Ancient Trees and Biblical Timelines

Biblical creationists often need to deal with tendentious evidences for Earth's alleged old age, including radiometric dating, ice core samples, distant starlight, and others. These have been dealt with by creationists in many places (several of which are linked on this site). Another "proof" for Earth's age is that of trees, since the Genesis Flood, about 4,500 years ago, would have ripped them up and they'd have to start over. Yet some are claimed to be substantially older.


Old sequoia General Sherman and the Genesis Flood
"General Sherman" sequoia credit: US National Park Service,
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Some folks say that certain trees are dated at 30,000 years, so the timeline of the Bible must be wrong. Ofttimes, people are using outdated material and incomplete material. For example, the General Sherman sequoia pictured above was thought to be in excess of 6,000 years, but has been revised down to an uncertain approximation of 2,150 years. Many believe that these ages are calculated simply by counting tree rings (dendrochronology), but none of them have yielded such long ages by that method alone — and none exceed the date of the Flood. Other dubious time calculation factors have been added to yield preconceived results. Try as they might, the Flood did happen, and spurious "evidence" cannot erase this fact.
High in the cold, dry air of the White Mountains of California, just north of the infamous and inhospitable Death Valley, lives possibly the world’s oldest living organism. It’s a Bristlecone Pine tree, given the Biblical name of ‘Old Methuselah’ due to its estimated age (from counting the number of its tree rings) of 4,723 years. Amazingly, this tree would have been over 2,000 years old when Jesus Christ walked the Earth.
I won't be a sap and leave you out on a limb. You can finish reading the article by clicking on "Patriarchs of the forest". Although from 2002, it still has some very interesting information. Be sure to see the "Related Articles" linked below it for further information.