Creation and Evolution Blog

I used to think that the fossil record provided the greatest support for evolution. Not because of homologies, as discussed below, but rather because certain species tended to show up in certain places in the geologic record over and over again. What would account for that except evolution?

In fact, I held this opinion quite recently. I was going to write this article to mention the placement of fossils within the fossil record as evidence for evolution. However, as I began to dig into this I found the same kinds of bad logic that I found in homologies -- namely that if counterexamples are abundant, then the rule must not be sound.

Living Fossils

In homologies, we talked extensively about convergent evolution. Basically, to sum up, if homologies were evidence for evolution, then finding non-evolutionary homologies removes the weight of homology from evolution. If homologies often occurs because of other causes than common ancestry, then using homologies as evidence of common ancestry doesn't hold water.

That's the same basic line of reasoning that will be occurring here. The evolutionists believe that if a fossil of a certain species is always found in a certain layer, then we can conclude that the fossil lived during that period. If a fossil is never found in a certain layer, then we can conclude that the fossil didn't likely live during that period. So, if a species is never found in the same layer as humans, we can assume that they never lived at the same time as humans.

Of course, that's completely wrong. The coelacanth fish, for example, had supposedly gone extinct with the dinosaurs. We have a lot of fossils of the fish in the same layers as the dinosaurs, and NO fossils of the fish with modern humans. They thought this until we found out that they were being sold in the markets of Madagascar. Obviously, the fact that we don't find these fish in the same layer as humans means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about whether or not they lived at the same time as humans. The tadpole shrimp is another similar story.

So, although coelacanth fish RELIABLY are in the same geologic layers as dinosaurs and RELIABLY NOT in the same geologic layers as humans, this DOES NOT mean that they lived in different eras -- we know this because the direct evidence shows that they are living today. So why are we so sure about other cases?

Historic Accounts of Dinosaurs

Now that we know that animals not existing in certain geologic layers isn't proof of when they became extinct, we can ask another question. Is there any evidence that animals believed to be long extinct have existed sooner than the geologic record tells us? Yes there is. In fact, numerous dinosaur-era animals have been described by human accounts. Here are a few:

• Pterydactyls - native americans called these things Thunderbirds. They have also been spotted in Africa.


• Ankylosaurus - this is described in the book of Job as "Leviathan". The only difference is that Leviathan supposedly breathes fire. Oh, wait, Ankylosauruses have complex sinuses of unknown function, so maybe they do.


• Behemoth - also mentioned in Job, matches the description of a Brontosaurus or similar species.

This is actually happening so often that a new field is emerging called paleocryptozoology that correlates historic facts with fossils.

So, we've seen that the geologic evidence can produce results that we know are incorret, and we have historical accounts that lend doubt to other parts of that record. So, as you can see, there is less and less reason to believe that geologists and biologists are correct when assigning dates to the lifespans of these species.

How Old Are Geologic Structures

In fact, not only is it hard to date fossils, it is getting fairly hard to reliably date anything. The grand canyon has often been heralded as a monument to the concept of geology forming over millions of years. However, we have seen similarly stratified layers formed in a matter of DAYS in other canyons. At Mt. St. Helens, we find that a large canyon of stratified layers was formed in a matter of hours.

The island of Surtsey, which has been formed only in the last century, National Geographic said this: "… in one week’s time we witness changes that elsewhere might take decades or even centuries … Despite the extreme youth of the growing island, we now encounter a landscape so varied that it is almost beyond belief."

The speed at which we actually observe these processes take place continually amazes and confounds the uniformitarians. However, apparently it isn't amazing or confounding enough to believe that other geological structures on the earth might have been formed by the same sort of quick-forming catastrophic events that we see today, as opposed to the slow-moving gradualistic processes that noone has ever observed and we can only guess at.

Contra-indications of the Geologic Column

There are many reasons to believe that the geologic column exists, but there are also many reasons not to. Modern dogmatic evolutionists like to present one side of the story, but without addressing the problems. And when they do address the problems, they are absolutely sure that you recognize that it doesn't affect the general concept of millions of years. I'm sure you know the arguments for millions of years. If not, take a look at the Talk.Origins link on the right. Here are some arguments against it (from Ariel Roth):

• Present rate of erosion of continents - Continents would be eroded 170-340 times over in 3500 Ma.


• Sediments carried into the ocean - Present rate would produce sediments now found in oceans in 50 Ma and would fill the oceans 19 times over in 3500 Ma.


• Rate of sediment accumulation on continents - In 3500 Ma, there should be 14-23 times as much sediment as found, excluding some limited recycling.


• Rates of uplift of mountains - Mountains are rising at a rate of 100 cm/1000 years, which would result in mountains 100 km high in 100 Ma.


• Rate of production of volcanic ejecta - In 3500 Ma 20-80 times as much volcanic ejecta as we now find would have been produced.


• Time for evolutionary development - Many orders of magnitude more than 5000 Ma are needed for the improbable events postulated.

Other Geologic Inconsistencies

• Polystrate fossils - some fossils span multiple geologic layers.


• Inconsistent finds - the geologic column is not as consistent with its fossils as some may present. The inconsistencies are usually glossed over. It makes sense to gloss over inconsistencies if your assumption is millions of years. However, without that assumption, such inconsistencies point to a reconsideration of the original hypothesis.


• Preservation of animal tracks - the fossilization of animal tracks indicate that stratified layers formed quickly, not over years, otherwise the tracks would have eroded away.


• Animal tracks always going upwards - in many spots, like the Grand Canyon, for instance, all of the animal tracks found are going uphill. This could be an indication of a massive flood occurring where the animals are all trying to find high ground.


• Most geologic features can form faster than previously expected - we've already mentioned some examples. In addition, fossils can form very fast, as well as coal and other features that are supposed to have taken millions of years.

Anyway, the geologic evidence for evolution rests on some shaky assumptions about the validity of the geologic column, and especially its relationship to the survival dates of species. If we find that all of these evolutionary "ancestors" were all living contemporaneously, it casts severe doubt on the idea of the process occurring at all.

This still leaves the question of, what does, exactly, the geologic column represent. I don't know the answer to that. There are some hypotheses, and hopefully the correct one will show itself over the next few decades.

Permanent Link posted by crevo @ 9:22 PM