As I shown above, the Watchtower quoted the Physicist R. H. Brown, who seems or seemed to be an Adventist against radiocarbon dates against the Bible chronology. However, R. E. Taylor, who worked in the Radiocarbon Laboratory of the University of California, answered one of his articles:
A reader familiar with the general 14 C literature but not aware of Dr. Brown's philosophical or theological orientation would certainly have been puzzled by the tenor of the first four paragraphs of his discussion. However, any confusion would probably be resolved when one reads the first sentence in the next paragraph. Dr. Brown states that he is writing these comments for those "individuals who are looking for models that relate the historical data in the Bible and modern scientific observations." According to Dr. Brown, these individuals believe that Genesis 6-8 "describe a universal catastrophe that reasonably may be expected to have produced most of the coal and shell fossil material...." According to Dr. Brown, that "universal catastrophe" occurred "within the range 2500-3500 BC." That this view totally and completely contradicts well-established conclusions of a whole range of scientific disciplines — not to mention historical and archaeological data — apparently does not disturb Dr. Brown. It is my understanding that the majority of theologians holding academic credentials in the study of Hebrew language and literature in his own denomination views the Genesis creation narratives as theological rather than historical statements. I would therefore submit that the appropriate place to look for models that explain the apparent discrepancy that Dr. Brown sees between the scientifically well-established conclusion that organic life on earth is millions of years old and his interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis is not to be found in the scientific literature.