catastrophism and the flood

The biblical writers spoke of the flood as a real event, Peter
predicted the time when people would forget that God created the world
and destroyed it by a flood (2 Pet 3:3-6).
The principle of uniformitarianism has been generally accepted in
geological thinking and means that what we observe today is a guide to
what has happened over eons of time, therefore it is believed that
rocks, coal, oil, fossils, and geological layers were formed over
millions of years.
The alternative principle which has been gaining ground is that of
catastrophism which states that what normally takes a thousand years
could happen in an hour in adverse circumstances when there is a
tornado, hurricane, tidal wave, earthquake etc (D. V. Ager, 1973, The
nature of the stratigraphical record, p. 49, New York)
Undersea waves of mud from earthquakes called turbidites can cover vast
distances in a few hours and create a layer of debris which normally
would have taken eons.
On Nov 18, 1929 an earthquake known as the Grand Banks Earthquake
occurred near New England, a large sediment mud slide travelled in some
parts over 430 miles, the speed travelled was sometimes greater than 60
mph. The mudslide broke telegraphic cables enabling calculations to be
made, the last cable to be broken was over 13 hours after the
earthquake, the area covered was more than 40,000 miles squared with a
thickness of a little less than a meter. The volume would be enough to
load 20 rows of tankers encircling the earth!
If such a small earthquake could cause such a mud slide, what could a
worldwide flood with catastrophic upheavals in the earths crust cause?

We find some geological layers covering vast areas, and usually
unaffected by erosion such as we see in canyons today. This lack of
erosion and the vast areas covered by these layers suggest
catastrophism on a huge scale.
The Triassic fossil-wood-bearing Shinarump conglomerate is usually less
than 30 meters thick, spread over 100,000 miles squared (H. E. Gregory,
1950, Geology and geography of the Zion Park region, Utah and Arizona,
U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 220).
The Jurassic Morrison Formation of the Western United States extends
from Kansas to Utah and from Canada to New Mexico (L. F. Hintze, Provo,
Utah, 1973, Geologic history of Utah. Brigham Young University Geology
Studies 20, Part 3), yet the average thickness is only about 150
meters.

Interestingly a third of the sediment on the continents contains marine
fossils, suggesting a vast upheaval and burial of sea life onto the
land as these sea creatures were transported onto land by the flood
waters.
We find different kinds of animals at different levels however this can
be explained by the flood waters gradually rising and the animals being
buried in the waves of mud and debris according to the height of their
natural habitat. Other suggestions have been given such as the sorting
action of gravity during the upheaval of the flood waters.

The fossils data shows advance life appearing suddenly in the Cambrian
layer, and then these major kinds of life continuing in all the
geological layers. What is missing is a gradual development.

"To the question of why we do not find rich fossilferous deposits
belonging to these assumed earliest periods prior to the Cambrian
system, I can give no satisfactory answer....The case at present must
remain inexplicable, and may be truly argued as a valid argument
against the views here entertained" (Darwin 1859, Origin or Species,
pp. 309, 310)

This problem has not been solved in modern times, there is a further
problem of the "missing links", we do not find evidence of a
gradual change from one species to another. We also have examples of
"living fossils" which were thought to have lived millions of years
ago but were discovered still alive today.

"It is a feature of the known fossil record that most taxa appear
abruptly. They are not, as a rule, led up to by a sequence such as
Darwin believed should be usual in evolution. . . . When a new genus
appears in the record it is usually well separated morphologically from
the most nearly similar other known genera. This phenomenon becomes
more universal and more intense as the hierarchy of categories is
ascended. Gaps among known species are sporadic and often small. Gaps
among known orders, classes, and phyla are systematic and almost always
large." (G. G. Simpson, 1960, Historical science p. 149. In C. C.
Albitton, ed. 1963. The Fabric of Geology, pp 24-48. Addison Wesley,
Reading, Mass.)

It has been estimated that if a quarter of the earth's surface was
covered by a maximum normal range temperate forest it would yield
enough carbon to create all our coal and oil. In the creation model
this would have happened rapidly during the flood when these materials
would have been buried with pressure and heat.

Upheavals in the earths crust occurred during the huge upheavals that
came with the flood which affected the whole surface of the earth.
Continents could have been separated in a short time.

One of the reasons for assigning such vast ages to the fossils has been
radiocarbon dating. However as carbon dating is only accurate to 50,000
years it cannot be used to support the eons of time needed for the
evolutionary model. The flood could have caused changes in the carbon
balance which makes things appear older than they are. This could also
be caused by the decay in the earth's magnetic field and a decrease
in the moisture in the outer atmosphere. These factors would increase
the amount of cosmic rays reaching the earth.
Inorganic radiometric dating cannot be relied upon as we cannot assume
that fossils are the same age as the material that they are buried in.

We do find evidence in biology of mutations which are usually harmful,
crossbreeding and natural selection, all this fits in with the creation
model of a perfect creation and natural variety, and the decay since
the fall. There is no evidence that microevolution has led to
macroevolution from one species to another as shown by the fossil
records. We have simply moved from the perfect to imperfect.

In summary perhaps a good analogy is a man who discovers a vast pool of
water with water dripping slowly into it. He might assume that it must
have taken millions of years for the pool to be filled up, yet unknown
to him a river burst its banks and rapidly filled up the pool before he
arrived.
The main points in favour of the catastrophic model are: a) geological
layers covering vast areas showing little signs of erosion b) lack of
pre-Cambrian fossils c) lack of "missing link" fossils d) abundance
of marine fossils in the sediment on the continents e) living fossils

I believe we need to regain our faith in the inspired record as the
Word of God preserved for us to lead us to eternal life, and recognise
God as our Creator and Redeemer. God who is all powerful would not
allow His Word to become corrupted, His love for us shown in the cross
is too great and honest for it to be otherwise.

God Bless

Marc
.

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