiation and the rate of expansion, accounting for the gradual acceleration due to entropy, and seeing the formations of nebulas and simply how agonizingly long it takes for them to form, it is not reasonable that the universe has not existed for billions of years. Also, knowing that the speed of light is 3x10^8 m/s, and judging the distance between stars we can see in our night sky, it takes millions of years for that light to reach us. This is not an attempt to disprove any theistic existence, simply a call for one with known scientific facts and calculation incorporated.
