"Living snails were carbon-14 dated at 2,300 and 27,000 years old, showing that the dating method is invalid."
What the evidence says
The 'living snails' example is a well-known reservoir effect — the snails absorbed ancient carbon from dissolved limestone in the water, which lacks carbon-14. Scientists account for this routinely. Multiple independent radiometric methods consistently produce the same dates for the same samples, confirming the reliability of the techniques.
Hovind frequently cites anomalous carbon-14 results — particularly the “living snails” example — to argue that all radiometric dating is unreliable. This is a textbook case of cherry-picking a known edge case and presenting it as though it invalidates an entire field of science.
The reservoir effect explains the snail anomaly: The snails in question lived in water containing dissolved carbon from ancient Paleozoic limestone that is depleted of carbon-14. When the snails incorporated this ancient carbon into their shells, the shells appeared artificially old. Scientists call this the “reservoir effect,” and it has been understood and accounted for since the early days of radiocarbon dating. Materials like wood, charcoal, and bone collagen are not affected by this issue because they derive their carbon from atmospheric CO₂.
Multiple independent methods converge on the same dates: G. Brent Dalrymple demonstrated that when four different radiometric methods — each using different parent-daughter isotope pairs with different decay rates — are applied to the same rock sample, they produce the same age. The USGS confirms that “where feasible, two or more methods of analysis are used on the same specimen of rock to confirm the results.” Independent agreement across methods that rely on entirely different physical processes makes systematic error implausible.
Decay rates are constant and well-understood: Radioactive decay is governed by quantum mechanics. Laboratory tests across extreme temperatures, pressures, and magnetic fields confirm that decay rates remain constant. Hovind’s implication that decay rates might have changed is contradicted by decades of experimental physics.
Radiometric dating has been verified against known historical events: The argon-argon (⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar) method dated the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius to 1,925 ± 94 years before the study — compared to the historically documented date of 79 CE. This kind of verification against independently known dates confirms that the methods work as described.
Carbon-14 is just one method among many: Hovind conflates carbon-14 dating, which is useful only for materials up to about 50,000 years old, with all radiometric dating. Other methods — uranium-lead, potassium-argon, rubidium-strontium — date materials billions of years old using completely different isotope systems. Discrediting one niche application of C-14 does not undermine the independent methods used to date the age of the Earth.