Too Many Fossils: Evidence of Noah's Flood?
Noah’s Boys in the City of Mother Earth is a thrilling tale of inventions, adventure, and romance set in the Last Days of the Antediluvian
World, a time of stubborn wickedness and violently conflicting worldviews, just like today. As described in the first book of the
Bible, God utterly destroyed the world with a great cataclysm, deluging
it with water for a full year.
When the water subsided, everything was changed, and the only animals or
people that survived were those that entered Noah’s Ark.
But isn’t that just a myth—a fairy tale? Hasn’t science proven that all life was
the result of “billions and billions” of years of purposeless evolution? Lifeless matter spontaneously produced
living cells that reproduced. Over
millions of years of accidental mutations, death, and “survival of the fittest”,
diverging species became more complex until intelligent human life finally
emerged. We all know the story. And the fossil record proves it,
right? Maybe not!
One problem with using the fossil record as proof of Darwinian
evolution is the fact that there are too many fossils! One might even say that fossils are
excessively common in the sedimentary rocks that cover most of the globe. And as this photograph from the Agate
Fossil Bed National Monument illustrates, they are often found jumbled together
in fossil graveyards. Tremendous
numbers of fossils are commonly found compressed into thick layers of coal, shale,
and other sedimentary rocks, as though the animals or plants died from some
sudden catastrophe, and were immediately buried by watery sediments and layers
of volcanic ash.
The glaring discrepancy between evolution and the fossil
record is the fact that fossils do not form under the steady state conditions
required for Darwinian evolution1! If an animal dies today, its carcass rapidly decomposes due
to bacteria and natural processes.
To begin with, scavengers such as vultures, rats, or insects soon arrive
to consume the soft parts of the body, and frequently scatter other parts. Rotting occurs next; and even hard shells
and bones are generally broken or eroded through acid dissolution or other
natural forces. Fossilization, on
the other hand, is believed to only occur under special conditions, such as
rapid burial in hypoxic watery sediments.
Dissolved minerals act next to gradually replace the organic material of
the plant or animal with tiny crystals of silica, calcite, and iron pyrite, preserving
the anatomic features, but making it as hard as rock.
Furthermore, when the conditions are right, fossilization does
not require millions of years, as some assume. Limestone deposits may occur quickly, as any plumber will
attest; and such phenomena as the actual fossilization of an Australian miner’s
hat lost in a mine for fifty years2 demonstrates that the
process may occur rapidly.
Fossils are a fascinating window into animals and plants
that lived long ago, but there are just too many of them! The vast numbers of fossils magnify the
other problems with the evolutionary interpretation as well. The glaring systematic voids of
intermediary species between fish and amphibians, reptiles and mammals, and other
animal or plant groups have never been filled. Over the past two hundred years, the old problem of “missing
links” has only gotten worse. When
you buy and read Noah’s Boys in the City of Mother Earth, I think you will
find it a thrilling tale of romance, adventure, and inventions; but the fossil
record suggests that its Creationist worldview is not unreasonable at all—far
from it! You may even find
yourself asking the question: “What if the Bible were true, after all?”
G.M. Horning
1.
Duane Gish: Dinosaurs by Design, Master Books, 1992.
2.
John Mackay. “Fossil Bolts and Fossil Hats.” Creation Ex Nihilo, Vol. 8,
Nov., p. 10., cited by Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis.
Well-reasoned post. Thanks!
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