Evidences for Biblical Geology

These are notes from my presentation on Biblical Geology, provided here with footnotes for further study.

John 3:12
“If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not,
how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?”

Ø  There are a few facts that are firmly grounded in history.  We know Jesus lived, we know he died – in fact, historians say that if there’s anything we know for sure, it’s that.

Ø  From other evidence, such as the changed hearts of the disciples and the fact that Christianity bloodlessly swept across the world in the decades following His death, we can know that He rose again. (abundant eye-witness accounts, for one.)

I.                     So the question naturally arises – why don’t some believe?

o    John 6:66 – Offense - “from that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”  (his sayings offended those who didn’t understand)

o    John 7:13 – Fear - “Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews.” (even the disciples fell into this trap – Jn 19:38, 20:19)

o    Rom. 10:14 – Ignorance – “How then shall they call on him in whom they have no believed? And how shall they believe on him whom they have not heard?  And how shall they hear without a preacher?”

II.                    So of what are we ignorant?

o    Origins of Millions of Years

·          Deep time, or millions/billions of years, in modern history goes back to the work of Charles Lyell[i] and others like him (Werner, Hutton, et al.) [ii]

·          Men like Hutton believed that the erosion of the ground would deposit particles into the ocean, which would then rise back up with molten activity, and thus the earth would go through cycles.[iii]  He would influence Lyell, who would then influence Darwin with his Principles of Geology.[iv]   He claimed he could see no evidence of a beginning in the rock record.

·          William Smith (1769-1839), “Father of English Stratigraphy,” theorized that fossils found in the same layers must have been laid down at the same time.  This is the start of the concept of index fossils to help give relative date to rock layers.[v]

o    Reasons for Millions of Years

·          Remember, evolution depends on deep time – billions of years.  In order for mutations[vi] to accumulate, you need multiple generations.  Downside: in experiments with fruitflies and bacteria, we have yet to see any macro-evolutionary change.  This leads scientists to assume that they must be perfect, evolutionarily-speaking.[vii]

·          Lyell was trying to dislodge the Mosaic system.  Thus to compete with what the Bible said, you need to have millions of years.  (Biblical and evolutionary cosmology are mutually exclusive)[viii]

·          Radiocarbon Dating (for things up to about 58,000 years [10 half-lifes of C-14]) as well as other radioactive decay methods.  As Teaching about Evolution says,

·          “Some elements, such as uranium, undergo radioactive decay to produce other elements. By measuring the quantities of radioactive elements and the elements into which they decay in rocks, geologists can determine how much time has elapsed since the rock has cooled from an initially molten state.”

o    Problems with Millions of Years

·          Based on assumptions[ix]

·          Carbon Dating (C-14 or Radiocarbon) is typically done on sediments, which are thought to accumulate slowly over millions of years – however, when Mt. St. Helens erupted in early 1980s, it produced 25 feet of finely-layered sediments in one afternoon.  Interestingly enough, a canyon about 1:40 scale of the Grand Canyon was carved quickly through those sediments.

o    Assumed the rate to always remain the same (of C-14 decomposition)

o    Assumed the rate of creation always the same.

·          Radiometric dating assumes all daughter elements have vanished with the creation of the parent, and that all daughter present must be the product of decomposition.

o    Assumed to know the amount that was there at the start

o    Assumed that there was no polluting of the sample either one way or another.

·          Studies don’t confirm either method to work

·          Some Carbon-14 is found in wood buried in layers too old to be under 58,000 years old, as well as diamonds, which were found buried deep in the earth – giving us a maximum age of 58,000 over the whole earth.

·          One radiometric dating method – Uranium-Lead – produces helium as a byproduct, which would all be gone if the rocks were old (it floats away).  We find it in very deep places, some measured at 1.5 billion years old.  Since there is helium, the layers can’t be older than 14,000 years old.[x]

·          Using radiometric dating on rocks from Mt. St. Helens dome that formed in 1986 gave a date of .35 million years.  K-Ar dating of five lava flows from Mt. Ngauruhoe in New Zealand (erupted in 1975) gave a date of .27-3.5 million years.

·          Other evidences point to a young earth – including things like lunar drift, erosion rates, supernova activity, growth of the Great Barrier Reefs, snow layers, tree layers, genetic decay of the human genes, existence of Helium in the crust, salinity of the oceans, existence of red blood cells in dinosaur bones.[xi]

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[i] Lyell was a lawyer who wanted to destroy the Mosaic system, and fought against the concept of “catastrophism” which was popular during his time.  For some of the pertinent quotes, see “Charles Lyell’s Hidden Agenda…” found on http://creation.com/charles-lyell-free-science-from-moses

[ii] For more information, see the DVD “Millions of Years: Where Did the Idea Come From?” by Dr. Terry Mortenson (available through answersingenesis.org).

[iii] See his paper/ book of the same name Theory of the Earth, published as a paper in 1785 and a book in 1795.  (This is the same logic the USGS uses to explain the age of the earth: see http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html)

[iv] See The Long War Against God, by Henry Morris, for more information on the impact of Lyell.

[v] For a fun description/discussion of fossil record, see “David Berlinski – Evolution Destroyed in under 5 Minutes” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHeSaUq-Hl8

[vi] Mutations are simply copying mistakes that almost 100% of the time are harmful, if not fatal.  Understand them like you would a typo – you can have rearranged letters, duplications of the same letters, or removal of said letters (but you can’t have letters appear that were never there to begin with.

[vii] For more information, see the book or documentary Icons of Evolution, by Jonathan Wells.  Also, http://www.iconsofevolution.com

[viii] For instance, 6 days of creation or long age?  About four thousand years of time between Creation and Christ (as opposed to millions of years).  The ultimate problem comes down to this: is man the cause of death, or is death/evolution the cause of man?

[ix] For an in-depth list of assumptions/explanation of said assumptions, see “How Old is the Earth,” http://creation.com/how-old-is-the-earth and “Radiometric Dating Breakthroughs” http://creation.com/radiometric-dating-breakthroughs, as well as Bones of Contention, Marvin L. Lubenow.

[x] See “Radiometric Dating Breakthroughs” for more.  http://creation.com/radiometric-dating-breakthroughs

[xi] Since this one is contentious, here’s an article to study on your own. http://creation.com/squirming-at-the-squishosaur and https://answersingenesis.org/dinosaurs/bones/iron-key-to-preserving-dinosaur-soft-tissue/