Re: [asa] Rebuttals?

From: Don Winterstein <dfwinterstein@msn.com>
Date: Sat Aug 30 2008 - 08:11:35 EDT

Any petroleum geologist will tell you that oil formed in deep sedimentary rock and then migrated upward to a different layer of porous sedimentary
rock called reservoir rock.

Partly true, but considerable oil has "migrated" downwards, being generated in shales and "squeezed" into lower layers.

Sedimentary rock was...laid down by water.

Or wind, landslides, etc.

The presence of porphyrins in oil is compelling evidence that the formation of oil had to occur quickly

Non sequitur; there's no reason the porphyrins couldn't have been isolated from oxygen for a long time.

The forest floor of a rain forest will yield no petroleum or coal or any fossils of any kind because the dead organic matter will rot away very quickly in the moist tropical heat

Only if it doesn't get buried or smothered with anoxic swamp water.

It is apparent that the massive sediment beds that yield the billions of barrels of crude oil so much in demand today had to have been laid down very quickly during an extreme catastrophe.

No. Most oil comes from marine plants (e.g., phytoplankton) that precipitated out slowly.

Creationists have for decades pointed to the millions of square miles of thick layers of sedimentary rock as evidence of a global catastrophe.

True, but they've obviously never looked closely at those sedimentary rocks or they would certainly have concluded that (1) not all could have been laid down quickly, and (2) there were many, many episodes of deposition, not just one. If they did the calculations, they'd find they'd also have a very hard time explaining where all those cubic miles of sediment could have come from. And that's just the beginning of the problems with that model.

The worldwide flood of Noah's day involved trillions of tons of water flowing over the continents sweeping away forests, swamps and prairies.

An event of such violence would have scattered the organic matter far and wide and would not have allowed the kind of accumulations that would lead to observed deposits of coal and oil. There also could not have been enough organic matter in existence at any one time to account for the quantities of coal and oil observed today. Under any scenario one must assume that most of the organic matter would have decayed and vanished. Most of it in a violent flood would float on top of flood waters and eventually come to rest on some land surface, where it would decay.

This nonporous layer of rock is called the cap rock.

No, it isn't. Cap rock has several definitions, but this isn't one of them. Petroleum geologists often call this impermeable layer of rock the "reservoir seal" rock.

All oil fields leak over time.

True.

This too is proof of young earth because if the oil fields were millions of years old as secular geologists claim, the oil would have leaked out ages ago.

Non sequitur. Permeability can be extremely low with correspondingly low leakage rates.

Evolutionary geologists have also not adequately explained how fragile organic chemicals, such as porphyrins, could form in oil under the gradual, oxygen rich conditions they claim.

Who are "they" who claim the conditions were oxygen-rich?

Don

 
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: IW<mailto:iaincw@hushmail.com>
  To: ASA<mailto:asa@calvin.edu>
  Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2008 1:16 AM
  Subject: [asa] Rebuttals?

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  Sorry have not posted for a while. I would like to know how best to
  rebut this. NO background in geology (Or oil!) am afraid.

  iain

  Origin of petroleum: proof of young earth

  In this time of energy crisis it will be useful to take a look at
  how oil
  formed. Any petroleum geologist will tell you that oil formed in
  deep
  sedimentary rock and then migrated upward to a different layer of
  porous sedimentary
  rock called reservoir rock.

  Sedimentary rock, as its name suggests, was formed by particles
  that eroded
  off of a continent and were laid down by water. Often the
  sediments contain
  dead plant and animal matter. The water and dissolved minerals
  among the
  particles act as a natural cement that hardens to turn the eroded
  particles into
  solid rock. Oil forms in this sedimentary rock only if there is a
  sufficient
  amount of biological debris among the particles that were laid
  down.

  All plant and animal life contains highly complex long chain
  hydrocarbons.
  When plants and animals are buried, crushed and heated in sediment
  the long
  chain hydrocarbons are broken down to the short chain hydrocarbons
  found in
  oil.

  It is interesting to note that all petroleum contains certain
  chemical
  compounds common in both the chlorophyll of plants and hemoglobin
  of blood. These
  chemical compounds are called porphyrins. Porphyrins are very
  fragile
  compounds that break down quickly in the presence of oxygen.

  The presence of porphyrins in oil is compelling evidence that the
  formation
  of oil had to occur quickly in an environment free of oxygen. The
  standard
  old earth view that the sediments that formed oil were laid down
  over millions
  of years is thus rendered absurd.

  Since plant and animal matter breaks down and rots very rapidly in
  the
  presence of oxygen any slowly forming sediment bed such as a river
  delta, which is
  oxygen rich, will yield no fossil fuels. The forest floor of a
  rain forest
  will yield no petroleum or coal or any fossils of any kind because
  the dead
  organic matter will rot away very quickly in the moist tropical
  heat.

  It is apparent that the massive sediment beds that yield the
  billions of
  barrels of crude oil so much in demand today had to have been laid
  down very
  quickly during an extreme catastrophe. Creationists have for
  decades pointed to
  the millions of square miles of thick layers of sedimentary rock
  as evidence
  of a global catastrophe. The only catastrophe that was capable of
  producing
  such continent wide geological phenomena is the worldwide flood
  described in
  Genesis.

  The worldwide flood of Noah's day involved trillions of tons of
  water
  flowing over the continents sweeping away forests, swamps and
  prairies. This
  organic matter was mixed with huge amounts of eroded sediments and
  rapidly laid
  down over vast distances.

  This slurry of sand, clay, volcanic ash and organic matter formed
  the ideal
  conditions for oil to form. It buried the organic matter deep
  enough to be
  void of oxygen and to have sufficient pressure and heat to cause
  oil and natu
  ral gas to form.

  The oil formed in one layer of sedimentary rock and then migrated
  upward and
  pooled in more porous sedimentary rock called reservoir rock.
  There is
  usually a layer of nonporous rock above the reservoir rock that
  traps the oil in
  the reservoir. This nonporous layer of rock is called the cap
  rock. If there
  is no cap rock above the reservoir rock the oil will keep
  migrating until it
  pours out onto the surface in tar pits like we find in
  California, Venezuela
  and in certain parts of the middle East. Most oil pools are
  trapped by cap
  rock.

  It is interesting to note that no oil field is completely
  restrained by cap
  rock. All oil fields leak over time. This too is proof of young
  earth because
  if the oil fields were millions of years old as secular geologists
  claim,
  the oil would have leaked out ages ago. Creationists have pointed
  out this fact
  for years. Old earth evolutionists have developed many complicated
  theories
  to explain how oil could remain trapped for millions of years.
  Their theories
  are far fetched and offer no compelling proof of their position.

  Evolutionary geologists have also not adequately explained how
  fragile
  organic chemicals, such as porphyrins, could form in oil under the
  gradual, oxygen
  rich conditions they claim. The claim by evolutionists that
  porphyrins could
  remain stable in oil over millions of years also stretches
  credulity. By the
  way, all coal contains carbon 14 and this would be impossible if
  coal beds
  were millions of years old!

  Creationist website _www.answersingenesis.org_
  (http://www.answersingenesis.org/<http://www.answersingenesis.org/>) contains articles about oil
  formation and many other proofs of young
  earth. The earth was created within the biblical timeframe of
  thousands, not
  billions of years.

  The duty of an objective scientist is go where the facts lead. The
  facts of
  petroleum geology clearly point to young earth and to the global
  catastrophe
  which was the biblical flood of Noah's day.

  Bill in New Hampshire

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Received on Sat Aug 30 07:13:16 2008

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