Monday, May 22, 2006

A question for young earth creationists

This is a humble question for those who advocate a literal interpretation of the Global Flood as recorded in the Bible, and who believe that geological strata were a result of this flood: how do you explain certain oddities and patterns that we see in the geological record, such as:

  • Pollen and spores found alongside fossils of each age (stratum). Surely these would have floated to the top of the flood waters and settled in the top strata? See here and here.

  • The fact that light organic fragments, such as feathers and pieces of egg shell, appear in the same strata as the species that produced them. One would expect these fragments to be spread haphazardly through the geological column by the violent deluge of water. See here.

  • The fact that whale fossils are found above marine reptiles such as Ichthyosaurs and Plesiosaurs. What attribute of the flood kept these animals separate from each other? See here and here.

  • The fact that fossils of trilobites appear below fossils of dinosaurs and mammals. Again, one would expect some mixing to take place. See here.
  • The fact that therapsid reptile fossils became sorted in a sequence that looks like evolutionary decent. See here and here.

  • Only recently has molecular evidence confirmed the ancestry and relatedness of some animals. The evolutionary tree created from protein sequencing closely, but not always, matches that of the tree deduced from the fossil record. How did the Flood manage to roughly sort living organisms according to their proteins? See here.

  • The fact that we find 140 -150 meteor craters scattered through the various strata. If all these meteors fell during the short period of the Flood (which is a logical conclusion if the geological strata were the result of the Flood), the energy released would have incinerated everything on the surface of the earth. How did Noah and his Ark survive this quick and savage meteor bombardment from the skies? See here and here.

I am asking this in an attempt to understand your belief. To me, the idea of a worldwide flood seems inconsistent with what we presently observe in the geological record.

(Much better lists of Global Flood problems can be found
here and here)

4 comments:

Shmanky said...

Ask Dr. Hovind (Dr. Dino)

Jason Hughes said...

Not being a young earth proponent myself, but I was raised by and surrounded by young earth advocates my whole life...

Basically, they out of hand dismiss "your" scientific data as an attempt to discredit God and Christianity in general, tools of Satan meant to lead people astray from God...

Granted, those are the hard-core fundies...

My father, who literally believes in the Genesis story word for word as actual, literal fact, believes that God's designs and explanations are beyond our understanding, and we cannot hope to even try to explain how all of these things can be true at the same time... and he takes it all in Faith that all will be revealed to him when he meets God at the pearly gates...

Hope this helps you understand theit thoughts... even though it has never helped me...

:D

Kevin said...

Hi Jason

Thank you for your comment. I'm going to browse a bit at Answers in Genesis to see if they have any articles on the problems that I listed. They at least attempt to address some of the difficulties without resorting to the 'God is beyond our understanding' response.

However, although creationists are sometimes in the business of providing answers, I've found that most of their answers are ad hoc in nature.

I'm off to AiG to do some research - wish me luck!

Kevin

Edwardtbabinski said...

Let me know if you find anything new at Answers in Genesis, also don't forget to check No Answers in Genesis that I doubt AIG has a link to.

And my own articles (I'm a former YEC):

Why I Believe The Earth Is Old