Torch, Fall/Winter 2009

12 TORCH | Fall–Winter 2009 and preserved. The rock record is full of evidence of rapid burial, including dinosaurs (Figure 4), fossil trees (Figure 5), coal deposits, fish, and trilobites. The fossil record, then, is consistent with the biblical account of the Flood and proves that much of the rock record formed in a short period of time, not millions of years. Continental Rearrangement Conventional evolutionary geology teaches that continents slowly drift and rearrange themselves over millions of years. Many modern geologists believe the continents were rearranged catastrophically during the Flood. First suggested in 1858 by Antonio Snider (Figure 6), this idea is now known as catastrophic plate tectonics (CPT). Many modern creation geologists accept CPT as a mechanism for what happened during the Flood. In this model, cold, heavy rock of the ocean floor suddenly sank deep into the earth at the beginning of the Flood, causing circulation to develop within the deep mantle layers of the earth. The continents moved apart, then crashed into one another at velocities of tens of feet per second. Hot volcanic material on the ocean floor made the sea floor swell, displacing water onto the continents. Though still in development, this idea has gained favor within the creation geology community. The Final Word The apostle Peter said that in the last days men will willfully ignore God’s Creation and the Flood (2 Peter 3:5–6). Lyell and Darwin paved the way to make it scientifically acceptable to be an atheist. During Lyell’s time, many scientists believed in the literal truth of Genesis. Today, most scientists refuse to examine the evidences for Creation and the Flood, just as Peter predicted would happen. We do not have all the answers. Our creation geology community is small, and there are not enough workers to tackle some major issues that still need to be addressed. We started the geology major at Cedarville University to help address some of this need. But a multitude of evidence gives us reason to believe the Flood account described in Genesis was real and worldwide — and that’s certainly something on which to build our faith. T Figure 5: Millions of oriented fossil logs at Petrified Forest National Monument (Arizona). This deposit represents at least three catastrophic processes. First, a forest was destroyed. Second, the trees were transported by water to this location, ripping the branches off the trunks and orienting the logs in the process. Third, the logs had to be buried deep enough, by an enormous volume of sediment (carried by water), to prevent rotting. All of this happened during the Flood. Figure 6: Antonio Snider’s figures on how the continents separated rapidly during the Flood, from his book La Création et ses Mystères Dévoilés (1858). SLAVOLJUB PANTELIC / ISTOCKPHOTO