In its section on evolution, the 10th grade California science textbook, Biology by Miller & Levine, tells how evolutionary theory was built off of the old-earth theories that were being developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries by men like James Hutton and Charles Lyell.
Using the current rate of geologic processes like erosion and deposition of sediments, “Hutton and Lyell concluded that Earth is extremely old and that the processes that changed Earth in the past are the same processes that operate in the present.”1 “For these processes to have produced Earth as we know it, Hutton concluded that our planet must be much older than a few thousand years old,” contradicting the biblical timeline of only around 6,000 years of earth history.2
“Lyell argued that laws of nature are constant over time and that scientists must explain past events in terms of processes they can observe in the present. This way of thinking, called uniformitarianism, holds that the geological processes we see in action today must be the same ones that shaped earth millions of years ago.”3
Contrary to what Hutton and Lyell imagined, geologic processes do not need millions of years to cause great geologic change. As evolutionary geologist Dr. Derek Ager wrote, “The hurricane, the flood or the tsunami may do more in an hour or a day than the ordinary processes of nature have achieved in a thousand years.”4 The fact that catastrophic processes can produce great geologic change rapidly was explosively (pun-intended) illustrated by the 1980s’ eruptions of Mt. Saint Helens, which produced thick sedimentary layers and a 100-ft deep canyon in only a few hours.5
If these processes can produce such large changes in such a short time, imagine what the worldwide Flood of Noah’s day did to the earth! Creation geologists believe that the Global Flood produced most of the world’s vast, sedimentary rock layers and fossil beds, and that the runoff and after-effects from the Flood carved most of earth’s surface features, like flat plateaus and deep, wide canyons.
Image credit: https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rock-layers/2-bent-rock-layers/.
The biblical interpretation is confirmed by many geological evidences found around the world, including fossils ‘graveyards’, where creatures, often from different ecosystems (i.e. ocean and forest), have been mixed together and rapidly buried, such as at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah.6 At the Grand Canyon in Arizona, hundreds of feet of sedimentary layers have been bent without breaking, indicating that they were still soft when they were deformed. Yet, the lowest layer is supposed to have been deposited 460 million years before being bent!7 Certainly, these layers would have hardened before then! These facts require that the layers were deposited quickly, not slowly over millions of years.
Geology powerfully confirms that earth’s geologic features did not require long ages to form, but were formed catastrophically as a result of the Global Flood!
Free resources for further research:
Chapter 2: Did Noah’s Flood Really Happen?
Chapter 3: The Age of the Earth, Dating Methods, and Evolution
References:
1Miller, Kenneth R., and Joseph S. Levine. Miller & Levine Biology. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2006. 454. Print.
2,3 Ibid, 455.
4Ager, D. V. The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record. Chichester: J. Wiley, 1993. 49. Print. Cited from Snelling, A. A., Earth’s Catastrophic Past: Geology, Creation & the Flood.
5Austin, Steven A. “Why Is Mount St. Helens Important to the Origins Controversy?” Answers in Genesis. N.p., 18 July 2014. Web. 03 Dec. 2014. <https://answersingenesis.org/geology/mount-st-helens/why-is-mount-st-helens-important-to-the-origins-controversy/>.
6O’Brien, Jonathan. “Dinosaur Disarray.” Creation. N.p., Apr. 2012. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. <http://creation.com/dinosaur-disarray>.
7Snelling, Andrew A. “10 Best Evidences From Science That Confirm a Young Earth: #2 Bent Rock Layers.” Answers in Genesis. N.p., 11 Sept. 2012. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. <https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rock-layers/2-bent-rock-layers/>.
