Earth - Billions of Birthdays
The earth began long ago but its age has been a cause of great controversy. If the earth was young evolution, the gap theory, and theistic evolution would be proven wrong. On the other hand if the earth was old, creation and the Bible would be false. While evolutionists believe that the earth evolved about 4.5 to 5 billion years ago, (Taylor), many creationists argue that the earth was created about 6 to 12 thousand years ago according to Biblical records. Obviously, the creationists’ evidence shows the earth is younger than most people think.
Using this evidence, creationists have challenged some of the strongest points for evolution. One problem with labeling the earth old is erosion. Evolutionists say the oceans are about 3 billion years old. On average, 25 billion tons of sediment erode away into the oceans annually. Using those statistics, the oceans would be clogged with mud and sediment if they were that old, but very little sediment rests on the bottom of the ocean (Humphreys 2). “Old earthers claim that the continents are over 2.5 billion years old, yet, using their own assumptions, the continents should have eroded away in 10 million years” (Walker “Eroding Ages”). This suggests a young earth. In spite of the evidence, evolutionists say erosion rates were less before humans came to earth. However, erosion rates have been calculated to have increased only 2.5 times had humans not been on earth from the beginning. Another way evolutionists attempt to counter the attack is that they say the mountains are continually uplifted. Many creationists, then, point out that if that were true the mountains would have been replaced many times. Still, evolutionists believe that the mountains are millions of years old, but if they were replaced by continental uplift, they could not be that old.
Another area of evidence evolutionists use for an old earth is the fossil record. Evolutionists believe fossils are millions of years old. Creationists, however, have found evidence that counters the age of fossils. An example is those brought up by a mudflow in Wootton Bassett, England. The mudflow bubbles continuously and occasionally brings up fossils. One of the fossils found was an ammonite, a prehistoric seashell which evolutionists believe was from the Jurassic time period. The ammonite was extremely well preserved, with several of the ligaments intact. Evolutionists believe the fossil was 165 million years old, but if so it would not be so well preserved. Upon seeing the Ammonite, Dr. Hollingworth, an evolutionist, said “There are the shells of bivalves which still have their original organic ligaments and yet they are millions of years old!” (Snelling “A 165 Million Year Surprise”).
Coal is another rock that evolutionists believe to have taken millions of years to form, but creationists have discovered evidence providing proof that coal forms in a short time. An extremely large brown coal deposit rests in a basin, the Latrobe Valley, offshore of Southeast Australia. Evolutionists believe the coal formed from vegetation that accumulated as peat which sank and formed into coal over millions of years. But most creationists believe a worldwide flood deposited the brown coal. Rootless clay was discovered underneath the coal, but if the coal formed over millions of years, there should be soil underneath the coal. Also ash layers exist in the coal. If plants had grown in a swamp and accumulated, no ash layers would be present. Another problem with the evolutionists’ theory is that the plant fossils found in the coal only grow on mountains and do not match the species of any growing in the surrounding area. However, the same type of vegetation is found on part of New Guinea, New Zealand, New Caledonians, and mountains in Australia. The evidence suggests that the vegetation was carried from elsewhere and deposited in the basin by a flood (Walker “Coal Memorial to the Flood”).
Another old age stone, according to evolutionists, is at the Yellowstone National Park. In a part of Yellowstone on the side of a hill, upright petrified trees can be found. More trees in the side of the hill have not been exposed by erosion yet. The trees are on different levels, and evolutionists think each level represents a forest.
Evolutionists believe the petrified trees were once forests that died and petrified, and another forest grew over the old one. This process repeated itself and took about 40,000 years for the entire formation to form. Creationists have discovered many problems with the forest over forest theory. First the trees lack their major root systems. Next, most of the trees do not have any bark or branches. Another problem is that some of the trees stick up into the next layer. When trees fall they end up lying around in any direction, but the fallen petrified trees throughout the hill all lie the same direction. Also, if each layer was buried in a different volcanic eruption, the mineral content of the earth in each layer would differ, but it doesn’t. Volcanic ash and lava when exposed to the air for a prolonged period of time, turn to clay, but the layers lack clay. The last problem is that when trees all grow in the same area at the same time they all have a similar ring pattern. Since the petrified trees at Yellowstone all have a similar ring pattern, it suggests that they all grew in the same area at the same time (Snelling “Rapid Rock”).
Many creationists think a catastrophe put the trees there. They have found some extremely convincing and recent evidence to support their theory. When Mt. St. Helens in Washington erupted in 1980 it created a major mudslide that wiped out forests and carried the trees down to nearby Spirit Lake. The thousands of trees with few remaining roots that were floating in the lake began to soak up water like they were designed to. As a result, the root end became heavier than the rest of the log and flipped the log upright. As the log became waterlogged it sank. “Debris from the floating log mat and a continuing influx of sediment from the land buried the logs, still in an upright position” (Sarfat 18-21). Because some logs sink faster than others, it created layers. Several creationist scuba divers dove into Spirit Lake in 1985 and discovered about 15,000 upright logs stuck in the mud at the bottom of the lake. In a few years the logs will petrify and they will create a standing petrified forest, just like Yellowstone.
Perhaps the controversy is all based on dating methods. Evolutionists use radioisotope dating to prove evolution. Before evolutionists date a rock they must assume radioactive material is present in the rock. The date they get depends on the amount of radioactive material they assumed was in the rock (Walker “The Way it Really is”), evolutionists can get just about any date they want. Creationists have run some tests and have found, in many cases, the dating method to be wrong. In one case, creationists sent in five samples of volcanic rock from Mt. St. Helens recent eruptions (1980-1986). Using the Potassium-Argon (K-Ar) type of radioactive dating, evolutionists sent the samples back to the creationists with dates of up to 2.8 million years (Swenson 23-25). Other volcanoes have received old dates for young lava flows. In Sicily, Mt. Etna received a .35 million-year date for a 1972 flow and a .7 million years date for a 1964 flow. Another volcano in California called Mt. Lassen erupted in 1915 and received the date of .11 million years. In Hawaii the famous Mt. Kilauea was given a date of 8.5 million years for a flow that was only made in 1959. Mt. Stromboli in Italy erupted in 1963 and was dated to be 2.4 million years old (Snelling “Excess Argon”). In New Zealand some tests were run on five of Mt. Ngauruhoe flows. All of the lava flows were created in the last fifty years. Creationists sent the samples to Geochron Laboratories in Cambridge, Boston; the manager has a Ph. D in K-Ar dating. The oldest date given to one of the samples was 3.5 million years old. Since the tests done on volcano samples have been proven false, the radioisotope dating method is not reliable and it cannot prove evolution (Snelling “Radioactive ‘Dating’ Failure”).
The earth began long ago but its age has been a source of great controversy. While evolutionists believe the earth is billions of years old, young earth creationists believe the earth is only thousands of years old. Much evidence proves evolutionists’ old age theory is wrong and creationists’ young earth theory is right. There is no doubt that creation has been proven true over and over. If people still remain in doubt they need to look closely at the evidence. There is much to support a young earth, as the Bible describes.
Works Cited
Humphreys, Dr. Russel. (http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-co12.html); (14 Jan. 2003)
Ken, Ham and Sarfat, Jonathan and others. (http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c005.html); (14 Jan. 2003)
Safat, Jonathan. “The Yellowstone Petrified Forests.” Creation ex nihilo March-May 1999: 18-21.
Snelling, Andrew. “A 165 Million Year Surprise.” Creation ex nihilo March-May 1997: 14-15.
Snelling, Andrew. “Excess Argon.” Impact January 1999: volume 307.
Snelling, Andrew. “Radioactive ‘Dating’ Failure.” Creation ex nihilo December-February 1999-2000: 18-21.
The Student Bible. NIV. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986.
Swenson, Keith. “Radio-Dating in Rubble.” Creation June-August 2001: 23-25.
Taylor, Paul and Henderson, Thomas. (http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-earthage.html); (14 Jan. 2003)
Walker, Tas. “Coal Memorial to the Flood.” Creation ex nihilo March-May 2001; 22-26.
Walker, Tas. “Eroding Ages.” Creation ex nihilo March-May 2000: 18-21.
Walker, Tas. “The Way it Really is.” Creation September-November 2002: 20-22
I am currently a Junior in High School and homeschooled. I am interested in writing and have written several essays/articles for Midwest Creation Fellowship Essay Contest. I have also toyed with fiction a little bit http://www.fictionpress.com/~legacy2007
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