Hey everyone! I recently went to Quartzite where one of the nations largest gem dealers gathered once a year. While I was there, I found several people dealing in fossils. I had fun looking around the shops at all the different relics. And one place, had a whole box of fossilized brachiopods. What is so important about this? Check out this blog and see!
So our question of the week is: Does the fossil record support a global flood?
First I would like to refresh everyone’s memories on the fossil record. If you grew up attending a public school, you were taught the theory of evolution, including evolution in the geologic column. For example, fossil layers bearing trilobites are supposed to have existed in a time when these animals were the dominant life form on earth while dinosaur-bearing fossil layers supposedly reflected a time when dinosaurs were dominant on the earth. The trilobite layer, thought to be a simpler form of animal and therefore evolved earlier, would be found in the lower sediment layers.
How do creationists explain this. Creation scientists understand that the fossil record is basically divided into two segments: fossils deposited during the global flood and those formed after the floodwaters receded. Also, though trilobites and dinosaurs were contemporaries of each other, during the flood, trilobite-bearing beds at one point on earth were most likely being deposited at the same time as dinosaur-bearing beds at another place on earth. So, in general, the lower layers record organisms buried first in the flood, and the upper layers record the later stages of the flood. “The evidence involves different ecological zones (like the dinosaurs and trilobites) being buried at different times.”
What is the evidence? Several things…getting back to the brachiopod; a brachiopod is a bi-valve mollusk like clams, oysters and muscles. When brachiopods die, the two halves open up. That is why you always see single bi-valve shells on the beach. Millions of them! Now what is really interesting, is billions of fossil brachiopods are found throughout the world in the closed position. What does that mean? It means they were buried alive. Fossils buried alive, like the brachiopods, found globally can only be explained by rapid burial in an environment prohibiting decomposition (lacking oxygen). If they are not buried rapidly, scavengers and bacteria will quickly decompose the organisms. These conditions are not found in many places on earth today, yet fossils are found across the globe throughout the geologic column.
Another interesting fact is the fossil record does not show organisms changing, it is very static—organisms appear fully formed and then disappear, or are extant today.
More evidence are polystrate fossils. These fossils penetrate many layers of sediment. The cliffs at Joggins, Nova Scotia, and Specimen Ridge, Yellowstone National Park USA, present a prime study of polystrate fossil trees as they pass through many layers of the exposed cliff face. If the layers represent many millions of years, how were the trees able to stand upright without rotting away while they were being slowly buried? The events following the eruption of Mount St. Helens included a massive amount of floating logs in Spirit Lake. “The tree stumps and logs floating on the lake eventually settled to the bottom as they became waterlogged. Many sank root end first with sediment and bark layers around and between them. Underwater photographs have revealed similarities to the petrified forests—successive layers of buried upright stumps with no roots.” There are even polystrate fossils of whales found in California and over a hundred in Peru.
And that is not all! Here is more evidence. Many rock layers thousands of feet above sea level contain fossils of marine organisms. Even the topmost ridges in the Himalayas contain fossil ammonites in the limestone. The continents couldn’t have been below sea level because continental rock (which is less dense") floats on top of the mantle – well above ocean rocks. There is no other explanation; at some point, the ocean waters must have covered the continents.
Here is a quick review of what is true and what is false. True: a minority of fossils tend to be found in specific geologic layers, all over the world. False: this means millions of years between animal evolution account for multiple and differing horizons of fossils. True: more and more fossil beds are being found to overlap, extending into each others geologic layers. ie dinosaurs found in the trilobite fossil layer. False: the succession of fossils in sedimentary rock means the earth has undergone successive events. True: “The Word of God teaches only one episode of special creation, and only one global Flood, not many!” False: different types of fossil layers come from a series of creations and global floods. True: The sorting of organisms happened during the Noachian Flood. False: the geologic column is complete in places throughout the world. True: different organisms occur in successive horizons of rock due to successive crustal downwarp of different life-bearing communities. False: horizons of fossils demand successive passages of time during which the organisms lived. True: there is only one set of mutually-contemporary living things on a young earth. False: repetitive replacement of living things over vast periods of time.
“Since the Flood was a global event that lasted about one year—as Genesis clearly teaches—we would expect to find massive layers of sediment containing the fossilized remains of billions of animals and plants. And that is exactly what we find all around the globe.”
Until next week – take care and God Bless!
Willow
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