While Lyell hoped that his theory could give an explanation for the formation of the world outside that of Creation, he had some pretty big problems that weren't easily rationed away.
The Geologic Column is a series of rock layers that cover the earth; each layer representing many eras over “millions of years.” Colorful scientific charts depict these stacks of rock layers full of dinosaur fossils, along with other creatures that supposedly lived millions of years ago.
If you've ever been to the Grand Canyon, you will see what some of these are. They are real layers of sediment that have been stacked on top of each other. The question is, how long did that actually take?
Uniformitarianism believes that these layers took a very long time to form. Why? Because they look at how things are today and apply it to the past. Today, we see that rock layers form very slowly through natural processes like erosion sweeping sediment from one place and depositing it in a layer somewhere else. They don't like to view these as a result of something catastrophic- like a tsunami, earthquake, hurricane, volcanic eruption, or flood.
The fact is that catastrophic events can cause these same layers at a rapid pace. Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, and formed a rock unit 25 feet thick, composed of thousands of thin sedimentary layers, in mere hours. The eruption of Mount St. Helens was a local event, but it shows how quickly rock layers and geological structures could form in a global catastrophe.
The Bible describes such a catastrophe in Genesis.
Genesis 7:11-12- In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
I live in Louisiana, and we have some pretty long days of rain. However, we get about a foot of rain and it's local. The rain that happened in Noah's day was significant, and it occurred globally.
Genesis 7:17-22- And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.
Using the genealogies and dates given in the Bible, we know the flood happened about 1,500 years after creation and about 4,500 years ago.
Ken Ham explains, "A worldwide flood would mean millions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth. And that’s exactly what we find. The flood accounts for most of the fossil-bearing rock layers. Scientists have recently discovered that mud particles in rapidly moving water can clump together (as floccules) and be quickly laid down in multiple layers."
Whether looking in the Grand Canyon one mile above sea level or on the highest mountain range on earth today, the Himalayas, you can find marine fossils. How did sea creatures get on top of mountains if there wasn't a flood?
Speaking of fossils, how did they happen? When something dies, it quickly decays. Yet they've found fossilized animals eating each other (that's a very slow eater if it took millions of years!). They've found fossils with undigested foods in their stomachs. That could only happen if the animals died quickly and then were buried under sediment and subjected to a great deal of pressure.
Dr Andrew Snelling explains, "The violent plate tectonics released water from the earth, likely accompanied by lava. And beginning in the ocean basins (the great deep), the flood first overcame sea creatures like trilobites, clams and fish, which we find early in the fossil record. Then the floodwaters rose over the land, burying coastal creatures, like amphibians and reptiles, and later mammals. Animals were overcome and buried so rapidly that many details are preserved in fossils: for example, the compound lenses of the trilobites’ eyes, a fish swallowing another fish midbite, and even a reptile giving birth."
The Grand Canyon shows us that there is little to no erosion between these layers. If it took millions of years, wouldn't plants have grown? Wouldn't rivers have carved out ravines through the landscape? Did nothing happen for millions of years?
Of course not! The boundaries between rock layers are typically knife-edge flat, containing no erosion evidence, indicating those layers were rapidly laid down, one after another, during the months of the flood.
SURTSEY Is a brand new island that formed off the coast of Iceland in 1963. It was reported in "New Scientist" in 2007 that the island featured canyons, gullies, and other land features that allegedly take millions of years to form. Similar to the regrowth of Mt. St. Helens, which saw remarkable growth in only ten plus years, Surtsey goes even further in demonstrating rocky crags, cliffs, hollows, glens, sandy beaches, lagoons, channels, and soft land fractures. The rapid formation of the island undermines old-earth assumptions that features like these take millions of years to form.
Another anomaly is the precambrian rock layer, which contains microorganisms and microfossils (so small and very hard to see). Then suddenly we have the cambrian rock layer which contains tons of fossils; all fully formed, by the way, there are no "missing links" to prove evolution in these fossils. What happened to make such an explosion of large fossils when there weren't hardly any before? A cataclysmic event!
Ken Ham explains the precambrian fossils, or lack thereof, like this, "The Bible says that God made the land appear out of the water on day three of creation, and he created animals on days five and six of creation. So there were only two or three days of separation between land and animals, rather than billions of years. Knowing that, how do creationists interpret the lowest rock layers? They were likely formed by the uplift of the land rising out of the water on day three of creation."
In three days, the only thing that would grow would be algae-like microorganisms, which is exactly what they find in the precambrian rock layer. Then an explosion of fossils occurs in what they call the cambrian rock layer. Why? Because there was a catastrophe that killed a lot of animals very quickly- a global flood.
Conclusion- there is no evidence of evolutionary process in the fossils of the geologic column!
