Sunday, April 22, 2007

Opposing Evolution: Catastrophism

Introduction

Catastrophism is the belief that Earth was affected by sudden violent catastrophic natural disasters, causing mass extinctions followed by rapid bursts of new species. Such a theory is supported by the Book of Genesis, which also supports Creationism, whereby The Great Flood was said to have happened.

Evidence

Meteorite showers
According to historians, a huge meteor wiped out all the dinosaurs on Earth, after which other species appeared. A whole shower of meteorites landed on Earth in 1803, causing many large craters on the Earth’s surface, proving that such catastrophic events do happen, thus supporting Catastrophism.

Noachian Flood

Tree stumps in coal
In Nova Scotia, the coal measures of stumps and trunks of many trees have been preserved standing upright as they grew, showing that before they had time to fall and decay, they were buried. The accumulated sediment seems to have accumulated many feet deep within the span of a couple of years.

This therefore shows that there probably was a Great Flood that swept rock and mud over the trees, causing them to remain in the “petrified” position under the layers of rock, and becoming coal.

Peculiar clam fossils
A three-foot thick stratum composed mainly of millions of closed fossil clams was found on the Paluxy River near Glen Rose, Texas. However, based scientific research today, clams do not live crammed together in a thick layer, unlike what was observed in the stratum. Neither are clam shells usually found in one piece in a closed position, but rather the 2 valves are found unhinged most of the time.

As can be observed from the peculiar fossilization of the clams, the only possible explanation is turbulent waters from the Noachian Flood washing the clams into their present location, and buried them in that thick layer, alive.

Sedimentary Rock: Conglomerate
Conglomerate, a type of sedimentary rock (rock that is made up of sediments cemented together from pressure exerted by river beds), is usually made up of cemented gravel and pebbles. A conglomerate formation, the Shinarump of the Colorado Plateau however shows signs of vari-coloured quartz and quartzite, which is not usually present in sedimentary rock, but rather in igneous or metamorphic rock on land. The size of the Shinarump is also very great: it can reach up to 300 feet thick. Such formations have also been found over wide areas in northern Arizona and southern Utah.

The Great Flood can explain the occurrence of such a conglomerate formation: fast-flowing water can easily deposit large amounts of coarse material with sand. Minerals like quartz and quartzite could have been swept away by the waters of The Flood and deposited with the sediments, which were then cemented under the pressure of water (from The Flood) to form Shinarump. Conglomerate "blankets" even more extensive than the Shinarump exist, and a blanket of this size is not possible to have been formed by normal stream processes, proving that the Great Flood must have happened.

Response to Catastrophism

Scientists have denied that Catastrophism is the explanation for life on Earth, and feel that it is a religious theory supporting the Book of Genesis, like Creationism. Scientists, namely astronomers, have concluded that Catastrophism cannot explain life on Earth as they do not agree with the astronomical evidence produced by Catastrophists to support the theory.

Conclusion

Having presented some evidence (above) for the occurrence of the Noachian Flood, it can be seen that life on Earth was destroyed by catastrophic events (for example the Flood) that happened on Earth in the past, and was replaced by the rapid bursts and replacements of new species.

celine chia

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