47 Global Warming

These days it seems you can hardly turn on the TV, go online, or open your morning newspaper without being confronted with the idea of global warming. In his 2006 Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore presents global warming as an imminent threat to the planet and paints an alarming picture of a future in which mankind ultimately destroys life on earth.

It’s clear that global warming is a complex and emotionally charged issue, one that cannot be ignored in today’s cultural and political climate. New claims and counter-claims appear in the press with numbing regularity, leaving many Christians uncertain what to believe. Rather than getting lost in the details, it is necessary first to uncover the basic facts and then to understand the assumptions that drive the interpretations of those facts.

Although many people may think otherwise, all of us have assumptions (beliefs) that influence how we look at the facts. If a scientist believes in billions of years of earth history, he will assume, for example, that polar ice needed hundreds of thousands of years to build up over two miles in depth. Scientists who believe in the biblical account of Noah’s Flood, on the other hand, believe the ice must have appeared shortly after the Flood. Depending on their assumptions, equally skilled scientists can reach very different conclusions.

In the global warming debate, it is important to separate fact from interpretation.

Answers in Genesis and Coral Ridge Ministries has put together an excellent video titled Global Warming: A Scientific and Biblical Expose of Climate Change. Check it out below.

46 Thirtieth Anniversary of a Geologic Catastrophe

May 18 marks the thirtieth anniversary of one of the most violent natural disasters of our time, the colossal 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. This catastrophic geologic event not only shocked the world because of its explosive power and made headline news, but challenged the foundations of evolutionary theory.


The May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in the state of Washington is regarded by many as the most significant geologic event of the twentieth century, excelling all others in its extraordinary documentation and scientific study. Although not the most powerful explosion of the last century, that eruption provided a significant learning experience within a natural laboratory for the understanding of catastrophic geologic processes. And thirty years later we learn that Mount St. Helens still confronts the underlying slow-and-gradual assumptions of modern geologic thinking.



On May 18, 1980, a steam blast equivalent to 20 megatons of TNT destroyed the northern side of the once-pristine shape of the volcano. Geologists, who are accustomed to thinking about slow evolutionary processes forming geologic features, were astounded to witness many of these same features form rapidly as a result of that and subsequent eruptions. We are indebted to Dr. Steven Austin of the Institute for Creation Research for his work in documenting carefully the geologic results of this astounding catastrophe. The following undeniable lessons still confront us, thirty years on.


1. Rapid Formation of Sediment Layers
Up to 600-feet thicknesses of sediment layers formed as a result of the primary air blast, landslides, resultant water wave on nearby Spirit Lake, volcanic ash flows, mudflows, air falls of volcanic ash, and steam water. The most surprising accumulations resulted from the volcanic ash flows that moved at high velocities from the volcano. These deposits included fine volcanic ash beds from a tiny fraction of an inch thick to greater than 3 feet thick, each representing just a few seconds to several minutes of accumulation. Furthermore, one such layered deposit, 25 feet thick, accumulated within three hours during the evening of June 12, 1980. It was deposited from volcanic ash flows moving at hurricane velocity. Geologists were staggered that such coarse and fine sediment layers could be separated into distinct strata by such a catastrophic flow process from a slurry moving at freeway speed.


Sadly, most geologists still conventionally think that such sedimentary layering has to represent long seasonal variations, or annual changes, as layers accumulate very slowly. They normally think that catastrophic sedimentary processes homogenize materials, depositing coarse and fine grains together. However, Mount St. Helens emphatically teaches us that sedimentary layering does form very rapidly by catastrophic flow processes, such as those that would have occurred during the Genesis Flood.


2. Rapid Erosion
From everyday experience it is observed that rivers and creeks erode very slowly. Thus it is usually assumed that great time periods are needed to form deep canyons. However, at Mount St. Helens very rapidly erosion occurred, producing erosion features that challenge conventional thinking about how landscapes form.


Two-third of a cubic mile of landslide and eruption debris from the May 18, 1980, eruption covered 23 square miles of the North Fork of the Toutle River, blocking the drainage from Spirit Lake westward into the Pacific Ocean. It was the largest debris avalanche observed in human history! The deposits averaged 150 feet thick. Then on May 19, 1982, another explosive eruption of Mount St. Helens melted a thick snow pack in the crater, creating a destructive, sheet-like flood of water, which became a mudflow. Reaching the landslide and eruption debris deposits of the North Fork of the Toutle River, the flow formed channels which cut through the blockage of the drainage westward. Bedrock was eroded up to 600 feet deep to form two canyons on the north flank of the volcano. Individual canyons up to 140 feet deep were cut through the landslide debris and volcanic ash deposits. The erosion left elevated plateaus to the north and south resembling the North and South Rims of the Grand Canyon.


Also, gully-headed side canyons and amphitheater-headed side canyons resemble the side canyons to the Grand Canyon. The breach did not occur straight through the obstruction, but took a meandering path, which reminds us of the meandering path of the Grand Canyon through the high plateaus of northern Arizona. This “Little Grand Canyon of the Toutle River” is a one-fortieth scale model of the real Grand Canyon.


The small creeks which flow through the headwaters of the Toutle River today might seem, by present appearances, to have carved out these canyons very slowly over a very long time period, except for the fact that the erosion was observed to have occurred extremely rapidly! Geologists should thus have learned that the long timescales they have been trained to assign to the erosion of deep canyons are obviously erroneous, and that deep canyons found elsewhere must likewise have formed very rapidly, including the Grand Canyon of Arizona.
Toutle River Canyon (Photo courtesy USGS)

3. Rapid Formation of Fossil Deposits
The volcanic blast of May 18, 1980, destroyed the surrounding forests. By late that afternoon one million logs were floating on nearby Spirit Lake. Many of these logs were actually floating upright. Even though the roots had been broken off, the logs were thicker at the root end and the wood obviously denser so that the root ends sank before the tops of the logs. Indeed, thousands of upright, fully submerged logs were subsequently observed sitting on the floor of the lake, looking as though they were a forest of trees. Investigations showed many had become buried by more than 3 feet of sediment, while others were still resting on the floor of the lake.

Geologists could easily have misinterpreted these upright buried logs as representing multiple forests that had grown on different levels over periods of many thousands of years. This is in fact how the petrified upright logs at Specimen Ridge in Yellowstone National Park had been interpreted, as successive forests growing over many thousands of years. However, the lesson from Mount St. Helens is that fossilized upright logs had to be buried rapidly.

4. Rapid Formation of a Peat Layer
The enormous log mat floating on Spirit Lake lost its bark and branches, rubbed off by the abrasive action of wind and waves. Scuba investigations of the lake bottom subsequently revealed that sheets of bark intermingled with volcanic sediments had formed a layer of peat many inches thick. Together with broken branches and root materials, the sheets of bark gave the peat a coarse texture and a layered appearance. This “Spirit Lake peat” resembles, both compositionally and texturally, certain coal beds of the eastern United States.

Geologists suppose that coal beds formed by the accumulation of organic material in vast swamps where the plants grew in place. By slow growth and accumulation, they estimate about 1,000 years was required to form each inch of coal. However, typical swamp peat deposits are very fine, with a texture looking like coffee grounds or mashed potatoes. They are homogeneous because of the intense penetration of the roots which dominate swamps. Thus root material is the dominant coarse component of modern swamp peats, while sheets of bark are extremely rare. This is the exact opposite of what was found in the “Spirit Lake peat.” Yet the Spirit Lake peat is texturally and compositionally similar to coal. Thus the lesson from Spirit Lake at Mount St. Helens is that this first formation stage of coal beds is rapid, and due to catastrophic destruction of forests, not the slow and gradual growth of plants in swamps.

Conclusion
Mount St. Helens provided a rare opportunity to study geologic processes that within a few months produced changes that geologists assumed required many thousands of years. Mount St. Helens served as a miniature laboratory for catastrophism! The eruption and its aftermath challenged the timescales most geologists attach to geologic processes and changes that are used to construct the long geologic ages underpinning Darwinian evolution. Thus the Mount St. Helens catastrophe challenged, and still challenges, the slow and gradual interpretation of the accumulation of the geologic record and provides the stepping stone to help us imagine catastrophism on a global scale during the cataclysmic Genesis Flood.

45 Just for fun...

Start the week off with a good laugh...

44 Geologic Evidences of a Global Flood

Have you ever been tongue-tied when asked to provide geologic evidence that the Genesis Flood really did occur, just as the Bible describes? Then what follows is for you.

This article provides an overview of six geologic evidences for the Genesis Flood. Together, they will provide you with ammunition and a teaching tool for you and others.

Why is it that many people, including many Christians, can’t see the geologic evidence for the Genesis Flood? It is usually because they have bought into the evolutionary idea that “the present is the key to the past.” They are convinced that, because today’s geological processes are so slow, the rock strata and the earth’s rock layers took millions of years to form.

Why is it that many people can’t see the geologic evidence for the Genesis Flood? Because many have bought into the evolutionary idea that “the present is the key to the past.”

However, if the Genesis Flood really occurred, what evidence would we look for? We read in Genesis 7 and 8 that “the fountains of the great deep” were broken up and poured out water from inside the earth for 150 days (5 months). Plus it rained torrentially and globally for 40 days and nights (“the floodgates [or windows of heaven] were opened”). No wonder all the high hills and the mountains were covered, meaning the earth was covered by a global ocean (“the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished,” 2 Peter 3:6). All air-breathing life on the land was swept away and perished.

So what evidence would we look for? Wouldn’t we expect to find billions of dead plants and animals buried and fossilized in sand, mud, and lime that were deposited rapidly by water in rock layers all over the earth? Of course! That’s exactly what we find. Indeed, based on the description of the Flood in Genesis 7–8, there are six main geologic evidences that testify to the Genesis Flood.

Six Evidences for the Genesis Flood
Evidence #1—Fossils of sea creatures high above sea level due to the ocean waters having flooded over the continents.
We find fossils of sea creatures in rock layers that cover all the continents. For example, most of the rock layers in the walls of Grand Canyon (more than a mile above sea level) contain marine fossils. Fossilized shellfish are even found in the Himalayas.

Evidence #2—Rapid burial of plants and animals.
We find extensive fossil “graveyards” and exquisitely preserved fossils. For example, billions of nautiloid fossils are found in a layer within the Redwall Limestone of Grand Canyon. This layer was deposited catastrophically by a massive flow of sediment (mostly lime sand). The chalk and coal beds of Europe and the United States, and the fish, ichthyosaurs, insects, and other fossils all around the world, testify of catastrophic destruction and burial.

Evidence #3—Rapidly deposited sediment layers spread across vast areas.
We find rock layers that can be traced all the way across continents—even between continents—and physical features in those strata indicate they were deposited rapidly. For example, the Tapeats Sandstone and Redwall Limestone of Grand Canyon can be traced across the entire United States, up into Canada, and even across the Atlantic Ocean to England. The chalk beds of England (the white cliffs of Dover) can be traced across Europe into the Middle East and are also found in the Midwest of the United States and in Western Australia. Inclined (sloping) layers within the Coconino Sandstone of Grand Canyon are testimony to 10,000 cubic miles of sand being deposited by huge water currents within days.

Evidence #4—Sediment transported long distances.
We find that the sediments in those widespread, rapidly deposited rock layers had to be eroded from distant sources and carried long distances by fast-moving water. For example, the sand for the Coconino Sandstone of Grand Canyon (Arizona) had to be eroded and transported from the northern portion of what is now the United States and Canada. Furthermore, water current indicators (such as ripple marks) preserved in rock layers show that for “300 million years” water currents were consistently flowing from northeast to southwest across all of North and South America, which, of course, is only possible over weeks during a global flood.

Evidence #5—Rapid or no erosion between strata.
We find evidence of rapid erosion, or even of no erosion, between rock layers. Flat, knife-edge boundaries between rock layers indicate continuous deposition of one layer after another, with no time for erosion. For example, there is no evidence of any “missing” millions of years (of erosion) in the flat boundary between two well-known layers of Grand Canyon—the Coconino Sandstone and the Hermit Formation. Another impressive example of flat boundaries at Grand Canyon is the Redwall Limestone and the strata beneath it.

Evidence #6—Many strata laid down in rapid succession.
Rocks do not normally bend; they break because they are hard and brittle. But in many places we find whole sequences of strata that were bent without fracturing, indicating that all the rock layers were rapidly deposited and folded while still wet and pliable before final hardening. For example, the Tapeats Sandstone in Grand Canyon is folded at a right angle (90°) without evidence of breaking. Yet this folding could only have occurred after the rest of the layers had been deposited, supposedly over “480 million years,” while the Tapeats Sandstone remained wet and pliable.

Conclusion
Jesus Christ our Creator (John 1:1–3; Colossians 1:16–17), who is the Truth and would never tell us a lie, said that during the “days of Noah” (Matthew 24:37; Luke 17:26–27) “Noah entered the Ark” and “the Flood came and took them all away” (Matthew 24:38–39). He spoke of these events as real, literal history, describing a global Flood that destroyed all land life not on the Ark.
Therefore, we must believe what Christ told us, rather than the ideas of fallible scientists who weren’t there to see what happened in the earth’s past. Thus we shouldn’t be surprised when the geologic evidence in God’s world (rightly understood by asking the right questions) agrees exactly with God’s Word, affirmed by Jesus Christ.

43 Does the age of the earth really matter?

While each of these evidences previously presented reveals reasons why the earth cannot be billions of years old, the real issue is not the age of the earth.

Instead, the real issue is authority.

God’s infallible Word must be our ultimate authority, not the unstable foundation of human reasoning. Are we trying to fit our interpretations of the world (e.g., evolution) into Scripture, or will we simply let God speak for Himself through His Word?

If we can’t trust the first chapters of Genesis, why should we believe when Scripture says that faith in Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation? (Romans 10:9; Acts 4:12; John 14:6)

But when we take Scripture as written, it’s clear that the earth can’t be more than a few thousand years old—and from a biblical worldview, the scientific evidence agrees!

42 Young Earth Evidence #6

Geology: Tightly Folded Rock Strata

When solid rock is bent, it normally cracks and breaks. Rock can only bend without fracturing when it is softened by extreme heating (which causes re-crystalization) or when the sediments have not yet fully hardened.

There are numerous locations around the world (including the famous Grand Canyon) where we observe massive sections of strata that have been tightly folded, without evidence of the sediments being heated.

This is a major problem for evolutionists who believe these rock layers were laid down gradually over vast eons of time, forming the geologic record. However, it makes perfect sense to creationists who believe these layers were formed rapidly in the global, catastrophic Flood described in Genesis.

41 Young Earth Evidence #5

Anthropology: Human Population Growth

It’s amazing what basic mathematics can show us about the age of the earth. We can calculate the years of human existence with the population doubling every 150 years (a very conservative figure) to get an estimate of what the world’s population should be after any given period of time.

A biblical age of the earth (about 6,000 years) is consistent with the numbers yielded by such a calculation. In contrast, even a conservative evolutionary age of 50,000 years comes out to a staggering, impossibly high figure of one to the 99th power—greater than the number of atoms in the universe!

Clearly, the claim that humans have inhabited the earth for tens of thousands of years is absurd!

• For a better look at these calculations, see Billions of People in Thousands of Years?

40 Young Earth Evidence #4

Biology: Dinosaur Soft Tissue

In recent years, there have been many findings of “wondrously preserved” biological materials in supposedly ancient rock layers and fossils. One such discovery that has left evolutionists scrambling is a fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex femur with flexible connective tissue, branching blood vessels, and even intact cells!

According to evolutionists, these dinosaur tissues are more than 65 million years old, but laboratory studies have shown that there is no known way—and likely none possible—for biological material to last more than thousands of years.

Could it be that evolutionists are completely wrong about how recently these dinosaurs lived?

• To learn more, see the article Fossilized Biomaterials Must Be Young by Brian Thomas of ICR.

39 Young Earth Evidence #3

Geology: Earth's Decaying Magnetic Field

Like other planets, the earth has a magnetic field that is decaying quite rapidly. We are now able to measure the rate at which the magnetic energy is being depleted and develop models to explain the data.

Secular scientists invented a “dynamo model” of the earth’s core to explain how the field could have lasted over such a long period of time, but this model fails to adequately explain the data for the rapid decay and the rapid reversals that it has undergone in the past. (It also cannot account for the magnetic fields of other planets, such as Neptune and Mercury.)

However, the creationist model (based on the Genesis Flood) effectively and simply explains the data in regard to the earth’s magnetic field, providing striking evidence that the earth is only thousands of years old—and not billions.

38 Young Earth Evidence #2

Astronomy: Recession of the Moon

The gravitational pull of the moon creates a “tidal bulge” on earth that causes the moon to spiral outwards very slowly. Because of this effect, the moon would have been closer to the earth in the past. Based on gravitational forces and the current rate of recession, we can calculate how much the moon has moved away over time.

If the earth is only 6,000 years old, there’s no problem, because in that time the moon would have only moved about 800 feet (250 m). But most astronomy books teach that the moon is over four billion years old, which poses a major dilemma—less than 1.5 billion years ago the moon would have been touching the earth!