Transcript Powerpoint for Chapter 10

Contents: Overheads to be used with Chapter 11 of “Truth in
the Balance,” copyright 2003 by David Prentice, M.Ed., M.A.S.T.
REVISION DATE 11/27/2010
This material is made available by the author at no charge. It
may be reproduced for use in a Christian environment such as
Sunday schools or Bible classes, but it may not be used for
any commercial purposes.
To be certain that you have the most up-to-date version of this
material, go to the Origins Resource Association website,
www.originsresource.org.
Follow the links to “Bible College Materials” and check that the
revision date shown online is the same as shown above. If not,
download the latest version.
2007 by David A. Prentice
BASIC PREMISES OF EVOLUTION AND CREATION
EVOLUTION:
CREATION:
1. Everything must be explainable by
purely natural processes.
a. Atheistic evolution: There is no God.
b. Theistic evolution: There is a God,
but he does not intervene in nature.
1. A supernatural intelligence created the
universe. Though most things are
explainable by natual processes, some
things may not be.
2. Since there could be no other natural
processes besides evolution, evolution
is the only possibility.
2. God is powerful enough to use any
method he chooses, including
instantaneous creation.
3. Since evolution has never been seen in
human history, it must be very slow. The
universe and earth have to be billions of
years old.
3. Creation does not automatically require
any specific age.
a. Recent Creation: The earth is probably
less than 10,000 years old.
b. Gap Theory & Progressive Creation:
Because evolutionists must know
what they are talking about, the earth
has to be billions of years old.
LIKE THE POSTULATES OF GEOMETRY, NEITHER SET OF PREMISES CAN
BE PROVEN. THEY MUST BE ACCEPTED BY FAITH AS SELF-EVIDENT.
2007 by David A. Prentice
11-1
DARWIN ON FOSSILS
"But just in proportion as this process of
extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so
must the number of intermediate varieties, which have
formerly existed, be truly enormous. Why then is not
every geological formation and every stratum full of
such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not
reveal any such finely-graduated organic chain; and
this, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest
objection which can be urged against the theory.”
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species
11-2
2007 by David A. Prentice
RICHNESS OF THE FOSSIL RECORD
Billions of fossils have been dug up so far.
(South Africa’s Karoo Formation alone is estimated to
contain billions of vertebrate fossils.)
The fossils have been classified into about 250,000
species. There should be millions of transitional forms.
Darwin has not been vindicated. Only a few fossils have
been proposed as transitions between any two higher
categories, and even those are highly disputed.
The fossil record remains the most obvious and
serious objection to Darwinian evolution.
The lack of transitions has led many to adopt a
new model of evolution, Punctuated Equilibria.
11-3
2007 by David A. Prentice
HOW TO SET UP MODELS:
Use the basic ideas of Initial Disorganization
versus Initial Complexity
to make predictions in as many
areas as possible:
Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry,
Biology, Paleontology, Geology, etc.
Whichever set of predictions better fits what we
observe is much more likely to be correct.
11-4
2007 by David A. Prentice
3 VARIATIONS OF CREATION:
Recent Rapid Creation
(perhaps within the last 10,000 years)
Fossils should show a great deal of variation within kinds,
but clearcut systematic gaps between major groups.
The Gap Theory
(creation and ruin in the distant past, recent re-creation)
Impossible to make any specific predictions - keeps
adjusting to fit what the evolutionists say.
Progressive Creation or the “Day-Age” Theory
(creation spread out over billions of years - really a
theistic version of Punctuated Equilibria evolution)
Leads to exactly the same predictions as
Punctuated Equilibria.
11-5
2007 by David A. Prentice
2 MODELS OF EVOLUTION FOR LIVING THINGS
Neo-Darwinism:
Evolution occurred slowly and gradually. There should be
millions of transitional fossils.
Many have abandoned this belief because of the
systematic gaps in the fossil record.
Punctuated Equilibria:
Evolution occurred in sudden jumps.
The biological evidence against this belief is overwhelming.
• Not only would a male and female of each transitional type have to
acquire many identical mutations, they would also need many
complementary ones in their reproductive systems.
• They would also have to live at the same time, in the same place,
would have to meet, and would have to have lots of babies which
bred only with each other.
• This would have to happen hundreds of thousands of times for
each evolving line, for each new step of evolution.
11-6
2007 by David A. Prentice
HOW TO SET UP MODELS:
Use the basic ideas of Initial Disorganization
versus Initial Complexity
to make predictions in as many
areas as possible:
Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry,
Biology, Paleontology, Geology, etc.
Whichever set of predictions better fits what we
observe is much more likely to be correct.
11-4
2007 by David A. Prentice
EVOLUTION:
Initial Disorganization
with later increase in complexity and
unlimited diversification.
Not just change, but change in the direction
of increasing complexity.
T
I
M
E
Evolutionary “Tree”
All life came from one simple cell
11-7
2007 by David A. Prentice
CREATION:
Initial Complexity
with later deterioration and
diversification within limits
Not just change, but change in the
direction of decreasing complexity.
T
I
M
E
Creationist “Forest”
All life came from multiple complex ancestors.
11-8
2007 by David A. Prentice
Fossil Predictions of Creation and Evolution
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
CREATION
EVOLUTION
(complex to simple)
(simple to complex)
1. Rock strata represent ecological
communities. There should be a
pattern of clearly defined fossil
communities around the world.
11-9
1. Strata represent time periods.
There should be a continual
overlap of life forms with no
consistent worldwide patterns.
2007 by David A. Prentice
SUITES OF FOSSILS
Rather than using radioactive dating, geologists
identify each rock layer (Cambrian, Ordivician,
Devonian, etc.) by a clearly defined community or
suite of fossils that is essentially the same no
matter where in the world we find it.
If evolution occurred, different types from amoebas
to humans would have had to evolve
at different rates
in different places
at different times.
There should be no worldwide pattern of clearly
defined communities of fossils.
Yet this is precisely how we identify rocks.
EVOLUTION IS CLEARLY WRONG.
11-10
2007 by David A. Prentice
Fossil Predictions of Creation and Evolution
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
CREATION
EVOLUTION
(complex to simple)
(simple to complex)
1. Rock strata represent ecological
communities. There should be a
pattern of clearly defined fossil
communities around the world.
2. Catastrophism.
11-9
1. Strata represent time periods.
There should be a continual
overlap of life forms with no
consistent worldwide patterns.
2. Uniformitarianism.
2007 by David A. Prentice
FOSSIL PREDICTIONS OF
CREATION AND EVOLUTION
11-11
CREATION:
EVOLUTION:
Catastrophism.
Everyday processes do not
have nearly so much effect on
the earth as catastrophic events
(volcanos, hurricanes,
earthquakes, etc.) The present
is NOT the key to the past.
There should be evidence in the
geologic record pointing toward
past catastrophic events.
Uniformitarianism.
“The present is the key to the
past” -- a doctrinal statement
accepted without proof.
Presently observed processes
should be sufficient to explain
the earth’s geologic record.
There has never been a
worldwide flood.
2007 by David A. Prentice
The Taxonomic Classification System
The highest taxon is the kingdom, followed by the phylum, class, and order.
At the lower levels, “species” is a manmade classification and is not the
same as a Genesis “kind.” A kind may possibly be as high as the “family”
level. Species can change without changing the basic design of the kind.
HIGHER TAXA
LOWER TAXA
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
For example: humans belong to Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata
(Subphylum Vertebrata), Class Mammalia, Order Primates,
Family Hominidae, Genus Homo, Species sapiens
11-12
2007 by David A. Prentice
Fossil Predictions of Creation and Evolution
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
CREATION
EVOLUTION
(complex to simple)
(simple to complex)
1. Rock strata represent ecological
communities. There should be a
pattern of clearly defined fossil
communities around the world.
2. Catastrophism.
3. Many higher taxa (kingdom,
phylum, class, order) should
appear at the beginning. The
number should decrease
through time.
11-9
1. Strata represent time periods.
There should be a continual
overlap of life forms with no
consistent worldwide patterns.
2. Uniformitarianism.
3. Few higher taxa should be
represented in the earliest
fossil-bearing rocks. The
number should increase
through time.
2007 by David A. Prentice
Fossil Predictions of Creation and Evolution
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
CREATION
EVOLUTION
(complex to simple)
(simple to complex)
1. Rock strata represent ecological
communities. There should be a
pattern of clearly defined fossil
communities around the world.
2. Catastrophism.
3. Many higher taxa (kingdom,
phylum, class, order) should
appear at the beginning. The
number should decrease
through time.
4. Sudden appearance of each
basic type.
11-9
1. Strata represent time periods.
There should be a continual
overlap of life forms with no
consistent worldwide patterns.
2. Uniformitarianism.
3. Few higher taxa should be
represented in the earliest
fossil-bearing rocks. The
number should increase
through time.
4. Gradual development of new
basic types.
2007 by David A. Prentice
Fossil Predictions of Creation and Evolution
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
CREATION
EVOLUTION
(complex to simple)
(simple to complex)
1. Rock strata represent ecological
communities. There should be a
pattern of clearly defined fossil
communities around the world.
2. Catastrophism.
3. Many higher taxa (kingdom,
phylum, class, order) should
appear at the beginning. The
number should decrease
through time.
4. Sudden appearance of each
basic type.
5. Stasis (resistance to basic
change).
11-9
1. Strata represent time periods.
There should be a continual
overlap of life forms with no
consistent worldwide patterns.
2. Uniformitarianism.
3. Few higher taxa should be
represented in the earliest
fossil-bearing rocks. The
number should increase
through time.
4. Gradual development of new
basic types.
5. Continual gradual change.
2007 by David A. Prentice
The Geologic Column
PERIOD
EPOCH
Cenozoic
Quaternary
Holocene (Recent)
Pleistocene
Pliocene
Miocene
Oligocene
Eocene
Paleocene
Tertiary
Mesozoic
Paleozoic
Archaeozoic
Cretaceous
Jurassic
Triassic
Permian
Pennsylvanian
Mississippian
Devonian
Silurian
Ordovician
Cambrian
Precambrian
(incl. Ediacaran or Vendian)
Appr. Beginning (Years Ago)
10,000
1.8 million
5.3 million
23.8 million
33.7 million
54.8 million
65 million
144 million
206 million
248 million
290 million
323 million
354 million
417 million
443 million
490 million
543 million
4.5 billion
650 million)
} CARBON} IFEROUS
Source: Univ. of Calif. Museum of Paleontology
ERA
Most of these ages were assigned before
radioactivity was even discovered.
11-13
2007 by David A. Prentice
BASIC PREMISES OF EVOLUTION AND CREATION
EVOLUTION:
CREATION:
1. Everything must be explainable by purely
natural processes.
a. Atheistic evolution: There is no God.
b. Theistic evolution: Since the Big Bang,
God has had little involvement with
nature.
2. Since there could be no other natural
processes besides evolution, evolution
is the only possibility.
1. A supernatural intelligence created the
universe. Though most things are
explainable by natural processes, some
things may not be.
3. Since evolution has never been seen in
human history, it must be very slow. The
universe and earth have to be billions of
years old.
2. God is powerful enough to use any
method he chooses, including
instantaneous creation.
3. Creation does not automatically require
a specific age.
a. Recent Creation: The earth is probably less than 10,000 years old.
b. Gap Theory & Progressive Creation:
Because evolutionists must know
what they are talking about, the earth
has to be billions of years old.
LIKE THE POSTULATES OF GEOMETRY, NEITHER SET OF PREMISES CAN
BE PROVEN. THEY MUST BE ACCEPTED BY FAITH AS SELF-EVIDENT.
11-14
2007 by David A. Prentice
HOW LONG ARE THE “Days” in Genesis?
The Hebrew word for “day” is
(YOM).
Depending on context, it can mean
1. A 24 hour day,
2. The daylight portion of a day, or
3. An indefinite period of time.
Every time throughout the Old Testament that
is
used with a number (over 350 times outside Genesis
Chapter 1) it always means a 24 hour day.
This is the way it appears in the Creation account.
God obviously intended to say
that these were 24 hour days.
11-15
2007 by David A. Prentice
All Scripture is inspired by God...
but this Scripture was written with His own finger.
For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that in them [is]... (Exod. 20:11)
11-16
2007 by David A. Prentice
COULD THE “DAYS” HAVE BEEN
MILLIONS OF YEARS?
The sequence of events in Genesis 1:
Day 3, plants created.
Day 4, sun created.
Day 5, insects created.
How many million years can most
plants live without sunlight?
How many million years can they live
without insects to pollinate them?
11-17
2007 by David A. Prentice
YEARS SINCE CREATION (Massoretic Text)
0
500
1000
1500
2000
1656
Death of Adam
11-18
Death of Noah
Earth divided
THE FLOOD
ADAM - 930 years -----------------------------------SETH - 912 yrs ----------------------------- d. 1042
ENOSH - 905 yrs -------------------------- d. 1140
KENAN - 910 yrs -------------------------- d. 1235
MAHALALEL - 895 yrs ----------------- d. 1290
JARED - 962 yrs --------------------------------- d. 1422
ENOCH, 365 yrs
Tower of Babel
(walked with God)
METHUSALEH --------------- 969 yrs, d. 1656 (between 1757
LAMECH - 777 yrs --------------- d. 1652
and 1996)
NOAH - 950 yrs ------------------------------- d. 2006
SHEM - 600 yrs -------- d. 2157
Arpachshad, 438 --d. 2096
Shelah, 433 -- d. 2126
Eber, 464 ------ d. 2187
Peleg, 239 -d. 1996
Reu, 239 ----d. 2026
Serug, 230 d. 2049
Nahor-147, d. 1997
Terah ----205, d. 2082
Abraham195, d. 2122
Isaac ---180, d. 2227
Jacob149, d. 2254
2007 by David A. Prentice
New Testament Clues for a Young Earth
J “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and
female” (Mk. 10:6).
E
He didn’t say “In the last 1/10,000 of earth’s history.”
S
“For [in] those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the
U
beginning of the creation which God created unto this time,
S
neither shall be” (Mk. 13:19).
Evolutionists say mass extinctions have wiped out over 99% of all
the species that have ever lived. Wouldn’t that be the worst
affliction?
“... he [the devil] was a murderer from the beginning...” (Jn. 8:44)
Not just during last 1/10,000 of earth’s history.
P “... the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid
in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that
A
now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly [places] might
U
be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God...” (Eph.
L
3:10).
Did God have to wait through 4.5 billion years of evolution before
He could accomplish His purposes through the Church?
11-19
2007 by David A. Prentice
MARTIN LUTHER ON THE AGE OF THE EARTH
“When Moses writes that God created
heaven and earth and whatever is in them
in six days, then let this period continue to
have been six days, and do not venture to
devise any comment according to which
six days were one day.
“But, if you cannot understand how this
could have been done in six days, then
grant the Holy Spirit the honor of being
more learned that you are.”
11-20
2007 by David A. Prentice
Historical Ideas About the Age of the Earth
Ancient Greeks such as Aristotle: Earth is extremely old, may
have existed forever.
Genesis: Earth is young.
1200s - Thomas Aquinas reverts to Aristotelian logic and old
earth.
1700s - Buffon proposes days of Genesis as extended periods
of time.
Cuvier proposes multiple global catastrophes over millions
of years.
Hutton rejects catastrophes, proposes uniformitarianism.
1800s - Lyell expands on Hutton’s ideas, says earth millions of
years old.
Darwin builds his theory on Hutton’s and Lyell’s ideas
about uniformitarianism.
1900s – Radioactivity discovered, age of earth revised to
billions of years.
11-21
2007 by David A. Prentice
Both sides
look at the
same fossil
evidence…
- We just
interpret
it
differently.
11-22
2007 by David A. Prentice
OCCAM’S RAZOR
“Entities Should Not Be
Multiplied Beyond Necessity.”
A principle of logic that can be
paraphrased as,
“The simplest explanation that fits
all the facts is usually the best.”
Not a hard and fast rule, but a good guideline.
The fewer stories you have to make up, the better.
11-23
2007 by David A. Prentice
REASONS PEOPLE BELIEVE
THE UNIVERSE IS OLD:
1. If it’s only a few thousand years old, what was God
doing all that time before He created it?
2. Starting from a “big bang,” it would have taken billions
of years to reach its present size.
3. How could light from stars billions of light years away
reach us in only a few thousand years?
REASONS PEOPLE BELIEVE
THE EARTH IS OLD:
1. Belief that it takes millions of years to form a fossil.
2. Radiometric dating.
3. Geologic features (separation of continents, Grand
Canyon, etc.) that are supposed to have taken
millions of years to form.
11-24
2007 by David A. Prentice
The Geologic (Evolutionary) Time Scale
ERA
PERIOD
EPOCH
Cenozoic
Quaternary
Holocene (Recent)
Pleistocene
Pliocene
Miocene
Oligocene
Eocene
Paleocene
Tertiary
Mesozoic
Cretaceous
Jurassic
Triassic
Paleozoic
Permian
Pennsylvanian
Mississippian
Devonian
Silurian
Ordovician
Cambrian
Archaeozoic Precambrian
(incl. Ediacaran or Vendian,
Appr. Beginning (Years Ago)
10,000
1.8 million
5.3 million
23.8 million
33.7 million
54.8 million
65 million
144 million
206 million
248 million
290 million
323 million
354 million
417 million
443 million
490 million
543 million
4.5 billion
650 million)
} CARBON} IFEROUS
Source: Univ. of Calif. Museum of Paleontology
11-25
2007 by David A. Prentice
HOW DO YOU MAKE A FOSSIL?
1. Bury something quickly so it doesn’t rot.
2. Make sure the right kind of minerals are in
the mud or water.
3. Apply lots of heat and pressure.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?
CHICKEN BONES:
?
OIL:
?
11-26
2007 by David A. Prentice
You may have heard that it takes millions
of years to make a fossil. Wrong!
•
•
•
11-27
Chicken bones have been turned into mineralized
fossils in laboratories in 5 to 10 years.
Organic garbage (banana peels, etc.) has been
turned into crude oil, otherwise known as “fossil
fuel,” in as little as 20 minutes.
Spark plugs are often
Spark plugs from Durban harbor
used as fishing sinkers
in Durban, S. Africa.
The water has such a
high concentration of
minerals that they
become coated and
look like fossils in just
Courtesy of Joshua Gilbert
a few years!
2007 by David A. Prentice
The Geologic Column
PERIOD
EPOCH
Cenozoic
Quaternary
Holocene (Recent)
Pleistocene
Pliocene
Miocene
Oligocene
Eocene
Paleocene
Tertiary
Mesozoic
Paleozoic
Archaeozoic
Cretaceous
Jurassic
Triassic
Permian
Pennsylvanian
Mississippian
Devonian
Silurian
Ordovician
Cambrian
Precambrian
(incl. Ediacaran or Vendian,
Appr. Beginning (Years Ago)
10,000
1.8 million
5.3 million
23.8 million
33.7 million
54.8 million
65 million
144 million
206 million
248 million
290 million
323 million
354 million
417 million
443 million
490 million
543 million
4.5 billion
650 million)
} CARBON} IFEROUS
Source: Univ. of Calif. Museum of Paleontology
ERA
The geologic column was pieced together from many locations around the world.
When more than one stratum is present the order is fairly consistent worldwide.
However, the complete column does not exist in nature.
Every layer can be found out of order somewhere in the world.
11-28
2007 by David A. Prentice
Fossil Predictions of Creation and Evolution
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
CREATION
EVOLUTION
(complex to simple)
(simple to complex)
1. Strata represent ecological
communities. There should be a
pattern of clearly defined fossil
communities around the world.
2. Catastrophism.
3. Many higher taxa (kingdom,
phylum, class, order) should
appear at the beginning. The
number should decrease
through time.
4. Sudden appearance of each
basic type.
5. Stasis (resistance to basic
change).
11-9
1. Strata represent time periods.
There should be a continual
overlap of life forms with no
consistent worldwide patterns.
2. Uniformitarianism.
3. Few higher taxa should be
represented in the earliest
fossil-bearing rocks. The
number should increase
through time.
4. Gradual development of new
basic types.
5. Continual gradual change.
2007 by David A. Prentice
SUITES OF FOSSILS
Rather than using radioactive dating, geologists
identify each rock layer (Cambrian, Ordivician,
Devonian, etc.) by a clearly defined community or
suite of fossils that is essentially the same no
matter where in the world we find it.
If evolution occurred, different types from amoebas
to humans would have had to evolve
at different rates
in different places
at different times.
There should be no worldwide pattern of clearly
defined communities of fossils.
Yet this is precisely how we identify rocks.
EVOLUTION IS CLEARLY WRONG.
11-10
2007 by David A. Prentice
The Geologic Column
PERIOD
EPOCH
Cenozoic
Quaternary
Holocene (Recent)
Pleistocene
Pliocene
Miocene
Oligocene
Eocene
Paleocene
Tertiary
Mesozoic
Paleozoic
Archaeozoic
Cretaceous
Jurassic
Triassic
Permian
Pennsylvanian
Mississippian
Devonian
Silurian
Ordovician
Cambrian
Precambrian
(incl. Ediacaran or Vendian,
Appr. Beginning (Years Ago)
10,000
1.8 million
5.3 million
23.8 million
33.7 million
54.8 million
65 million
144 million
206 million
248 million
290 million
323 million
354 million
417 million
443 million
490 million
543 million
4.5 billion
650 million)
} CARBON} IFEROUS
Source: Univ. of Calif. Museum of Paleontology
ERA
The geologic column was pieced together from many locations around the world.
When more than one stratum is present the order is fairly consistent worldwide.
However, the complete column does not exist in nature.
Every layer can be found out of order somewhere in the world.
11-28
2007 by David A. Prentice
How Ages Were Originally Assigned
1. If a new fossil was previously unknown, it would be compared
to the rocks where it was found to see if they contained a
known suite of fossils (Cambrian, Devonian, etc.). If so, the
new one was assigned the same age as that suite.
2. Even if there was not a full suite, the discoverer would look for
individual fossils found nearby. If any of them were defined as
“index fossils,” he simply used their previously assigned age
for the new type.
3. If none of the other fossils had been assigned an age, he would
decide how highly evolved the new organism was and assign
an age based on the assumption that evolution had taken
billions of years.
4. Finally, if the new fossil was found in only one suite, then it
could be used as an index fossil and its assigned age used
anywhere that suite was found. Any new fossils found in the
same layer would automatically be assigned the same age.
11-29
2007 by David A. Prentice
HOW EVOLUTIONISTS DATE ROCKS
ASSUME EVOLUTION
IS CORRECT
Fossils must
show progression from
simple to
complex
C
R
E
A
I
R
Arrange C
strata on
U
a chart in
“correct” L
order
A
S
O
N
Look for
“tie-points”
where radiometric ages
match previously assigned age;
reject ages that don’t
fit (almost all!)
I
R
Explain
away out-of-order
fossils and strata
11-30
Geologic timetable
and “correct” order
of strata verified Evolution Proved!
N
G
2007 by David A. Prentice
The Grand Cayman Islands: A Natural
Demonstration Project
South of Cuba are the Grand Cayman islands, where four distinct
ecological communities thrive at the same time and place.
0-200 ft: The Reef. Thousands of typical
shallow water species: Coral, barracuda,
stingray, eels, etc.
200-600 ft: The Wall. “Sponge belt.” Lots
of various types of sponges. Worms,
crustaceans.
600-1000 ft: The Haystacks. (Lots of debris broken off from above.) Sharks, starfish, sea whip corals, sea urchins, etc.
1000+ ft: The Deep. (Totally dark.) Cookiecutter shark, coffin fish, tripod fish, spideryarmed jellyfish, sea cucumbers, etc.
If we could instantly freeze the area, it would look just like
the suites of fossils in the fossil record.
11-31
2007 by David A. Prentice
Ecological Communities Around the World
Animals and plants live in interdependent communities, or biomes.
These vary with climate, elevation above or below sea level, etc.
Shown are two of
the ecosystems
found in Colorado.
The same is true
worldwide.
(Denver Museum of Natural
History – photos by the
author)
11-32
Likewise, there are
seven distinct biomes
in Texas.
(Houston Museum of Natural
Science – photo by the author)
2007 by David A. Prentice
WHAT ABOUT RADIOACTIVE DATING?
Electrons (-) are in orbitals around the
nucleus, which
is composed of protons (+)
and neutrons
(neutral,
shown in blue).
Number of
neutrons deter- mines the isotope
of the element.
-
+ +
+
+ +
-
Number of protons
is the atomic
number.
This determines
what element
the atom is.
-
-
Number of
protons plus
number of
neutrons determines the mass
number of the element.
Since protons are positively charged, they repel each other. Thus, every
atom in the universe that has more than one proton should fly apart.
However, if certain numbers of neutrons are present, the protons stay
together. Scientists call the force that keeps them together the
“Strong Nuclear Force,” but have no idea why it exists.
11-33
2007 by David A. Prentice
WHAT IS RADIOACTIVITY?
An atom with an unstable nucleus
(too many or too few neutrons for the number of
protons) tries to re- lease excess potential energy by emitting various particles, or releasing
+ +
+
gamma radiation.
+ +
-
In Alpha (a) decay, the
nucleus ejects two protons and two neutrons at the same time. This lowers
the atomic number by two
and the mass number by four.
In Beta (b) decay, one of
the neutrons in the nucleus breaks apart. It
ejects a high-energy
electron, leaving a
proton in place of
- the neutron. This
actually increases
the atomic number
by one, but leaves
the mass number
unchanged.
-
The radioactive atom starts out as one element called the parent and
decays into a different element called the radiogenic daughter.
The daughter may or may not be radioactive. If so, it may in turn
become the parent element of another radiogenic daughter.
11-34
2007 by David A. Prentice
RADIOACTIVE DECAY RATES
Some radioactive
“parents” decay
into their final
“daughter” in one
step, e.g. Carbon14 to Nitrogen-14.
Others go through
many intermediates, e.g. Uranium238 goes through
14 steps as it turns
into Lead-206.
However, we do
not know what
causes one atom
to decay while
the one next to it
does not, so we
cannot predict
which individual
atoms will decay.
To measure decay rates we average together large numbers of atoms
in a statistical analysis called a “half-life,” the amount of time it takes
for half of a sample to decay. After one half-life 1/2 remains; after two
half-lives, 1/4; after three, 1/8; after four, 1/16, and so forth.
11-35
2007 by David A. Prentice
RADIOACTIVE DECAY RATES
COMMONLY USED RADIOACTIVE DATING METHODS
PARENT
Carbon-14
Potassium-40
Uranium-235
Uranium-238
Rubidium-87
DAUGHTER
Nitrogen-14
Argon-40
Lead-207
Lead-206
Strontium-87
HALF-LIFE
5730 years
1.3 billion years
713 million years
4.51 billion years
47 billion years
Half-lives range from microseconds to (supposedly)
billions of years.
Since radioactivity was discovered only about a century ago,
there is no way to verify long half-lives.
11-36
2007 by David A. Prentice
Characteristics of an Accurate Clock
1. Initial conditions known.
What time did the clock say when it
was wound up?
2. Known rate of change.
The clock need not always run at the
same rate, but if it changes we must
know when and by how much.
3. Closed system.
The clock must not have been reset
or tampered with.
Since we can’t be sure of any of these for any “clock” in nature, we should
use many different methods to determine a maximum possible age.
Out of all the dating methods, less than 10% point toward a maximum of
billions of years. The rest point toward millions or even thousands.
11-37
2007 by David A. Prentice
Conditions for Accurate Radiometric Dating
Most rocks contain a mixture of elements. Many include a
radioactive “parent” and a radiogenic “daughter.”
1. Initial percentage of parent and
daughter in the rock must be known.
We have no way to know this.
The radioactive parents came from
somewhere. According to evolution, the
daughters could have been present to use
as building blocks in making the parents in
the first place. There would automatically
have been a mix of daughter and parent
from the beginning of the earth. We have no
way to know what that mix was. This renders
radioactive dating unreliable.
11-38
2007 by David A. Prentice
Periodic Table of the Elements
1
H
2
He
HYDROGEN
1
3
4
5
6
7
8
LITHIUM
7
11
BERYLLIUM
9
12
BORON
11
13
CARBON
12
14
NITROGEN
14
15
OXYGEN
16
16
SODIUM
23
19
MAGNESIUM
24
20
21
22
23
24
25
ALUMINUM
27
31
SILICON
28
32
PHOSPHOROUS SULPHUR
31
32
33
34
POTASSIUM
39
37
CALCIUM
40
38
TITANIUM
48
40
VANADIUM
51
41
CHROMIUM
51
42
MANGANESE IRON
55
56
43
44
48
GALLIUM
70
49
GERMANIUM ARSENIC
73
75
50
51
RUBIDIUM
85
55
STRONTIUM
88
56
ZIRCONIUM
91
72
NIOBIUM
93
73
MOLYBDENUM TECHNETIUM RUTHENIUM RHODIUM
96
99
101
103
74
75
76
77
PALLADIUM SILVER
106
108
78
79
CADMIUM
112
80
INDIUM
115
81
CESIUM
133
87
BARIUM
137
88
HAFNIUM
178
104
TANTALUM
181
105
TUNGSTEN
184
106
PLATINUM
195
MERCURY
201
THALLIUM
204
Li Be
B C
Na Mg
N
Al Si P
26
27
28
29
30
COBALT
58
45
NICKEL
59
46
COPPER
64
47
HELIUM
4
10
9
O F Ne
FLUORINE
19
17
NEON
20
18
S Cl Ar
CHLORINE
35
35
ARGON
36
BROMINE
80
53
KRYPTON
84
54
40
K Ca Sc Ti V Cr Mn Fe Co Ni Cu Zn Ga Ge As Se Br Kr
SCANDIUM
45
39
ZINC
65
SELENIUM
79
52
Rb Sr Y Zr Nb Mo Tc Ru Rh Pd Ag Cd In Sn Sb Te I Xe
Cs Ba
YTTRIUM
89
La-Lu
57- 71
RADIUM
226
119
82
ANTIMONY TELLURIUM IODINE
122
126
127
83
84
85
XENON
BISMUTH
209
RADON
131
86
Hf Ta W Re Os Ir Pt Au Hg Tl Pb Bi Po At Rn
RHENIUM
186
107
OSMIUM
190
108
IRIDIUM
192
109
SEABORGIUM BOHRIUM
263
264
HASSIUM
265
MEITNERIUM
268
Ac-Lr
Fr Ra 89-103
Rf Db Sg Bh Hs Mt
FRANCIUM
223
TIN
RUTHERFORD- DUBNIUM
IUM 261
262
GOLD
197
LEAD
207
POLONIUM
210
ASTATINE
219
222
etc.
57
La
LANTHANUM
139
89
Ac
ACTINIUM
227
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
Ce Pr Nd Pm Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy Ho E Tm Yb Lu
90
CERIUM
140
PRASEODYM- NEODYMIUM PROMETHEUM SAMARIUM EUROPIUM
IUM 141
144
147
147
152
91
92
93
94
95
THORIUM
232
PROTACTINURANIUM
IUM
231
238
GADOLINIUM
157
96
TERBIUM
159
DYSPROSIUM HOLMIUM
ERBIUM
162
165
167
99
100
THULIUM
169
YTTERBIUM
173
102
LUTETIUM
175
97
98
101
103
BERKELIUM
247
CALIFORNIUM EINSTEINIUM FERMIUM
251
252
257
MENDELEVNOBELIUM LAWRENCIUM
IUM 258
259
260
Th Pa U Np Pu Am Cm Bk Cf Es Fm Md No Lr
NEPTUNIUM PLUTONIUM
237
244
AMERICIUM
243
CURIUM
247
90 elements are known to occur on earth. Elements 43, 61, and 93 and above (shown in
red) are known only in artificially manufactured form, though #43 is seen in some stars.
According to evolution, the 90 naturally occurring elements (shown in white)
must have come from lighter “building blocks.”
11-39
2007 by David A. Prentice
Conditions for Accurate Radiometric Dating
Most rocks contain a mixture of elements. Many include a
radioactive “parent” and a radiogenic “daughter.”
1. Initial percentage of parent and
daughter in the rock must be known.
We have no way to know this.
2. Rate of change must have been
constant the entire time.
We’ve been watching for less than 100
years, but we have seen half-lives change
by up to a billion times as fast.
11-40
2007 by David A. Prentice
Changes in Radioactive Decay Rates
• Published decay rates are averages of experimental
values. Some are a little lower, some are a little higher.
• Decay rates have been determined over less than 100
years but are applied to 4.5 billion years! This is like
watching a jet fly past for one second then guessing how
fast it has been flying for the last 522 days.
• Many believe the decay of individual atoms is purely
random, but others believe there is some as-yet-unknown
cause such as neutrino density.
• Experiments have produced changes in decay rates of at
least 14 different elements.
• Under plasma conditions (all electrons removed), decay
rates have been accelerated up to a billion times as fast.
Evolutionists (and some creationists) believe
the earth began in plasma conditions.
This would render radiometric dating totally unreliable.
11-41
2007 by David A. Prentice
Changes in Radioactive Decay Rates
Recent studies at Purdue and Stanford Universities have
revealed several anomalies in radioactive decay rates that
seem to depend on the sun.
1. The decay rates go through a 33 day cycle from fastest to
slowest – believed to be the rotation rate of the sun’s core.
2. Decay rates speed up slightly in the winter when we are closer
to the sun, and slow down slightly in the summer when we are
farther away.
3. Decay rates slow down just before solar flares.
The sun seems to be doing something that affects decay
rates – perhaps by producing an as yet undetected particle
that makes nuclei decay faster.
Whatever the cause, we can say with certainty
that radioactive decay rates do change.
This renders radiometric dating unreliable.
Source: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/august/sun-082310.html
11-42
2007 by David A. Prentice
Conditions for Accurate Radiometric Dating
Most rocks contain a mixture of elements. Many include a
radioactive “parent” and a radiogenic “daughter.”
1. Initial percentage of parent and
daughter in the rock must be known.
We have no way to know this.
2. Rate of change must have been
constant the entire time.
We’ve been watching for less than 100
years, but we have seen half-lives change
by up to a billion times as fast.
3. None of the parent or daughter can have
been added or removed the entire time.
Is there any rock that has never gotten wet?
There is no way to be sure of any of these factors,
let alone all of them.
11-43
2007 by David A. Prentice
Potassium-Argon Dating
1. The elements potassium (K) and calcium (Ca) are abundant in
the earth’s rocks.
2. K comes in three isotopes: K-39 and K-41, both stable, make up
over 99.9% of the known potassium. The unstable K-40 makes
up just over 0.01% and has a half-life of about 1.26 billion years.
3. Almost 89% of the time K-40 decays into Ca-40, useless for
dating because it also occurs as a non-radiogenic element.
4. The other 11% of the time K-40 decays into the inert gas Ar-40,
used for K-Ar dating because it can be trapped inside a rock.
5. Rocks are assumed to have formed in a molten state, then
solidified after hundreds of millions of years of cooling.
6. Any Ar-40 in molten rock would have leaked out. Thus, we use
the ratio of K-40 to Ar-40 to determine how long ago the rock
solidified.
PROBLEM: If the rock ever heated up enough to soften again
(e.g., after a volcanic eruption), more Ar-40 could leak out and
give ages that are wrong by billions of years!
11-44
2007 by David A. Prentice
HOW ABOUT CARBON DATING?
1. Cosmic radiation in the upper
atmosphere strikes Nitrogen-14,
turning it into the unstable isotope
Carbon-14.
2. Plants use the
C-12 and C-14
in the air to
build up their
cell
structures.
3. The carbon
becomes
part of the
animals
that eat
the plants.
4. When a plant or animal dies it stops taking in carbon. The C-12
does not change but the
C-14 decays back to
N-14 (with a half-life of
5730 years).
By measuring the ratio
of C-14 to C-12
in the carcass as compared to the
atmosphere, we estimate how long ago it died.
11-45
2007 by David A. Prentice
PROBLEMS WITH CARBON DATING
1. The carbon in many fossils has been replaced by other
minerals.
You can’t carbon date something that doesn’t contain carbon.
2. If the animal or plant’s environment was low in C-14 it will
give a false reading much higher than the real age.
This happens frequently in sea creatures.
3. The ratio of C-14 to C-12 in the atmosphere keeps
increasing.
The older something is, the less C-14 was available and the less reliable
the carbon date is. “Old” dates need to be adjusted accordingly.
4. Because of its short half-life, carbon dating works for ages
of only a few thousand years.
Since most fossils are supposed to be millions of years old,
evolutionists don’t even try to carbon date them.
5. External factors can add or remove carbon or nitrogen.
6. Some plants are able to exclude C-14 from their structures.
They, or anything that eats them, would automatically show
a false age.
11-46
2007 by David A. Prentice
Reasons Fossils are not Dated by
Other Radiometric Methods
1. A good size sample of radioactive material is
needed to perform radiometric dating tests.
The particles in most sediments are too finely
divided for reliable testing.
2. The only kind of radioactive material that can
be directly dated is igneous (volcanic) rock. It
would have been so hot when it was laid down
that it would have destroyed any living thing in
its path, rather than preserving it as a fossil.
11-47
2007 by David A. Prentice
Examples of Erroneous Radiometric Dates
• Checkurovka Mammoth: Hair carbon dated at 26,000 years, but soil dated
only 5,600 years.
• Living Nevada snails carbon dated at 27,000 years.
• Living mollusk dated by carbon-14 at over 2,300 years.
• Two different C-14 ages 15,000 years apart from same block of peat in New
Zealand
• Dried seal carcasses less than 30 years old carbon dated as old as 4,600
years.
• Blood of seal freshly killed at McMurdo Sound in Antarctic carbon dated at
1,300 years
• Rocks containing “Nutcracker Man” potassium-argon dated at 1.75 million
years. Bones found lower (should be older) carbon dated at 10,000 years.
• Lava rocks from Hualalei in Hawaii potassium-argon dated at almost 3
billion years. Rocks less than 200 years old - formed when volcano
erupted in 1801.
• Other new Hawaiian rocks from eruption of Kilauea potassium-argon
dated at 22 million years.
• Moon rocks dated by various techniques show inconsistent ages ranging
from 700 million to 28 billion years. (Moon supposed to be 4.5 billion years
old.)
11-48
2007 by David A. Prentice
RECENT CARBON DATING RESULTS
Recently developed tests for Carbon-14 using accelerator mass
spectrometry are able to detect the presence of C-14 at 100,000
times lower concentration than previous methods.
Out of thousands of supposedly multimillion year samples
tested, all but two contained measurable amounts of C-14.
Radioactive elements disappear within about 10 half-lives. Even
if we are generous and stretch the limit out to 40 half-lives,
within about 250,000 years all the C-14 should be gone.
IT IS NOT.
The “multimillion year” fossils must be
less than 250,000 years old!
In fact, in most cases, they point to something less than 90,000
years (before correction for lower atmospheric C-14 in the past).
11-49
2007 by David A. Prentice
Isochron Dating – The Latest and Greatest
Isochrons are an attempt to eliminate the need
to know initial parent-to-daughter ratios.
They use a
radioactive element
(e.g., Rb-87) and two
isotopes of the
element it decays
into: one radiogenic
(e.g., Sr-87) and one
naturally occurring
(e.g., Sr-86).
Ratio of
Sr-87
(radiogenic)
to Sr - 86
(naturally
occurring)
As the amount of the radioactive parent decreases compared to the nonradiogenic isotope of the daughter, the radiogenic daughter should
increase correspondingly.
The ratio of radioactive-to-radiogenic in multiple rock samples is graphed
on one axis, and the ratio of radiogenic-to-natural is shown on the other.
11-50
2007 by David A. Prentice
PROBLEMS WITH ISOCHRON DATING
Ratio of
Sr-87
(radiogenic)
to Sr - 86
(naturally
occurring)
1. It starts with the invalid assumption that rocks come out of volcanoes perfectly mixed. We know from observation that they do not.
2. We arbitrarily assign a meaning to the slope of the line. It could
represent billions, millions, or thousands of years - but it could also
be meaningless.
3. In some cases, the slope of the line is negative -- indicating the
impossible situation of a negative age.
4. If the non-radiogenic element was ever added or removed from any
of the samples, the technique is useless.
11-51
2007 by David A. Prentice
Isochron Dating and the Grand Canyon
The
Cardeñas
Basalt at the
bottom of
the Grand
Canyon is
supposed to
be about a
billion years
old.
The
Uinkaret
Plateau
at the top
is only
supposed to
be about
a million.
Rubidium-Strontium dating showed an age of about 1.07 billion
years for the Cardeñas, as expected.
Exactly the same technique was applied to the Uinkaret, which
showed an age of 1.34 billion years -- a thousand times too old,
and 270 million years older than the rocks at the bottom.
EIther the technique is faulty, or else
the Grand Canyon is upside down!
11-52
2007 by David A. Prentice
RADIOMETRIC “TIE-POINTS”
IF stratigraphic ages are really correct, and
IF radiometric dating is reliable,
Then we should be able to find a multitude of “tie-points” -igneous (volcanic) rocks that match the assigned stratigraphic ages of each sedimentary layer containing fossils.
However, evolutionists do not depend on tie-points because
there are so few of them.
A search of the literature reveals that In the entire world, only
a hundred or so individual rocks (tie-points) have been
found that match their assigned ages. The thousands of
others (the vast majority) that don’t match the age that
evolution says they should be are DISCARDED.
Instead of discarding the theory when it doesn’t match the
data, evolutionists DISCARD THE DATA because it doesn’t
match the theory!
11-53
2007 by David A. Prentice
THE FOUNDATION OF EVOLUTION:
Uniformitarianism.
This is the UNPROVABLE geological dogma that everything happens by
slow, gradual, uniform processes. (“The present is the key to the past.”)
There can never have been a worldwide flood.
The Bible warns us:
First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will
come in the last days with scoffing, following their own
passions and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming?
For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have
continued as they were from the beginning of creation.
They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God
heavens existed long ago, and an earth formed out of water
and by means of water, through which the world that then
existed was deluged with water and perished. (2 Peter 3:3-7
RSV)
11-54
2007 by David A. Prentice
FOSSIL PREDICTIONS OF
CREATION AND EVOLUTION
11-55
CREATION:
EVOLUTION:
Catastrophism.
Everyday processes do not
have nearly so much effect on
the earth as catastrophic events
(volcanos, hurricanes,
earthquakes, etc.) The present
is NOT the key to the past.
There should be evidence in the
geologic record pointing toward
past catastrophic events.
Uniformitarianism.
“The present is the key to the
past” -- a doctrinal statement
accepted without proof.
Presently observed processes
should be sufficient to explain
the earth’s geologic record.
There has never been a
worldwide flood.
2007 by David A. Prentice
IF THERE WAS A WORLDWIDE FLOOD,
WHAT WOULD WE EXPECT TO FIND?
Billions and billions of dead things buried in rock layers
laid down by water all over the whole earth, even on top of
the highest mountains.
WHAT DO WE ACTUALLY FIND?
Billions and billions of dead things buried in rock layers
laid down by water all over the whole earth, even on top of
the highest mountains!
11-56
2007 by David A. Prentice
REASONS PEOPLE BELIEVE
THE EARTH IS OLD:
1. Belief that it takes millions of years
to form a fossil.
2. Radiometric dating.
3. Geologic features (separation of continents, Grand Canyon, etc.) that are
supposed to have taken millions of
years to form.
We’ve seen that the first two are not reliable. Now
let’s look at some arguments based on geology.
11-57
2007 by David A. Prentice
The Failure of Uniformitarianism
Uniformitarianism is based on the belief that “The Present is the
Key to the Past.” Even according to evolution, though, many
things have obviously not always happened in the same way
and at the same rate.
• The hypothetical “big bang”
• Origin of the chemical
elements
• Initial formation of the earth
and solar system – different
composition for each planet
• Orbits of the planets not in
the same plane as the sun’s
equator
• Almost all the mass of the
solar system in the sun, but
almost all the angular
momentum in the planets
• Initial separation of the
continents from the original
supercontinent
• Supposed reversal of motion
of the continental plates
• Reversals of the earth’s
magnetic field
“Methodological uniformitarianism was useful only when science
was debating the status of the supernatural in its realm.”
- Evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould
11-58
2007 by David A. Prentice
PLATE TECTONICS
Genesis 1:9-10 says that
there was originally
one landmass. On
this, evolutionists
agree. (They call it
Pangaea.) Evolutionists believe it broke
up over hundreds of
millions of years.
By contrast, youngearth creationists
believe the split
took place rapidly,
during and after
Noah’s Flood.
Animation from Univ. of Calif. Museum of Paleontology website http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu
Geologists around the world use a computer program called
“Terra” to model the motion of the continental plates.
Few realize that it was written by a young-earth creationist
geophysicist, Dr. John Baumgardner.
The program works much better if the continents were moving
rapidly for a short time rather than slowly for millions of years.
11-59
2007 by David A. Prentice
The Failure of Uniformitarianism
Uniformitarianism is based on the belief that “The Present is the
Key to the Past.” Even according to evolution, though, many
things have obviously not always happened in the same way
and at the same rate.
• Clearly defined strata imply
definite non-uniform events
• Clearly defined boundaries
between strata
worldwide (e.g.,
K-T Boundary)
• Complete geologic column not
found in nature
• Out-of-order strata
Creationist explanation:
flood action
Evolutionist explanation:
overthrusting
“Methodological uniformitarianism was useful only when science
was debating the status of the supernatural in its realm.”
- Evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould
11-60
2007 by David A. Prentice
Photos by the author
Deformation of Sedimentary Layers
Above and right:
Deformed strata in
the Swartberg
Mountains of S.
Africa.
Right: Meteor Crater in Arizona. Evolutionists believe
the meteor blasted
through hardened
rock; creationists
note that the crater
looks very much
like the impact of a
bullet in soft mud.
Evolutionists
believe that
bending of
rocks occurred
millions of years
after the sediment hardened
into rock.
Creationists
believe the sediments were bent
while still soft.
Which makes more sense?
11-61
2007 by David A. Prentice
The Failure of Uniformitarianism
Uniformitarianism is based on the belief that “The Present is the
Key to the Past.” Even according to evolution, though, many
things have obviously not always happened in the same way
and at the same rate.
• Clearly defined strata imply
definite non-uniform events
• Clearly defined boundaries
between strata
worldwide (e.g.,
K-T Boundary)
• Complete geologic column not
found in nature
• Out-of-order strata
Creationist explanation:
flood action
Evolutionist explanation:
overthrusting
• Misplaced fossils
• Mass extinctions – dinosaurs
and at least six other times
• Enormous fossil graveyards
• Polystrate fossils
“Methodological uniformitarianism was useful only when science
was debating the status of the supernatural in its realm.”
- Evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould
11-60
2007 by David A. Prentice
FOSSIL GRAVEYARDS
The Karoo Supergroup of South
Africa is estimated to contain
billions of Permian fossils such as
this Bradysaurus.
The Lance Creek Formation of
Wyoming contains an Edmontosaurus herd estimated
at over 30,000 individuals.
11-62
Large scale fossil
graveyards are a
frequent
occurrence
around the world.
Dinosaur National Monument in
Utah contains thousands of
dinosaur skeletons.
The Grand Canyon’s Redwall
Limestone is estimated to contain
billions of nautiloid fossils.
Photos by the author
Fossil-bearing sedimentary mountains are
common.
2007 by David A. Prentice
THE GRAND CANYON
The Grand Canyon is a mile deep, eight
miles across, and over 200 miles long.
Evolutionists claim that the Colorado River
would have taken millions of years to erode
the Canyon.
Is there any evidence that the assumption
of uniformitarianism is wrong, and that
large scale erosion can occur quickly?
11-63
2007 by David A. Prentice
Mount St. Helens
A classic snow-capped mountain in southwest
Washington State, before its eruption in 1980
Photo courtesy of Raymond Fleshman
(www.creationism.org/sthelens/fleshman/index.htm)
11-64
2007 by David A. Prentice
The View From Spirit Lake
Mount St. Helens before
Mount St. Helens after
U.S. Geologic Survey photos from www.creationism.org/sthelens/USGS1250/index.htm
11-65
2007 by David A. Prentice
Effects of the Volcano on Trees
Millions of trees were knocked
down by the initial steam blast.
USGS Photo
11-66
1/8 of a cubic mile of rock from the top of the volcano
crashed into Spirit Lake, creating a wave hundreds of
feet high that swept down millions more trees. Shown
below are not islands, but floating log rafts.
Photo courtesy of Raymond Fleshman
2007 by David A. Prentice
Mount St. Helens During the Eruption
Ash from Mt. St. Helens completely circled the globe.
U.S. Geologic Survey photos from
www.creationism.org/sthelens/USGS1250/index.htm
Energy released from this medium-sized volcano was estimated to be the
equivalent of one Hiroshima-size atomic bomb per second for nine hours.
11-67
2007 by David A. Prentice
Sediment Deposits at Mount St. Helens
Photos courtesy of Raymond Fleshman
The eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 produced fast mud flows
which deposited hundreds of feet of finely laminated sediment
into the North Fork of the Toutle River in just a few days.
11-68
2007 by David A. Prentice
Mount St. Helens and the Toutle River
• The eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 deposited hundreds
of feet of finely laminated sediment into the North Fork of
the Toutle River in just a few days.
• The sediment was so hot that it quickly turned into rock,
damming up the river.
• 20 months later, a new mudflow broke through the new
rocks and carved out a canyon about 1/35 as deep as the
Grand Canyon in ONE DAY.
The Toutle River didn’t carve the
canyon; it just drains it.
(Just like the Colorado River and the
Grand Canyon!)
11-69
2007 by David A. Prentice
Soft Rock Erosion at Mount St. Helens
The 1980 eruption filled the Toutle River valley with hundreds of
feet of superheated mud, which rapidly hardened into rock.
Photo
by the
author
-viewed
from two
miles
away
A second eruption in January 1982 sent more superheated mud blasting
through the new sedimentary rock, forming a network of canyons up
to 160 feet deep (1/35 as deep as the Grand Canyon) in one day.
The Toutle didn’t carve the canyons -- it just drains them.
11-70
2007 by David A. Prentice
Hard Rock Erosion at Mount St. Helens
Photo
by the
author
-viewed
from
three
miles
away
Hard rock erosion is thought to take thousands of years, at least.
Yet the steam blast during the eruption of Mt. St. Helens carved
out a 700 foot deep canyon through the solid granite of the
“Goat Rocks” in less than one afternoon.
11-71
2007 by David A. Prentice
So Could the Grand Canyon be the
Result of Slow Erosion?
U.S. government satellite image
The Grand Canyon is a mile deep, 8 mile wide, 216 mile long gash
through an uplifted area of the Colorado Plateau in north Arizona.
The
Kaibab
Monocline,
a milehigh
upwarped
formation
at the east
end of the
Grand
Canyon
In order for the Colorado River to have carved the Canyon, it
would have had to flow a mile uphill for millions of years.
Sorry, but gravity works in Arizona just like anywhere else!
11-72
2007 by David A. Prentice
THE MISSING DELTA
The Grand
Canyon is
missing over
1000 cubic
miles of
sediment,
enough to
make a good
size mountain
range. Yet it
has a normalsize delta
composed of
soft, relatively
recent
sediment.
NASA
satellite
photo
of the
Colorado
River
delta
at the
Gulf of
California
If the Colorado River carved the Canyon over millions
of years, where is the sediment?
11-73
2007 by David A. Prentice
The Colorado River: Not Enough Water!
Throughout the Grand Canyon are many mesas and
buttes where the Colorado River does not flow.
Photo by the author
There had to be a much larger quantity of water at
some time in the past in order to scour them out.
11-74
2007 by David A. Prentice
Nautiloid Mass Burial at Grand Canyon
The Redwall Limestone is a layer of the Grand Canyon several
hundred feet thick, spread over thousands of square miles.
Photo by the author
Uniformitarian geology says
the Redwall
Limestone
was deposited slowly
over hundreds of
millions of
years.
In 1999, geologist Dr. Steve Austin stunned the Geological Society of
America with the discovery of billions of nautiloid fossils preserved
in a 2-meter thick layer of the Redwall Limestone.
Nautiloids have soft bodies inside a shell. The bodies decay quickly.
The shells all point in the same direction. This indicates that
they were deposited by a massive sediment flow over
a few days, not millions of years.
Nautiloid photos by USGS
11-75
2007 by David A. Prentice
Photo by the author
THE PETRIFIED FOREST
Not really a forest, but tens of thousands of trees and tree
fragments lying on the ground, stripped of roots and limbs.
Most geologists believe they are allochthonous – that is,
they floated into the area from someplace else.
That’s a lot of water!
11-76
2007 by David A. Prentice
The Grand
Canyon
and the
Flood
The Kaibab
Monocline
would have
served as a
natural dam
holding back
four states
worth of water
at the end of
the Flood, until
something
caused a split.
The Colorado
didn’t carve
the Canyon; it
just drains it.
11-77
The
Colorado
Plateau
east of the
Grand
Canyon
includes
many
parts of
Utah,
Colorado,
Arizona,
and New
Mexico
higher
than the
Kaibab
Monocline.
(U.S.
government
satellite image)
2007 by David A. Prentice
METEOR CRATER
Photo by the author
The meteor that caused Meteor Crater in Arizona went
through multiple strata, but did not fracture them.
Instead, the crater looks like the impact pattern of a bullet
fired into soft mud. All the layers must have still been soft
when the meteor crashed through.
They must not have been millions of years old.
11-78
2007 by David A. Prentice
The Failure of Uniformitarianism
Uniformitarianism is based on the belief that “The Present is the
Key to the Past.” Even according to evolution, though, many
things have obviously not always happened in the same way
and at the same rate.
• The hypothetical “big bang”
• Initial formation of the earth
and solar system
• Initial separation of the
continents
• Supposed reversal of motion
of the continental plates
• Well-known catastrophes
such as Washington Scablands, meteor impacts,
major volcanic eruptions
• Reversals of the earth’s
magnetic field
• Clearly defined boundaries
between strata
worldwide (e.g.,
K-T Boundary)
• Enormous fossil graveyards
• Many other examples
“Methodological uniformitarianism was useful only when science
was debating the status of the supernatural in its realm.”
- Evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould
11-79
2007 by David A. Prentice
THE FOUNDATION OF EVOLUTIONARY LOGIC:
Methodological Naturalism,
or
Everything must be explainable by
purely natural processes.
But if even one physical phenomenon has a
supernatural cause, then all of evolutionary
logic is unreliable.
It only takes
barking dog
that “All dogs
11-80
one nonto
show
bark” is false.
2007 by David A. Prentice
REASONS PEOPLE BELIEVE
THE EARTH IS OLD:
1. Belief that it takes millions of years
to form a fossil.
2. Radiometric dating.
3. Geologic features (separation of continents, Grand Canyon, etc.) that are
supposed to have taken millions of
years to form.
None of these is a
compelling argument.
11-81
2007 by David A. Prentice
So far, this is just showing
what’s wrong with the
evolutionary time scale.
Are there any positive
indications that the earth might
be much younger than billions
of years old?
11-82
2007 by David A. Prentice
Maximum Ages Given by
a Number of “Clocks”
INDICATOR
MAX. AGE
IN SPACE:
1. Recession of the Moon
2. Breakup of Galaxy Clusters
3. Spiral Galaxies
4. Beryllium in the sun
5. Residual heat in the outer planets
6. Instability of Saturn’s rings
7. Volcanic activity on Io
8. Poynting-Robertson Effect on space dust
9. Short-period comets
10. Lack of stage 2 and 3 supernova remnants
1,370,000,000
1,000,000,000
1,000,000,000
less than millions
less than millions
1,000,000
1,000,000
200,000
<10,000
<10,000
The true age could be anything less.
11-83
2007 by David A. Prentice
Temperature and Thickness
of the Earth’s Crust
Hot objects radiate heat into space. If the earth started
as a ball of molten rock it would have cooled from the
outside in, gradually developing a thicker and thicker
crust.
Taking into account the measured rate at which the
earth radiates heat into space and including
radioactivity as a heat source, the crust would have
reached its present thickness in no more than 45
million years – only about one percent of the age
evolution requires for the earth.
If it did not start as molten rock, its
age could be anything less.
11-84
2007 by David A. Prentice
THE MISSING HELIUM
Only a few helium-4 atoms move fast enough to escape from the
earth’s gravity. The rest gradually accumulate in the atmosphere.
Several radioactive decay
series release
alpha particles, or
Helium-4 nuclei.
These quickly
capture two electrons from their
surroundings and
become Helium
atoms.
If every bit of the
helium in the
atmosphere
came only from
the radioactive
decay we are
aware of, there is
less than 4
million years
accumulation.
The atmosphere could be less than 4 million years if:
1. any helium was present at the beginning, or
2. there is more radioactivity than we know of, or
3. there is another helium source besides radioactivity,
11-85
2007 by David A. Prentice
HELIUM IN THE ROCKS
• Many radioactive decay series produce helium.
• Even though the helium starts out inside a rock, helium
molecules are so small that they can gradually work
their way through the molecules of the rock until they
escape.
• At the measured rate of diffusion, the escape time has
been calculated to be on the order of a few tens of
thousands of years.
• Many rocks supposed to be hundreds of millions of
years old have been split open and found to contain
significant amounts of helium.
The rocks cannot be more than a few
tens of thousands of years old,
NOT millions of years.
11-86
2007 by David A. Prentice
CARBON-14 DECAY
Cosmic radiation strikes Nitrogen-14 in the upper atmosphere,
turning it into C-14. The C-14 begins to turn back to N-14.
Starting from zero, the amount of C-14 would build up until it
was decaying as fast as it formed. At present rates, it would
take less than 30,000 years to reach equilibrium.
Direct measurements show C-14 forming 20% to 30% faster than it is decaying. This indicates that C-14 has been forming for less than 20,000 years.
The atmosphere must have been in its present condition for
less than 30,000 years.
11-87
2007 by David A. Prentice
THE MISSING METEORITES
NASA photo
• Each year, a few meteorites
make it through the atmosphere and land on the earth
without burning up.
• Fossil-bearing rocks are supposed to have been forming
for at least 530 million years.
• In this time, at least several
billion meteorites should have
become embedded one by one in the fossil-bearing rocks.
• Yet not one meteorite has ever been discovered preserved in
any “ancient” rock layer under the surface, despite the
discovery of perhaps hundreds of billions of fossils.
Either this is an astonishing coincidence, or else the rocks
were NOT laid down over hundreds of millions of years.
11-88
2007 by David A. Prentice
PLEOCHROIC HALOES
If a large number of radioactive atoms decay inside a
molten rock, no traces are left after the rock cools.
However, if the rock is solid when the atoms decay, they leave tiny
spherical “scorch marks” known as pleochroic haloes. We can tell what
produced the haloes by their diameter and what’s left at the center.
SHELLS DUE TO:
Po-214 (half-life 164 microseconds)
Po-218 (half-life 3.1 minutes)
Po-210 (half-life 138 days)
U-238 “parent” (4.5 billion years)
No Uranium “Parent”
“Parentless” Po-210 haloes can only form
in rocks that are solid within a few years, Po-218 within
a few minutes, and Po-214 within a few thousandths of a second.
Thousands of known haloes are from fast-decaying isotopes of
Polonium. In order for them to leave haloes at all, the rocks
must have solidified within a few half-lives of Polonium.
For Po-214, the rocks had to harden within seconds!
11-89
2007 by David A. Prentice
IMPLICATIONS OF PLEOCHROIC HALOES
Pleochroic haloes do not prove that the earth
is young. However, they show that rocks containing them had to solidify in a matter of seconds
rather than hundreds of millions of years.
Whenever the basement rocks were
formed, they were formed fast.
No one has ever successfully rebutted
Dr. Robert Gentry’s contention that
the haloes point strongly toward
instantaneous creation.
11-90
2007 by David A. Prentice
DOES THIS PROVE THE EARTH
IS YOUNG?
NO.
BUT IT SHOWS THAT IT COULD BE,
AND THAT THERE IS NO
COMPELLING SCIENTIFIC REASON
THAT IT HAS TO BE BILLIONS OF
YEARS OLD.
11-91
2007 by David A. Prentice