From: Don Winterstein (dfwinterstein@msn.com)
Date: Wed Oct 08 2003 - 06:17:38 EDT
Allen Roy wrote in part:
"Were there fossils in the ground at [the] time [of Adam and Eve]? Your answer to that depends upon
whether you believe that fossils were the product of Noah's Flood, or if you
believe that fossils predated Adam and Eve. I don't believe that there were
fossils in the ground at the time of Adam and Eve. No fossils, no "extra stuff"
that might point to and old biosphere contrary to what God told them. It is
only if you believe that there were fossils in the ground at their time that it
becomes an obstacle for God's truth."
Unfortunately I'm so far from being able to empathize with your views here that I largely lose motivation when I try to think of how to respond. Like Glenn Morton, I've worked for many years in an environment that exposes a person almost daily to the realities of Earth's sedimentary deposits and the associated fossil distributions. On the basis of such fossil evidence Glenn has amassed very compelling arguments as to why Noah's flood could not have been the source of the bulk of observed sedimentary rocks. Some of his arguments require extensive extrapolations from actual measurements, but on the whole they make a pretty unassailable case, and most geologists I know would agree with him at least in broad outline. I have my own arguments--some of which I've stated in this forum--gleaned from decades of experience and observations. Given my experience in this area, I absolutely cannot imagine that anyone would be able to convince me that the world is young or that any single flood, including Noah's, could have been responsible for most sedimentary rock. The huge evaporite deposits in Texas by themselves would constitute sufficient contrary evidence. Furthermore, I know of no one who has had similar experience who would be able to believe such YEC contentions. The only YEC I'd ever known to have been exposed to this kind of evidence in any depth and detail soon became a cynical unbeliever.
My impression of YEC protagonists is that they invariably pick on small discrepancies but ignore the big picture. Geology as explanatory science is full of small problems, but it does a good job on the big picture. YEC protagonists as I see them bring to life in living color the metaphor of choking on gnats while swallowing camels whole.
You're free to believe what you want, of course; but I can't get up the energy to play games on your field.
Don
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