The Theory of Evolution and Geological Dating Part 6

At current rates of 25 billion tons of mud per year in continental erosion, all of the earth’s crust would erode into the ocean within 25 million years. Yet, the estimated average depth of mud on the sea floor is only 400 meters. After several billion years, where are the thousands of meters of sediment? The last proposed catastrophic event in the evolutionary timescale was 65,000,000 years ago when the dinosaurs were theoretically buried in a flood. That event itself should have left great amounts of ocean sediment. Sixty five million years later the continents should have been completely washed away!

Similarly, water-soluble elements such as sodium are washing into the ocean at measured rates. After a billion years the oceans should be saturated with these salts or have reached a cycle of stasis where the amount entering is equal to the amount exiting. For many water-soluble elements the above expectations are not met. Often these measures will give maximum ages for the oceans in millions of years or less.

So-called “trace fossils” are believed to indicate the age of geologic strata. Certain trace fossils lead paleontologists to propose dates into the hundreds of millions of years for a stratum. However, this dating mechanism is arbitrary and patently false as demonstrated by the appearance of living samples. For example, the presence of Coelacanth fossils was assumed to indicate an average geologic age of 130,000,000 years, and a minimum age of 70,000,000 (i.e. 130,000,000 years +/- 60,000,000). In 1938 Coelacanth was found swimming in the Indian Ocean! It is a deep-sea fish that was not uncommon to the locals. Therefore, any stratum with Coelacanth fossils may now be dated at 130,000,000 years +/- 130,000,000. A similar find was the discovery in Australia of live Wollemi Pine trees. Wollemi Pine fossils were once used to demonstrate that a stratum belonged to the Jurassic age. These are but two of the many anomalous examples of false ages from fossils.

If the geologic column is found to be the result of a massive flood, then the strata are of recent origin, and the evidence for an evolutionary timescale is buried.

Go To Part 7