Wednesday, September 14, 2005
BACKDATED: The pre-flood/flood/post-flood boundaries and Creationist stratigraphy
One of the biggest questions in creationist geology is assessing the pre-flood/flood/post-flood boundaries. Before discussing this, it is useful to know what the general creationist geology thinking is in comparison to geology you may have learned elsewhere.
Secular geology usually employs a time-equivalent of rocks. This means that, generally, a given amount of time will produce a given amount of rock. Now, no geologist thinks that this is exactly true, but that is the basic understanding of how rocks form. A large formation was built in a lot of time and a small formation in a short time. I do understand that this is oversimplifying, but again this blog is not to debate which is the correct model, just to help people understand what the creationist model is.
In the creationist model, rocks represent energy-events. Thus, small amounts of rocks in a local area means small amounts of energy, while vast amounts of rock over vast areas means large amounts of energy. In creationism, the two largest energy events were Creation and the Flood. Therefore, the majority of the rocks are going to come from these two events as well. Likewise, the rocks which exhibit the greatest amount of discontinuity from the rocks below, combined with the greatest size and breadth, are likely rocks from the flood. Rocks towards the top of the column which are local in extent and show only minor discontinuities from the rocks below them are more likely to be post-flood rocks.
Anyway, the most important idea is that instead of being time-equivalent, in Creationism rocks are energy-equivalent.
Anyway, all of that to introduce two articles about these boundaries:
The latter one describes more fully how Creationists view geology. The former one is interesting, but it has an especially interesting discussion on created systems and whether or not they were created with the appearance of age.
If you want a good primer on Creationist stratigraphy, see Tas Walker's Biblical Geology site, especially his Geological Model page.
Secular geology usually employs a time-equivalent of rocks. This means that, generally, a given amount of time will produce a given amount of rock. Now, no geologist thinks that this is exactly true, but that is the basic understanding of how rocks form. A large formation was built in a lot of time and a small formation in a short time. I do understand that this is oversimplifying, but again this blog is not to debate which is the correct model, just to help people understand what the creationist model is.
In the creationist model, rocks represent energy-events. Thus, small amounts of rocks in a local area means small amounts of energy, while vast amounts of rock over vast areas means large amounts of energy. In creationism, the two largest energy events were Creation and the Flood. Therefore, the majority of the rocks are going to come from these two events as well. Likewise, the rocks which exhibit the greatest amount of discontinuity from the rocks below, combined with the greatest size and breadth, are likely rocks from the flood. Rocks towards the top of the column which are local in extent and show only minor discontinuities from the rocks below them are more likely to be post-flood rocks.
Anyway, the most important idea is that instead of being time-equivalent, in Creationism rocks are energy-equivalent.
Anyway, all of that to introduce two articles about these boundaries:
- A Note on the Pre-Flood/Flood Boundary in the Grand Canyon
- Assessing Creationist
Stratigraphy with Evidence from
the Gulf of Mexico
The latter one describes more fully how Creationists view geology. The former one is interesting, but it has an especially interesting discussion on created systems and whether or not they were created with the appearance of age.
If you want a good primer on Creationist stratigraphy, see Tas Walker's Biblical Geology site, especially his Geological Model page.
Permanent Link posted by crevo @ 7:20 PM 
