The Age of the Earth, Evolution, and the Flood

I am open to the idea of a flood, but all this "young earth" stuff is so silly. There is lots of proof that the earth is at least tens of millions of years old, and in all probability, billions of years old. Just by looking at stalactites and stalagmites in caves, you can see how old the earth is. What you do is calculate the "deposition rate" (the rate at which the dripping water deposits rock, adding to the formation). Stalactities and stalagmites grow incredibly slowly - about 1 cubic inch every three thousand years! But some of them are thirty feet high and three feet thick! How long did it take them to grow that big? Think about it. If the earth was young, there would not be any large stalactites and stalagmites in caves. They would not have had time to form and grow.

Part of an article from AnswersinGenesis.org

Do ancient stalactites really exist?

by Evan Jamieson

I was talking to a friend on campus at Murdoch University, Western Australia. He had been having trouble with the theory of evolution and its relationship to the Bible.

Some months previously I had purchased Dr Michael Denton’s book, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis. My friend read the book in little over a week and came back rejoicing. All his questions had been answered, and there was renewed faith in the inerrancy of Scripture.

But he still had a question. Is the earth really young? After all, he had just come back from touring the caves of Western Australia’s south-west, and had seen all those stalactites. Didn’t they prove the earth was many thousands, or even millions, of years old?

I told him to come with me to see some buildings on campus where substantial stalactites were growing. I asked whether he thought these had taken many thousands of years to form, or whether perhaps it was a creationist trick to glue them to the undersides of the buildings. I remember raising the question of stalactite growth rates at a lecture in my undergraduate days, only to be told that stalactites growing from buildings were different to those forming in caves because the concrete offered a ready supply of material and there was enhanced water flow at localized sites because of redirection of water by the building’s drainage system. But similar conditions apply for every stalactite cave.

Go to this link~ http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v20/i2/stalactites.asp

Another article~

Fossils Do Not Prove Evolution Author: Bruce Malone

Fossils. The very name brings to mind images of untold ages past. . . dinosaurs roaming ancient swamps. . . slow but steady progression as simple sea life was transformed into today's complex variety. Is this an accurate reconstruction of the past or is a worldwide flood the correct explanation of the fossil record? Search for the Truth This article is one of many found within Mr. Malone's excellent book, Search for the Truth.

Fossils are the preserved evidence of past life. They are found in every part of the world, including the tops of the highest mountains. They may be as simple as a seashell which has left a permanent impression in sandstone or as grandiose as a giant plesiosaur whose bones have turned to rock after rapid burial. The fossils themselves tell us neither their age nor how they became encased in the rock layers. Rather, they must be interpreted within some view of earth history. Many people have been led to believe that the existence of fossils proves that millions of years have passed. In reality, fossils can form quite rapidly. Heat and pressure from rapid burial can accelerate the fossilization process. Geologic conditions following a worldwide flood would have exceeded anything imaginable today and must have led to the rapid fossilization of the plants and animals on a massive scale.

Fossilization can happen rapidly under the right conditions, but it is a rare event today. Yet there are mass burial sites throughout the world that are tightly packed with millions of fossils. Apparently, billions of organisms were washed together by the mass destruction of the worldwide flood, completely buried, and rapidly fossilized. These massive and extensive fossil graveyards would be the predictable result of a worldwide flood, but would hardly fit the slow accumulation model which continues to be taught as the primary explanation of the fossil record. Something dramatically different must have happened in the past to have caused the wide spread fossilization which we find all over our planet. Noah's flood would have been this event.

Geologists and paleontologists operating from a Christian worldview acknowledge the possibility that a worldwide catastrophe buried unimaginable amounts of plants and animals. This was the disaster documented in the first book of the Bible. It lasted at least one year and had reverberations which lasted for centuries. Sea creatures would have been buried first (the salinity and temperature of the oceans would have changed during the catastrophe, wiping out massive numbers of these sea creatures). Even after the flood, plant and animal extinction would have been common as many types of creatures failed to adapt to dramatically changing conditions.

Although any order of burial in a flood would be possible, the general tendency would be for sea life to be buried in the lower rock layers and land animals to be buried in different rock layers corresponding to their ecological niche. This tendency is generally found.

Creation geologists (and there are many of them) believe that the majority of the geologic record is a result of geologic activity during and subsequent to the year-long worldwide flood. This flood would have been an incredible complex event.

Geologist and paleontologists operating from an evolutionary world view acknowledge local catastrophes, but do not allow consideration of a worldwide flood. This would wipe out the "slow change over eons of time" interpretation of the fossils which is needed to continue believing in evolution.

Only one interpretation of the evidence can be correct and only one interpretation of the evidence agrees with what the Bible claims is the history of our planet.

If you are looking for the truth about young earth, worldwide flood, and aren't interested just in saying you don't believe it without truly knowing all the evidence, please go to this site~ http://www.firefighters.org/html/audio_catalog.htm And click on catalog #1. There will be a man called Kent Hovind who has tapes. Through Firefighters for Christ will send them to you free, with no shipping costs or anything. That is their ministry. I have gotten tapes from there, and it didn't cost me a cent. Sorry this was so long! Please check out these links~

http://www.answersingenesis.org/

On this site, go to articles~ they have some awesome ones.

http://www.drdino.com/index.php

EmmaFontaine If you like to read books please read Richard Dawkins "The God Delusion" This is one of the most elequent and well written books that I have seen for a long time and it completely demolishes any ideasthat can be found in quacky religious books such as the book you have mentioned. Incidentally, the earth is 4.65 BILLION (not million) years old. This is known because there are several independant scientific experiments which support this, which is also true of evolution.

I beg you, everybody, please do not allow your logical thought processes to be killed by religion.

Hotbot I’m bewildered as to why you believe that ‘The God Delusion’ is “eloquent” and “well written”! It is the worst piece of literature that I’ve ever read!!! I found myself banging my head against the hardest object I could find in frustration!!! Not a page went by without Dawkins relying on deceit, misinterpretation or just plain lies to advance his ideas. And it’s not just me who has such harsh views on the book, every philosopher, theologian or knowledgeable person who has read the book is abhorred by the poor quality of the content. It wouldn’t matter if the book wasn’t so well read, but because the book is such a good seller it worries me that so many people who don’t know better will swallow this stuff whole without question!

I suggest that if you don’t want to live in delusion, then make the small purchase of the book “The Dawkins Delusion?” by Alister McGrath. This book is only small, so it does not cost much, but it outlines the major fallacies in Dawkins book. It shows the outdated, deceitful and widely rubbished ideas that Dawkins uses and also shows what real philosophers and theologians think of the ideas that Dawkins uses, and also what they think of Dawkins book itself. Though I myself was quite capable in refuting most of Dawkins book, this book by McGrath enlightens you to the many philosophical ideas that have not be used for many decades and for very good reasons.

I can not stress enough how bad this book is. I’m sure there are many other books out there that deal with the subject of advancing atheism that are written by philosophers (not biologists) that are tens times better and that deal with empirical evidence, not the dribble that Dawkins comes up with! Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for debate on the existence of a god, but surely there is better stuff then ‘The God Delusion’!

To "Wise?" Old Man. You clearly understand nothing of Biology, Natural History, Paleontology and any of the sciences that quite independantly confirm without any doubt the true age of the earth and the validity of evolution which dispenses with the need of a creator. To say Richard Dawkins lies, when every argument that he puts forward is backed up by the most eloquent logic is patently absurd. However. I will read the book you mentioned and I am sure I will dismiss it with the same emotions that you dismiss the scientifically demopnstrated truth.

I ask yet again. If you insist that life was created, how do explain God himself being created?