Young Earth – Part 2

Young Earth Question: What do the fossils and rocks really say about the origins of the world?

This month, we will look at the second of a three part series dealing with the topic of the young Earth and the evidences for Young Earth Creationism found in the rocks and fossils. One of the most important underlying principles for evolution is that there was a gradual change that took place very slowly over long periods of time. If this is true, it should be seen in the way rocks and fossils were laid down. This is where the controversy begins. Both young Earth creationists and evolutionists use the same evidence, but give entirely opposing interpretations of what that evidence means.

Since evolution supposedly happened as a one time event with no human witnesses, evolutionists claim we should see this gradual change over millions of years in the rocks and fossils of the past. This slow gradual change in science is termed “Gradualism” or “Uniformitarianism.” Gradualism is the more recent term which pervades evolutionary thinking in interpreting the evidence from the Earth, and is pervasive in secular textbooks and classrooms. The theory of Gradualism began in1795 with James Hutton’s book The Theory of the Earth, which promoted the statement “present is key to the past.” Hutton suggested that the processes of forming rocks and fossils has always been constant without any interruption.

In 1830-1833 the famous Charles Lyell, a lawyer and self taught geologist, wrote the Principles of Geology, giving the theory of Uniformitarianism a new birth and popularizing it with the help of Charles Darwin in order to promote evolution. It was a direct attack on the Bible, ruling out the Genesis Flood and defying the biblical time-line based on the record of 6,000 years of generations found in Genesis 5 and 11. Darwin founded his theory of evolution upon the ability of life to survive through common descent under Lyell’s influence of slow gradual change in the rock layers and in the fossil record. Over the years, this theory has become an obstinate mindset that every rock or fossil has a history built on a time frame measured in billions and millions of years. It has become such an obsession for most evolutionists that they become blinded, censoring out any opposing evidence.

In 1813 “Catastrophism” was introduced by Georges Cuvier, a French anatomist and paleontologist who introduced a theory totally contradictory to Uniformitarianism. He suggested that, according to the incomplete fossil record, there had to be a series of catastrophic events which caused extinction to animal groups. He believed that God created each immutable species perfectly adapted to the environment in which it lived, and that these species would not change over time. These catastrophic events would have produce drastic changes in the Earth’s external structure, and the fossils would have been laid down instantly. In recent scientific literature, there has been a new emergence of this theory to explain why the dinosaurs vanished abruptly from the fossil record. One popular theory proposed is that a cataclysmic event took place when a large meteorite smashed into the earth, killing off much of animal kingdom.

Another example is the theory of “Punctuated Equilibrium” introduced in 1972 by paleontologists Niles Eldredge and the late Stephen Jay Gould who attempted to explain why there was a profusion of fossils at certain intervals of time, leaving vast gaps in the fossil record. They proposed that evolution happened quickly and drastically, as in punctuations of time. Such a proposal clearly suggests that the fossil record is not connected and is incomplete, supporting the “kind after kind” model that young Earth Creationists ascribe to.

What we actually observe in the fossil record in how the rocks were layered could only be caused by catastrophic forces that only can be witnessed in the Genesis worldwide flood. It provides the water and energy needed to bury all plants and animals, instantaneously producing the extensive fossil graveyards found all over the earth. A great example of a fossil graveyard is the Green River formation located in western Colorado, eastern Utah and southwestern Wyoming, extending for 25,000 square miles. There are thousands of exquisite fossilized fish buried intact with razor-sharp detail and almost every bone clearly exposed. There are also fossils of one fishing eating another, frozen in time as if someone was there and took a picture in that instant. The best way to explain this phenomenon is through a catastrophic worldwide flood that would provide the mechanism for the instant burial and preservation of these incredible fossils.

Another example of a fossil graveyard is found inside the Grand Canyon’s Redwall limestone in northern Arizona. In this limestone, there are billions of fossils of straight-shelled, chambered nautiloids with an assortment of other marine creatures suggesting burial through a quick and colossal event. There are many more fossil graveyards of this type found on Earth that represent billions of plants and animals that were buried rapidly, all pointing to the catastrophic Genesis Flood.

Even though the Grand Canyon is one of the most impressive rock formations on Earth, it is missing layer after layer of the million years of time that evolutionists tell us have occurred. Nowhere in the Earth is there a complete column observable. Perhaps the secular geologists need to succumb to the only Eye Witness to the creation of the rocks, and not continue to hold fast to a flawed theory of millions and millions of years of time that simply never occurred. It was God, the Creator of the universe who was there and spoke out of the heavens to the prophet Job and said, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” Job 38:4

Tom DeRosa is the Executive Director and Founder of Creation Studies Institute, He is an author, teacher, and sought out speaker with a passion to equip other believers with the tools needed to refute the lies of evolution. Tom can be reached at [email protected].

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