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How does the geologic timescale fit with the view of a young earth?



    
    

Clarify Share Report Asked July 01 2013 Mini Anonymous (via GotQuestions)

Community answers are sorted based on votes. The higher the vote, the further up an answer is.

24
Shea S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries
The question of how the geologic timescale fits with the "young earth" view is a good one. The earth's crust is made up of three different kinds of rock: igneous and metamorphic rock, both of which...

July 01 2013 2 responses Vote Up Share Report


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Mini W P
Geologists and evolutionists are right now at a very uncomfortable point.

There's lots of evidence they have BIG problems explaining.

For instance there are dinosaurs dug up recently with relatively fresh bone marrow and cartilage still in tact.

Even with Ice-Ages taken into account, the bones couldn't have been more than a certain age.

Anyone who has buried their dead pet dog or cat, and finding the bones again a few years later will know they are completely dried up.

The current carbon dating methods used to date very old things has been proven to be extremely erroneous, and you can observe this with some very basic logical reasoning. For example, based on the half life principle of radioactive decay of carbon you'd expect to see only certain amounts of the carbon isotope (that they measure). The problem is that with most dinosaur remains there is FAR too much radioactive carbon isotope in the specimens.

Personally, I'm all for science... as long as their mandate is to seek out the truth.

Unfortunately we have brain washed scientists who believe what they've been sold is objective science. When in reality they've simply accepted an alternative theory that sounded more plausible, but they've failed to rigorously validate those ideas with robust scientific principles.

December 26 2013 2 responses Vote Up Share Report


7
Len 2005fastnet Len Carne Beggar showing other beggars where to find bread
The geologic time scale is a manmade construct set at odds with a young earth fact. 

The earth was made in 6 days according to Genesis. The author, maybe predicting the scientific arguments to follow, defined a day rather than an era. The definition? The sun came up and the sun went down. Can't get much clearer than that. The devil uses evolution to try and make a fool out of Christians. 

"Discredit their book and the rest is easy" is his way of thinking. But no... think! Time and time again the Bible is proved right, so stand fast your faith and watch all this evolution nonsense come to nothing.

December 17 2014 0 responses Vote Up Share Report


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Mini Kenneth Heck
This is my basis for an argument for a young earth. 

The bible tells us what is spiritually important, not scientifically important. The geologic time scale for the planet isn't important for the spirituality of the bible, neither are astronomical facts important for living successfully as either a Jew or Christian. Both Jews and Christians have never been judged negatively by God for their lack of scientific knowledge.

As to its spiritual importance, the six-day creation is given only a very few verses compared with the Noahic Flood, for example. This doesn't mean Genesis must be a book of myths or fables at odds with scientific knowledge.

The word "earth" in the bible doesn't mean the third planet from the sun. It specifically means only areas that are dry (no precipitation), which also contain vegetation, birds, four-footed animals, and man (not man-like creatures). Where rain falls, there will usually be erosion chipping away at the land area. In contrast, in the Garden of Eden, dew arising from the air replaced rainfall. However, as a practical matter, we can say any particular location can only conform to the ideal of the bible to a certain degree. For example, deserts have a very low degree of conformity, along with the polar regions and great mountain ranges. Also, swamps. Glades, rain forests, and coastal regions subject to tides don't fit well either. 

A further consideration is that the traditional area most identified as the biblical earth is only found in the Middle East or the Fertile Crescent. The biblical account begins with this area containing nothing of its future contents or its final physical form. The seas or ocean were subject to continual darkness at that time. How can this be from the scientific viewpoint? All it would take would be a great volcanic eruption (or several together), or a large asteroid strike. 

We can go back to the end of the Holocene Era (11,000 BC to the present) for these conditions when the end of the ice age seems to have occurred due to a great asteroid strike, according to some scientists. If each day was actually counted as a thousand years, then we have a total of six thousand years before Adam's creation at the accepted estimate of four thousand BC. Adding the two we get ten thousand BC, a closer than expected agreement with the scientific geologic time scale. As scientific findings continue to accumulate we can expect more perfect agreement with the biblical account.

November 26 2016 0 responses Vote Up Share Report


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Mini ainsley chalmers Medical Research Scientist, devoted family man.
The evidence for a young earth is very persuasive and obvious. The bible would indicate from the genealogies that we have been here about 6,500 years. The evidence to support this is:

1. Rock strata worldwide with more than thousands of square mile coverage coupled with smooth interfaces, lack of bio-perturbation and polystrate fossil trees crossing several rock strata speak of a massive flood event.
2. Billions of intact fossils worldwide confirm a massive flood event. The absence of intermediate fossils present negate the evolutionary process.
3. Carbon-14 isotopes present in coal, diamonds and fossils indicate ages of thousands of years old, not millions or billions.
4. Intact proteins and cells in T Rex indicate they were around hundreds of years ago not 65 million years ago. Dinosaur carvings and painting around the world confirm this.
5 The mutation rate in humans indicate that we pass on 100 new mutations to our kids on top of what we already have. Geneticists have calculated that we should be well and truly extinct if we have been here 200,000 years.
6. Without going into detail astronomical findings are consistent with a young 6,000 years old universe.
7. Recent catastrophic events like Mt St Helens have shown that a mini grand canyon can be carved out in less than a day. In short many of the geological findings around the world (eg new islands off the Icelandic and Hawaiian coast, recent canyon formation) can be better explained by catastrophe.

To conclude, the scientific evidence is overwhelming that our earth is relatively young. And this dovetails with early chapters of Genesis, which is not surprising since the word of God is absolute truth. Belief in an old earth won't negate your salvation, but it is causing many young folk to abandon their Christian upbringing because of secular based evolutionary teaching by their teachers.

June 09 2017 3 responses Vote Up Share Report


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Mini Rolf Muller Ex-Farmer, retired, committed to the Truth.
God is eternal and is not subject to time. In God's heaven time is non-existent. Time is based on our solar system and is measured according to the Earth's rotation on its axis and according to its orbit around the sun. But our solar system was created on the 4th "DAY" and before that time could not be measured - and only within our solar system.

The days 1-4 in Genesis could not have been measured as a 12/24hr day as "time" did not exist.
The word "DAY" is translated from the Hebrew word "Yowms". 
"Yowms" can be a day (12/24hrs), but it can also mean a period of time i.e.
a season or an age (ice age, iron age), or a day is as a 1000yrs. 

When God said "Let there be light", he was responding to the darkness over the surface of the Earth. The "light" is the spiritual light of His glory and presence and this prophesy was fulfilled when Jesus walked on this Earth. "I am the light in this world".

Also "And there was evening, and there was morning - the first day", does not mean from sunrise to sunset. Evening is the onset of darkness and the morning brings light that drives out the darkness - the day (light) that drives out darkness. This is mentioned six times after each "day" of creation. (I understand this as God's reason and purpose of His creation).

Note also Genesis 1:2 : "the Earth was formless and empty,...and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters". When God created the heavens and the earth, the Earth existed of water only. I imagine this like a big, huge cirrus cloud in our sky. Dry ground -land - was created on the third day! (Did somebody mention evolution?).

I concur with the scientists when they determine the Earth to be billions of years old - billions of years according to the measurement of time in our solar system.

In Genesis 1:24 God said on the sixth "day" : "let the LAND produce living creatures..." - including apes and humans. After the LAND produced all living creatures God made mankind into His image and likeness. 

Is this not evolution?

June 10 2017 0 responses Vote Up Share Report


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Mini dale dorsett
In the so-called scientific community in my lifetime, I have seen shifts in approach and compliance and reasoning that is disturbing. It is interesting how many 'experts' do use circular logic and more so those that ignore indisputable facts.. 
Some would claim that observation of pliable tissue in dinosaurs that have been unearthed as little as 1 foot under the ground is not a factor. The earth breathes at such a depth and it is impossible to surmise that oxidation and decay would not occur in their supposed millions of years. When decay of tissue occurs over just a few hundred years to the point that no tissue remains such should be factored in SCIENTIFICALLY. There should be such curiosity why that many many many people who have unearthed dinosaurs report stench smells from decaying matter. How could such be over millions of years? Impossible by observable recent history and forensics.

Just one more point 'petrified trees vertically ensconced in multiple layers of strata'. How can each layer of strata be thousands of years old and have a tree petrified across multiple layers of strata? Impossible! A tree would decompose/rot out in a few hundred years. The multiple layers of strata had to be formed by a common process of stratification. It is KNOW that when Mount Saint Helen erupted and so much soil erosion occurred that in a river below multiple layers of stratification was formed over a few weeks, not thousands of years. If you take gravel of all sizes mixed with mud and clay and grass and trees and whatever and you mix it well and let it settle that layering/stratification results. A no brainer. The heavier materials settle down first and lighter above. Sure there is some mixing but for the most part, it is a factor of gravity. Now if you have a flood the stratification becomes even clearer. The last to settle is a lot of the mud. Mud will wash down a stream and accumulate in areas where water is not moving so freely.

I mentioned only two points, many more areas exist that have been blown away with 'educated' answers that obviously were targeted to promote the lies rather than use REAL scientific curiosity and logic.

I do not fault many that have been programmed into this pseudoscientific reasoning as much as those who programmed them and placed them in a box to get good grades and comply with the false narrative - promoting agenda over science in some areas.

In science, ALL factors should be considered until thoroughly proven wrong by facts, not conjecture or bias.

As to a young earth, even if there were a pre-Adamic world that Lucifer screwed up, it is absurd to think the world is millions of years old, unless you are dead set on thinking cosmic dust eventually formed together and over such time created all accidentally. With DNA and the careful balance of the universe to produce life on our planet as observed from astronomers blows the analogy of life just happening and such a balanced univers just happening-- incredibly dumb or willfully ignorant. Agenda vs reasoning screws up a lot of lives. Just a slight shift in earth's orbit would change the earth drastically and life be much less likely to sustain. Intelligent design of earth and life is the only answer that makes sense.

July 03 2017 0 responses Vote Up Share Report


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Jjb 2003 1 Jj Breen Husband, Dad, Grandfather and 60 Years ODD
Going to tell a story, if I may?

I love creating Digital Space Art, it's a lot of fun.

So one day, as I was sitting at my computer ' creating ' in the picture, OLD Stars, Young Stars and so on, literally a still small voice spoke: 

" Why are you doing that? Creating ' old ' - ' new ' and such in your picture? "

My Answer back:
Because it's visually pretty and interesting. All Old would not be interesting and all young would not be interesting.

The small voice responded.
" Do you not realize that I too, can and wanted to create the Earth, the stars, and so on for you to see and explore for the very same reasons? If everything was created equal, how would you learn about my creative powers and the science that I did indeed put there? I can create the world in 6 days, 1 day, 12 days if I wanted. But when I create, I do not create everything the same. How would you learn in the short time that you have, if everything was " new " or " old ". I created you to have curiosity and the ability to learn, explore and see and reason. I did this so you could see my infinite glory, power and creativity. "

I stopped what I was doing and gave Praise to my God and Creator and started to sing: How Great Thou Art.

In closing, science is indeed in the Bible.

Now I am a ' Backyard Astronomer & Arm Chair Astronomer '. I submit this to my fellow Christian's who share the same passion & understanding of Creation and how Solar Systems (Proto-Systems) start.

Gen 1:1-10
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. 6 Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." 7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. 9 Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. NKJV

We know that Proto-Solar System Dust orbits around the parent star. That there is INDEED water in the solar dust and it has a " top " and " bottom " in the solar system material. God gathered the ' waters ' above and below, just as we know happens in solar system creation and the planets form, by the merging of these materials, above and below to form the " center " - aka - The Planet. This, at least to me, reads like a science book for beginners on how a planet in a solar system is created.

May 31 2017 0 responses Vote Up Share Report


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Mini Dean Mathes
To you understand the fossil record of the earth you, have to look at Genesis 1, to see how God created the universe.

Day1: God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was covered with water. God then created light and darkness. But there were no celestial bodies yet. 
Day 2: God divided the waters by creating the Earth's atmosphere. The divided water was surely the water on earth, and the water in the atmosphere. God most likely created an upper layer of water that surrounded the Earth. This is why man had never seen rain before Noah. The entire Earth's climate was controlled by this layer of water. 
Day 3: God created dry land and plant life. 
Day 4: God created the sun, moon, and the stars in the heavens. 
Day 5: God created sea life, and fowl. He then told them to multiply and fill the Earth. 
Day 6: God created the animals. They too filled the Earth. Then God created MAN. 
Day 7: God rested and later commanded that man keep the seventh day holy, to worship Him. 

We can see that the six days of creation are not solar days. The Bible says that God is not limited by time. A thousand days are as one day to God. So the fossil record may point to a very old earth, and the Earth may be much older than six thousand years. I doubt that the Earth is millions of years old, but there is no way to tell. 

As far as man on the Earth, we know that we have only been on this Earth for about 6,000 years. We know that because we can calculate the years based on Biblical genealogy. This year is year 5778. The date may be a few hundred years off, but not by much. Man's appointed days on Earth is 7,000 years. The last 1000 years will be mankind's Sabbath which we Christians call the millennial reign of Christ.

June 09 2017 0 responses Vote Up Share Report


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Nils 1 Nils Jansma Missionary in San Diego California
How does the geologic timescale fit with the view of a young earth? A short answer is that it doesn’t, except for the top Holocene epoch, the soils of which date back about 12,000 years. This is more or less the topsoil and beach sand that either has been weathered in place or deposited normally. The rest of the geologic column can be shown to be very old by a number of means.

It is important to know some clear facts about these rocks. The Cambridge Encyclopedia on Earth Sciences, written in 1981, estimated that the total thickness of all the unique sediments is about 85 miles. This doesn’t mean that there is a location with a sedimentary column 85 miles high. Sediments in one location may differ from sediments in another location. However, because of the unique index fossils they contain, they are obviously related in time. When you add all the various thicknesses of unique sediments, you get 85 miles of orderly deposition. 

Generally, one can’t obtain the ages of sedimentary rocks unless they are associated with volcanic activity. Nevertheless, it is possible to estimate the time it took for the sediments to be deposited by examining the current rates of formation of the same type of sediment today. A good example for consideration is the chemical precipitate rock known as the Redwall Limestone in the Grand Canyon. Today, such rocks form in shallow warm seas where the limestone grows at a rate of about 1 foot every 1 to 2 thousand years. Those are the current rates being measured. The Redwall Limestone in the Grand Canyon ranges from 500 to 800 feet thick. By that reckoning, the Redwall took at least 800,000 years to form or longer depending on the environmental conditions at the time. 

Also, sedimentary rocks often follow a known pattern related to what is called the “transgression-regression sequence.” This concept was first stated by Johannes Walther in 1894 and has come to be known as Walther’s Law. This occurs when sea levels rise or fall relative to land over a long period of time. Basically, the deposition pattern follows the sequence: 1) sandstone, 2) Shale, 3) Limestone for rising water levels (transgression) and the opposite for falling water levels (regression). Each of these type rocks require a dramatically different environment to form. We see examples of Walther’s Law throughout the geologic column.

However, according to the YE hypothesis, the entire 85-mile-high geologic column of all the accumulated sediments worldwide were deposited during the first 150 days of Noah’s Flood. This apparently included the Redwall Limestone and the many Walther’s Law deposition sequences. 

All this was supposed to be happening while the continents were racing at speeds BILLIONS of times faster than the subduction rates that caused the eruption of Mt St Helens. Instead of the Pacific plate moving at only 3 inches per year, during Noah’s Flood it had to be moving up to 3,330,201,600 (6 mph) inches per year. All these sediments were supposed to be deposited while water is washing across the continental surface at tremendous speeds due to movement turbulence. 

For this reason and many more, I believe it is more than reasonable for me to conclude that all 85 miles of accumulated sediment deposited worldwide on all the continents were not deposited during the turbulence of Noah’s Flood. Because the rapid-sediment assertion is the heart of the basis for developing the YE geologic timescale, it appears to me to have been impossible to have happened that way.

June 10 2017 0 responses Vote Up Share Report


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