Torch, Fall/Winter 2009

Fall–Winter 2009 | TORCH 9 W hen Charles Darwin stepped on board the HMS Beagle for an around-the- world voyage in 1831, he carried a copy of Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology with him. Probably the most significant geology book ever published, it would have a tremendous influence on the young scientist’s thinking … and on an origins theory that would change the world. Lyell wrote his three-volume text to explain geology in a completely naturalistic way, devoid of biblical references. Although he did not make earth-age estimates in his text, the general consensus soon became that the earth must be millions of years old. Lyell argued that slow and gradual geological processes had shaped much of the earth’s surface and had formed many of its rocks. This way of thinking became known as “uniformitarianism.” On the other side were the “catastrophists” of the day, who argued that rocks and fossils had formed quickly, many of them during Noah’s Flood. Using biblical arguments, these scientists believed the earth was only thousands of years old and the Flood account in Genesis had a large role in shaping the earth’s geology. However, Darwin used Lyell’s book — as well as biological observations from his own voyage — to propose natural selection and write On the Origin of Species . Together, Lyell and Darwin convinced most scientists that the biblical record was wrong about the age of the earth, the origin of life, and Noah’s Flood. But in 1961, the tables turned again when Henry Morris and John Whitcomb published The Genesis Flood , which revitalized the modern creation movement. Since that time, creation scientists have identified evidence in the geologic record that validates the Flood as a worldwide catastrophic event. The Great Unconformity Deep in the rock record, just below where fossiliferous strata begin in earnest, a buried erosional surface, or “unconformity,” can be found. Under that boundary are rock types devoid of animal fossils. The unconformity occurs in many places around the world and is especially well exposed in the Grand Canyon (Figure 1). At the beginning of the Flood, “all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened” (Gen. 7:11). Imagine the tremendous amount of erosion this catastrophic event would have caused on the earth’s surface! And this is exactly what we find, worldwide in scope, buried deep in the rock record — large boulders overlying this eroded surface testify to the tectonic catastrophe that produced them. In the Grand Canyon, a few of the boulders are hundreds of feet in size, while others in California measure almost a mile in length! TORIAN DIXON / ISTOCKPHOTO Figure 1: The Great Unconformity in the Grand Canyon occurs between the relatively horizontal strata (top) and the strata at a slight angle (above the Colorado River). The strata above are filled with marine fossils, while the strata below are devoid of fossils. This boundary marks the beginning of the Flood and can be found in many places around the world, often deeply buried. Lipan Point, Grand Canyon. PH TO BY JOH WHITMORE