Justatruthseeker, for some reason when I hit the quote button on your post it comes up blank. I have no idea why this happens unless there is some function I'm not aware of that allows one to prevent another from quoting them. Nevertheless, I will respond to your post (#3) in general.
It is true that fossils cannot be dated directly, with the exceptions of those with chitinous shells, which also has specific limitations. However, that is why the age of fossils is given a relative age, not an absolute age as is done with rocks of igneous origin.
And as you correctly mentioned, sedimentary rock in which the fossils are contained cannot be dated directly. That is why a relative age is given to fossils. But first, lets define the difference between absolute and relative age.
Absolute age is the age of a rock or substance where an absolute age can be determined usually by radiometric means, but there are also some non-radiometric dating methods as well that yield absolute ages. It is also important to keep in mind that with absolute ages that they are reported with a margin of error statistically determined from the test results. Thus plus/minus so many years.
With relative ages, as you also covered, sedimentary strata is dated by igneous rock within those layers. Thus the age of any specific sedimentary layer is determined to be within an upper and lower limit, therefore, it is called a relative age.
Now, one thing you mention was Fermi's beta decay (1933) as being a problem, especially with radiocarbon dating. Indeed it is not. Fermi only described the process of beta decay. The fact is beta decay happens and it is directly measurable. In radiocarbon dating there are two main processes. One is to count beta particles in a sample which measures 14C activity and requires a significant size sample. The other, which is employed today at a much greater extent is Accelerator Mass Sepectromety (AMS), which doesn't count beta particles, rather it measures the ratio between 14C, 13C and 12C.
Moving on, finding igneous material to date in sedimentary strata is not difficult to utilize today as it was in the earlier days of radiometric dating. With improved instrumentation and new techniques continuously growing, samples with took much material to be processed can now be only a few milligrams. Thus, particles of volcanic ash deposited by volcanic eruptions of only a few milligrams can now be dated, and there are few places on earth where such particles are not found is sedimentary strata.
As for a fossil being used to data strata this is where the term "index" fossil is applied. Fossils which are only found in specific types of strata which has been previously radiometrically dated (the strata that is) only exist in that strata of that age, therefore their age is a relative value or "relative age" of that strata or range of strata in which they may overlap.
