The Vanishing Proofs of Evolution Book by:  Thomas F. Heinze  ·  ©2005  ·  96 pgs.   Go to: Books   Introduction   Chapter 1   Chapter 2   Chapter 3   Chapter 4   Chapter 5 Chapter 6   Chapter 7   Chapter 8

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Chapter 6 Uniformitarian Geology

Before Darwin, people generally believed that disasters, such as floods, particularly the great flood at the time of Noah, stirred up and redeposited much of the sediment that now forms the rocks of the earth's crust. In 1830 Sir Charles Lyell wrote Principles of Geology, opposing the flood and teaching Uniformitarian geology. He denied not only the great flood, but all rapid geologic changes. He claimed that in the past, geologic processes like erosion and deposition of sediment occurred very slowly. Because there are some very thick deposits of sediments, this provided long ages that opened the way to the theory of evolution:

"...One of the most important influences of uniformitarianism was on the development of the theory of evolution. Charles Darwin obtained a copy of Lyell's Principles of Geology shortly before boarding the Beagle and read it on the voyage that led to his theory." (1)

One factor in the growing dissatisfaction with the exclusively slow geological processes of uniformitarianism was the growing acceptance of the evidence for the Missoula flood that had occurred during the ice age. A glacier had moved in and dammed up a river northeast of present day Missoula Montana. As the water accumulated behind the glacier, a huge lake was formed. Finally the water lifted the glacier and shoved it aside. From Montana, the flood rushed through eastern Oregon and Washington, and plunged toward the sea. Its power cut through rock as well as dirt, digging out much of the Columbia river gorge. The flood covered Portland with around 400 feet of water which had been traveling an estimated 60 to 80 miles an hour. As the flood hit the Willamette Valley, it spread out, causing the waters to move more slowly, and deposit 50 feet of top soil over much of the Willamette Valley before carrying the rest out to sea. At its height, the flood's water equaled around 10 times the output of all the world's rivers. Some think the blockage, lake building and flooding may have taken place more than once.

Evidence for the Missoula Flood was discovered and presented in 1917, but geologists were committed to uniformitarianism. They were afraid that accepting any big flood might give the Genesis flood a foot in the door, and they didn't know yet where all the water came from, so they ignored or denied the evidence. It was in the 1950s after a generation of geologists had gone to their graves that significant numbers of geologists began to accept the Missoula flood. By around 1968 so much evidence had built up, the flood became almost undeniable.

Other evidence against uniformitarianism was equally compelling. To support their idea of long periods of time, uniformitarianists, also called gradualists, would sometimes teach that dead plants or animals would lie on the ground or in oxygen free water on the bottom of the ocean for hundreds or thousands of years. They would be very gradually covered with sediment before starting to fossilize. Evolutionists badly needed a long time for their theory to seem plausible, but was this the way to get it? In the real world plants and animals that are fossilized are covered with sediment rapidly, usually by flood-born sediments or a mudslide. Bodies laying exposed for months or years are eaten or rot away. Leftover bones are spread around, and erode away. After a short time no trace is left. If they die in oxygen free water, their bodies are eaten by anaerobic bacteria.

The Grand Canyon

For more than a hundred years the religious devotion of most geologists to an impossible theory, led them to ignore and explain away such things. As time passed, however, the evidence became inescapable. The geologic theory that did so much to bring in evolution was wrong! Geologists were unprepared, and had to grab a passing branch to break their fall. The evidence forced them to bail out of uniformitarianism before they had found a solid new position to jump to. They now call themselves actualists, or modified uniformitarianists, or old earth geologists. They accept the fact that some floods really have laid down in a few days quantities of sediments that uniformitarianists claimed took from thousands to many millions of years, but they still don't accept the Genesis flood! The disbelief in the Genesis flood is almost an article of faith, a core dogma that can't be abandoned by evolutionary geologists.

What then happened to all the time evolution needed? Geologists today are in the difficult position of admitting that most of the earth's sediments were built up much more rapidly than was admitted under uniformitarianism but they still believe in the same long ages. They now admit it did not take long to build up the layers of sediment, but still believe in the same long periods of time as the uniformitarianists. They now claim that, instead of the time passing while layers of sediments were being built up a grain at a time, most of the time passed between the layers: after one layer was laid down, and before the next. Uniformitarianists said the strata from the beginning of the Cambrian layer near the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the top, covered 555 million years. During that time, the sediment was for the most part being gradually laid down, a grain at a time.

Actualist geologists today admit that the sediments were laid down rapidly. After careful calculations one estimated to me the time it took to build up the sediments at 2.5 million years. Amazingly, however, he and the other old earth geologists accept the same 555 million years as the old gradualist uniformitarianists. To do it, they hide all but 2.5 million years of that time between the layers. They believe that several layers were laid down, then many years passed in which some layers may have been erased from the record. Then more layers were laid down, etc. They tuck a hundred million years between one layer and another, then ten million between two other layers, etc.

In some cases it is obvious that some time really did pass between layers. After a layer of sediment has been laid down, canyons begin to be carved out, so when another layer is laid down, the contact line is no longer flat. Yet, in some cases actualists claim that millions of years passed between layers that have a flat contact for miles and show little or no evidence that any time had passed.

Many first believed in evolution because they were taught in school that the earth's sediments were deposited so slowly that the time available to evolution was immense. Now you know some of the reasons why most geologists abandoned the old uniformitarianism, the foundation on which evolution was built. You now know that the foundation was not true, and that today's actualism is a compromise between the actual evidence and the false foundation that makes you free to consider other options.
 

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