From: Dick Fischer (dickfischer@earthlink.net)
Date: Fri Apr 18 2003 - 13:38:32 EDT
Here is an anti-YEC argument from nature. (I borrowed a little from Don
Winterstein.) Can anybody see necessary additions or corrections?
Plate Tectonics
When scientists began bouncing radio waves off the moon they discovered
something which to them at the time appeared quite odd. Instead of being
stationary, the major continents were drifting ever so slightly but
perceptively such that the continents were moving apart. This detected
movement is one independent measure of what has become a staple of geologic
theory - plate tectonics.
The mid Atlantic rift lies midway between the continents of North and South
America to the west and Europe and Africa to the east. As the continents
drift slowly in opposite directions, molten rock boils up in the center and
solidifies when it hits the cold water on the sea floor. The mid Atlantic
rift is not quite a straight line that stretches north and south.
At present, we don't know whether the molten rock boiling up from the
earth's mantle exerts a force pushing the continents away from each other,
or whether the momentum of the moving continents drawing apart causes a
fissure which the molten rock fills, or whether there is a combination of
forces at work.
Samples of the rock have been taken from the sea floor. Relative ages of
the rock, measured by radiometric dating techniques, increase going both
east and west from the rift center. The age of the rock is the same at
points that are equidistant from the middle of the Atlantic ocean, and
increasingly older moving away from the rift.
For example, the relative amount of decay isotopes present in rock 1,000
miles east of the rift will be the same as that contained in rock 1,000
miles to the west. An equal amount of decay elements are found at all
points that are equidistant from each other going east and west.
In addition, the iron contained in the deposits when the molten rock first
reaches the ocean floor and solidifies, orients itself with the same
polarity as the earth. Again, at equidistant points we see regular
reversals in polarity many times in the last 200 million years since the
continents were joined.
Whether the Genesis flood was local or global can be argued, but let's
assume that the flood occurred about 5,000 years ago. Since that point in
time, there have been no magnetic pole reversals. So we can say that no
reversals have occurred in the last 5,000 years.
Yet from core samples taken from the ocean floor, and from many other
samples taken from all over the earth, we see pole swapping clearly
occurring in sine wave fashion. And from recent data we can detect a
slight decline in magnetic strength as the earth moves slowly toward
another reversal.
Working the data back, we can see that the continents were joined at one
time. This massive formation of all the continents joined together roughly
200,000 million years ago has been dubbed "Pangea." Since that time the
continents have been drifting apart.
Antarctica, which now covers the South Pole, once was located in temperate
climates. Dinosaur bones have been found there, yet remains of more recent
mammalian, land animals are absent. This is consistent with our knowledge
of the periods of earth history when dinosaurs roamed the earth from 225
million years ago to 65 million years ago, and mammals only came into
existence during the last 150 million years
Plate tectonics data constitutes one of the best data sets an informed
Christian might use to convince an open-minded young-earth creationist that
the world is not as young as he or she might think. Have young-earth
creationists provided an explanation as to how the mechanics of plate
tectonics could be explained in the span of one year at the time of the
flood? No.
Only an earth that has been around for a long time (at least hundreds of
millions of years) could leave this kind of consistent data testifying to
its ancient geologic history.
Dick Fischer - Genesis Proclaimed Association
Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
www.genesisproclaimed.org
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