Transcript C-or-E-2---fossils

WHAT DO THE FOSSILS
TELL US?
Is there evidence
in the Rocks for Evolution
in past ages?
TYPES OF ROCKS
1. IGNEOUS – were once molten (as they are
more than 50 miles deep down)
– contain no fossils!
– E.g. granite, basalt, felspar
2. SEDIMENTARY – were laid down as
sediment during flood(s) – in layers
- Many fossils here
- E.g. sandstone, limestone, coal seams, shale
IGNEOUS ROCK – BASALT COLUMNS
SEDIMENTARY ROCK
IN LAYERS (STRATA)
FOSSILISED
TREE TRUNK
FOSSIL 100 cm x 40 cm
How to become a Fossil ?
No!
No!
Yes!
THE
“GEOLOGICAL
COLUMN”
HEAD-LINE CLAIMS ARE -
“The fossil record grows more complete
all the time, and shows a clear sequence
of change.”
- from the BBC website 2009
BUT actually … !
"geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely
graduated organic chain and this perhaps is the
most obvious and gravest objection which can be
used against my theory".
Charles Darwin, 1859
In 1979, Colin Patterson, Senior Palaeontologist
at the British Museum of Natural History in
London, wrote:
“I fully agree with your comments on the lack of
direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in
my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I
would certainly have included them.
I will lay it on the line — there is not one
such fossil for which one could make a
watertight argument.”
MISSING LINKS are not there
despite the head-line claims
“…. in the ‘Origin of Species’ Darwin showed that the
record was useless for testing between evolution and
special creation because it has great gaps in it. The
same argument still applies.
... In any case, no real evolutionist uses the fossil
record as evidence in favour of the theory of evolution
as opposed to special creation.”
Prof. Richard Dawkins, Oxford University, 2005
FOSSILS GIVE AGE OF ROCKS?
• “Because plants and animals evolve over
time, we can use fossils to estimate the
age of the rocks” (Museum, 2009)
• “The age of the fossil is given by reference
to the rock in which it is found”
• “The oldest rocks are estimated to be
about 2,000,000,000 years old”
??
How old is the earth?
5 thousand million years??
Measure Radioactivity in some igneous rocks
- rate for uranium to change into lead (half-life)?
- eg 1 g per million yrs per ton
- how much lead now in sample?
- eg 25 g per ton
- calculate age = 25 million yrs !
ONLY IF - RATE HASN’T CHANGED OVER 25
MILLION YRS
AND IF - THERE WAS NO LEAD IN SAMPLE TO
START WITH
EXTRAPOLATION - CAN BE DANGEROUS!
“True here” is not always “True there”!
• expansion of steel rod, 0 - 1200 degrees
- then 1200 – 2200
degrees??
• growth of child, 1-17 yrs
- then 17-70 yrs??
• in Earth’s present state
– then at the beginning??
– in outer space??
Examining the Evidence
Actual
Data
Time
Tree of life
Sudden appearance of
complex creatures
Cambrian
Precambrian
Darwinian
Created after their Model
kind
Morphology / Species
PROBLEMS FOR EVOLUTION THEORY
• 1. “Earliest” fossils already very complex
•
•
– no “simpler” ones exist
- the “Cambrian explosion”
2. No missing links – no hybrid life forms
– all defined types
3. Column incomplete, many strata inverted,
- fossils in “wrong” place
Archaeopteryx
older than its
supposed
dinosaur
ancestors !
Long time!
- is a problem for evolution!
• Goes towards equilibrium stability
= less complexity, not more
• Loss of variety = extinction
• Energy becomes less useful
• “Ice ages” interupt
• Best explanation uses the
Biblical story of the Great
Flood of Genesis 6-7
FOSSILISATION • Erosion and destruction everywhere
• Creatures rapidly buried in flood-borne silt
- then cementation/petrification
• More mobile creatures escape longest
• Layers are zones of habitat
– ecological zones
- not chronological record
DRY
LAND
SEA / WATER
FOSSILISATION • Rapid burial in flood-borne silt
• Layers are zones of habitat
- not chronological record
- a lot of water not a lot of time!
• Violent hydrological sorting/stirring
• Huge volcanic activity - changes in strata
HUGE CHANGES AT FLOOD
• TOPOGRAPHY – higher + deeper
• TECTONICS – drift, separation, volcanoes
• ATMOSPHERE – water vapour canopy lost
(immense rainfall) – less benign climate
• EXTINCTION – adapt to survive, or perish
• REPOPULATION – 3 distinct branches of
human race
- from 3 couples to 6 billion in ~ 5,000 yrs
(average 2.5 children per family in stable times)
VIOLENT – water from above &
beneath
40 days of rain - YEAR LONG FLOOD
WORLDWIDE
CAUSE OF IT EXPLAINED
What
do
the
fossils
tell
us?
• God
judges
sin
• God provides
salvation
A FLOOD-PROOF ARK
Warning of judgement
– coming soon!
Invitation to come on board
– plenty room!
Guarantee of safety - all the way
Rainbow Promise
- of blessing
A JUDGEMENT-PROOF
SALVATION
– Needed?
– Available?
– Guaranteed?
… by me?
… for all?
… forever?
JESUS CHRIST SAID –
“Come to Me …
– and I will give you rest”
“Whoever comes to Me
– I will never cast them out”
“I give to them eternal life
– and they shall never perish”
Matthew 11.28
John 6.37
John 10.28