Re: [asa] Science lesson from ICR

> Don't know about it being an "evolutionary" response, but here is a geologic
> response.
>
> http://www.nps.gov/archive/grca/pphtml/subnaturalfeatures14.html
>
The relatively new (this year) studies suggesting a prominent role for
karst are not included here. Basically, these suggest that the course
of the river was set by going under the higher areas cut by the
canyon. This addresses a moderately legitmate question. However, the
statement above is blatantly dishonest, either in not bothering to
think about, much less investigate what the conventional geologic
model (no more evolutionary than their model) would assume or in
deliberately misrepresenting it.

"Bible-believing Christians interpret the canyon as a spillway from
Noah's Flood"

Someone who believes the Bible should show evidence of taking the 9th
commandment seriously, not only in accurate geology but also in not
slandering.

A global flood does not have spillways. Drainage from a lake is a
component of many conventional geologic models. To realistically
connect this with a creation science-type flood, it would be necessary
to show that such a flood could plausibly create the observed
paleoenvironmental conditions upstream.

"For example, the top of Grand Canyon is over four thousand feet
higher than where the Colorado River enters the canyon, meaning it
would have had to flow uphill for millions of years."

This assumes that no erosion whatsoever took place above the head of
the canyon during the millions of years in which the canyon was
eroding and also assumes that water can't erode sideways. Water would
have to flow uphill only if the area at the start of the canyon was at
a higher elevation than the river's headwaters at the time when the
canyon originated. Comparing the current elevation at which the
Colorado River enters the canyon to the sides of the canyon is
meaningless with regard to the canyon's origins.

"Additionally, in contrast to all other rivers, we do not find a delta
(a place where washed-out mud is deposited). This alone makes the
evolutionist interpretation impossible."

No, it alone suffices to demonstrate geographic and geologic
incompetence and/or untrustworthiness on the part of the "we", since
there is a delta. Of course, other factors play into delta formation,
so the genuine absence of a delta wouldn't tell us anything. The
Colorado River is flowing into a narrow space at the head of the Gulf
of California, so the sediment tends to fill it all the way across
instead of forming a nice D-shaped delta like a river that's flowing
into a broad expanse of coastline. The sediment load, subsidence
rate, erosional patterns, etc. also affect delta formation.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
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