‘One of the fascinating things about maps is that they give us a bird’s eye view of God’s creation.
When we were filming at Cedarville University in 2021, Dr. John Whitmore pulled out a map of the Grand Canyon to provide some perspective on what he and Dr. Andrew Snelling accomplished on their research trip. (You can watch this in the video at the end of the post.)
Dr. Snelling’s research provides the backbone for our upcoming film. In 2017, he and Dr. Whitmore traveled by boat down the Colorado River to collect a series of rock samples at different points in the Canyon. Their primary interest was understanding more about the enormous folded rock layers at the bottom of the Canyon.
DR. JOHN WHITMORE TAKES A SAMPLE AT MONUMENT FOLD.
‘One of the fascinating things about maps is that they give us a bird’s eye view of God’s creation.
When we were filming at Cedarville University in 2021, Dr. John Whitmore pulled out a map of the Grand Canyon to provide some perspective on what he and Dr. Andrew Snelling accomplished on their research trip. (You can watch this in the video at the end of the post.)
Dr. Snelling’s research provides the backbone for our upcoming film. In 2017, he and Dr. Whitmore traveled by boat down the Colorado River to collect a series of rock samples at different points in the Canyon. Their primary interest was understanding more about the enormous folded rock layers at the bottom of the Canyon.
DR. JOHN WHITMORE TAKES A SAMPLE AT MONUMENT FOLD.
Were those layers soft and pliable when they formed, or were they hard and brittle? If it could be demonstrated they were soft when they folded, they couldn’t be hundreds of millions of years old. This new research could therefore provide important new evidence of a global flood and a young earth.
Although the folds appear to be smooth at normal observational levels, Andrew knew he needed to look at the rocks under the microscope. What did they reveal at a crystalline level? Did they show evidence of slow movement while brittle over a long period, or rapid movement while soft over a short period?
To test his theory, Andrew needed to collect two different series of samples from the same layer of rock. One series would be taken from where the rock layer was sharply folded; the other series would be taken many miles aways where the same rock layer was lying flat. By comparing these samples, he would have a good indication of the condition of the rock when it folded.
‘If there was a worldwide flood, where is all the water?
The Flood mentioned in Genesis was a worldwide flood; it began with a special rain of “40 days and nights” and all of the “fountains of the great deep” opened up. The Flood continued for one year. During the first five months, the waters rose and covered all land surfaces. “Every hill under the whole heaven was covered.” God’s judgment upon sin was to totally destroy all life on land that had the “breath of life.” The floodwaters cleansed the earth.
Towards the end of the Flood, all current mountains of the earth rose up and the valleys sank low, resulting in the water rushing off the continents into the oceans. This explains why fossils of ocean creatures that once lived on the ocean floor can be found on the highest mountain peaks. Today this flood water fills the oceans of the world which cover about 70% of the globe. Many parts of the ocean are extremely deep. The deepest is the Marianas Trench, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is almost seven miles deep; compare this with Mt. Everest at about 5 ½ miles high. If the earth’s surface were completely leveled, as smooth as a ping pong ball, the oceans would cover the entire globe to a depth of about a mile and a half. Here is a satellite picture of the Pacific Ocean. Water everywhere! Where is the Flood water? The water from the Flood is still here; it is found in the earth’s oceans.’ An email from http://www.searchforthetruth.net/
The following statement was recently made in an online political article. ‘New arrivals to the region will have a chance to embrace the world’s oldest continuing culture through a series of events being supported by the NSW Government.’https://dugaldsaunders.com.au/funding-to-bring-cultures-together-on-country/
Is that statement really true concerning the aboriginal culture? The majority of the world has swallowed the evolutionary tale which is diametrically opposed to the Biblical teaching. The following is from Creation Ministries International which I trust you will read with an open mind.
‘Today’s feedback from Chris B. of Australia, concerns media reports about when Aboriginal people settled Australia. It’s answered by CMI’s Dr Tas Walker.
Example of ideas (ref. 1) about how Aborigines settled Australia.
Hello,
In recent years the media has reported ever increasing ages that the Aboriginal Australians have inhabited the continent, and progressively, figures of 10, 20 and up to 40 and 50 thousand years have been given. The evidence of these dates mostly come from artefacts like cave painting or rock engraving. Recently, however, these sorts of dates have been claimed to arise from comparing DNA of Australian Aboriginals with that of the people indigenous to the Highlands of New Guinea. The theory is that at one time they had the same genome, but, genetic drift over time can be seen by comparing the DNA, thus “counting back” to when they were one people.
Is this technique of genome comparison a valid way to date how long Aboriginal people have been living in Australia, or does the technique contain certain evolutionary assumptions? Does CMI have any information refuting such DNA based dating that you can kindly refer me to?
The dating technique you mention is called a ‘molecular clock’. It involves very sophisticated laboratory techniques for comparing DNA sequences. However, like all ‘scientific’ clocks, a date cannot be calculated without making a number of unprovable assumptions about the past (see Fatal flaw). The reason the technique gives long ages is because the rate of genetic change is calibrated to provide results consistent with the standard evolutionary long-age timescale. However, when the rate of genetic change is ‘calibrated’ against the rate actually measured in organisms at the present time the timescales are much shorter—consistent with the biblical timescale.
The article Evolutionary molecular genetic clocks—a perpetual exercise in futility and failure explains the principles of the molecular clock and discusses the problem with the method. In summary, genetic clock methods assume evolution and deep-time by calibrating against the paleontological timescale. In addition, the methods have multiple problems: 1) different genes/sequences give widely different evolutionary rates, 2) different taxa exhibit different rates for homologous (similar) sequences, and 3) divergence dates commonly disagree with paleontology despite being calibrated by it. And finally, the molecular clock idea is directly tied to the neutral model theory of evolution, which assumes mutations occur in the so-called junk DNA. However, recent discoveries undermine the idea of pervasive junk DNA, thus negating its foundational premise.
The article Empirical genetic clocks give biblical timelines shows that when measured rates of genetic change are applied, ‘molecular clocks’ yield ages consistent with the biblical timescale. The article concludes, “A straightforward empirical approach constricted to analyses within a single taxa, typically yields dates of not more than about 5,000 to 10,000 years. Thus, when the hypothetical evolutionary constraints are removed, and the data is analyzed empirically, biblical timelines are achieved.”
One recent media article about the dating of Aboriginal occupation of Australia was reported in Science Daily,1 based on research published in Nature.2 This analysed hair samples collected from Aboriginal people across Australia. The genetic relationships between people within Australia and outside Australia from this analysis are likely to be reasonable. All people on earth today are descended from the eight people who were on Noah’s Ark that came to rest in the Middle East, and so the emigration paths described in the paper would be compatible with the biblical account. However, the multi-thousand-year dates are not, for the reasons outlined above.
The article The dating game discusses various efforts to date Aboriginal remains, in particular the individuals dubbed Mungo Man and Mungo Woman, found in sand dunes in south-western New South Wales. This article was published in 2003 but is still relevant. It describes how published dates, based on a range of different methods, progressively rose higher and higher. In 1999, when researchers at Australian National University in Canberra published a date of 62,000 years, other evolutionary researchers objected. It created an international problem for theories of human evolution. Such an early occupation of Australia by Aborigines would require the whole out-of-Africa theory of human origins to be rewritten.
However, the new molecular clock researchers are not so ambitious, citing dates of 50,000 years. Perhaps some sort of a compromise is being sought by settling on a number that won’t run afoul of the out-of-Africa scenario but still have very old dates for Australian Aborigines.
These scenarios for Aboriginal occupation of Australia are based on evolutionary assumptions, and these contradict biblical history. Especially they ignore Noah’s global Flood. However, the Bible provides a solid interpretive framework for scientific investigations into human origins. The first Aboriginal settlers to Australia were descended from people as intelligent and inventive as all other people alive at that time. Like everyone else, they were descended from Noah, who built and managed the Ark, and from a people who developed an advanced civilization around the Tower of Babel. So, as the DNA research reveals, the Australian Aborigines were related to other people groups, including those in India and Papua New Guinea. This aspect of the DNA research fits nicely with the biblical account.
However, the idea that the Aboriginal people of Australia are a primitive culture that had not evolved as much as people from other cultures is wrong. It’s evolutionary racism. Rather, they lost some of their technological know-how when they reached Australia. This can happen in a generation if parents do not pass their culture onto their children, or if small populations become isolated. Perhaps it was this isolation and the pressure to cope with a worsening climate as the continent dried out after the post-Flood Ice Age. But, they, like all other peoples, are made ‘in the image of God’ (Genesis 1:26), to have a relationship with God.
In summary, the dates produced by the ‘molecular clock’ are not valid because it begins with an incorrect calibration and has numerous fatal problems. However, if measured mutation rates are used as calibration then dates consistent with biblical timescales are obtained. But the method still has problems, which is why scientists do not rely on the dates it produces until they have checked other research to decide which dates to accept. On the other hand, the genetic relationships between people groups revealed by DNA comparisons are likely to be reasonably sound, and may help sort out migration routes of people since disembarking from Noah’s Ark in the Middle East about 4,500 years ago.
Ray Tobler, Adam Rohrlach, Julien Soubrier, Pere Bover, Bastien Llamas, Jonathan Tuke, Nigel Bean, Ali Abdullah-Highfold, Shane Agius, Amy O’Donoghue, Isabel O’Loughlin, Peter Sutton, Fran Zilio, Keryn Walshe, Alan N. Williams, Chris S. M. Turney, Matthew Williams, Stephen M. Richards, Robert J. Mitchell, Emma Kowal, John R. Stephen, Lesley Williams, Wolfgang Haak, Alan Cooper. Aboriginal mitogenomes reveal 50,000 years of regionalism in Australia, Nature, 2017; DOI: 10.1038/nature21416.’https://creation.com/dna-research-australian-aborigines-50000-years-ago
Genesis 8:2-3“The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; and the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.”
‘Rock folds always seem to me to make interesting photographs. When I lived in South Wales, there were some very fine examples in the cliffs on the Vale of Glamorgan coast. For the most part, the rock layers seem to run parallel to the beach. Then, suddenly, they bend away, upwards or downwards, in dramatic sweeps. In these bends, the rock layers continue to run parallel.
Standard traditional geology suggests that the layers would have been horizontal when originally formed. The existence of the folds, however, causes more problems for traditional geologists who rely on millions of years for all their explanations. The Encyclopedia Britannica says: “The long linear folds that are characteristic of mountainous regions are believed to have resulted from compressional forces acting parallel to the surface of Earth and at right angles to the fold.” However, it is not difficult to imagine what large compressional forces would do to rock layers. Rocks are not malleable, so the eventual result of such forces would be to crack the layers – and, indeed, such cracks can be found. Parallel bending does not make a lot of sense in a deep-time scenario.
Genesis 7:21-23 “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. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.”
‘Previous writers and presenters of Creation Moments have often talked about fossils. But it is often useful to go over familiar ground again, especially if it is of foundational importance. Evolutionists tell us that fossils are evidence of evolutionary change. Nothing could be further from the truth. As creationists, we find that fossils make much more sense with a biblical explanation.
Fossils are dead. Since there was no death in the world until Adam’s sin, fossils cannot predate that sin. So, when humans were created, there were no fossils. Fossils are a worldwide event, and most of them appear to be of creatures that died rapidly and catastrophically under water, being covered with water-borne sediment. Such a formation is best understood as happening because of the worldwide Flood.
Some of the larger fossils – such as dinosaurs – are found buried in contortions, which looks like the last throes of death; this is consistent with sudden death caused by the Flood. Most such fossils are also found in assemblages, or bone jumbles. We tend to forget these last two facts when we see careful reconstructions of standing dinosaurs in museums. Many fossils closely resemble modern, surviving creatures, so that the fossil record illustrates not change, but stasis or – in the case of those creatures we do not find today – extinction.
Presently in our Bible teaching we are in Genesis 6 and heading to the chapter on the flood. Let me tell you when Noah built the Ark according to the instructions the Creator gave him he was precise in his maths for his family’s lives were at stake. Anyway, now days did you know ‘…mathematics could be racist, and that there is such a thing as ‘white math’? A claim is being made in some US academic circles that to insist that there is a correct answer to a statement like ‘2 + 2 = x’, is inherently racist, and that mathematics needs to be made antiracist. An organization1 funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has published a document entitled, “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction“2. The document’s Letter to Reader states, “The framework for deconstructing racism in mathematics offers essential characteristics of antiracist math educators and critical approaches to dismantling white supremacy in math classrooms by visualizing the toxic characteristics of white supremacy culture … with respect to math.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) a prominent anti-Christian philosopher and mathematician,3 a professed atheist,4 and Sergiu Klainerman, a professor of mathematics at Princeton University,5 among others, would disagree with the premise that mathematics is inherently racist. From a Christian perspective, we can add the fact that the basic principles of logic and mathematics cannot be racist nor are they in any way subjective human constructs, because they come from the perfect (Psalm 18:30) and holy (1 Samuel 2:2; Revelation 4:8) mind of God. Let us explore the reality that mathematics comes from the mind of God.
In Genesis 1–2, the narrator (God) uses concepts of mathematics embedded within the account without expounding the conceptual depth which underlies these concepts. For example, the enumeration of the days of Creation Week in Genesis 1 and 2 (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31; Genesis 2:2) may appear to be rather routine. After all, we count from our earliest days—a child counts the number of days until his or her birthday. Some writers have observed that the use of the ordinal adjective (‘second’, ‘third’, etc.) with the word ‘day’ indicates that God is speaking of standard 24-hour days, and that the use of the cardinal (‘one’) and ordinals to number the days of creation demands a sequential chronological reading of the text. However, while this is true, they often fail to observe that the use of the ordinals indicates that the enumeration of the creation days is of fundamental importance. In addition, Genesis 5 implicitly uses addition, such as in the statement, “When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died.” (Genesis 5:6–8)—i.e., 105 + 807 = 912.
Another use of a fundamental mathematical concept in Genesis 1 is the inclusion of entities in sets (e.g., six days of creative activity and “two great lights” [Genesis 1:16]). Sets are based on the abstract concept that assumes the existence of universals and not merely particulars by which each entity is viewed as independent from all others. A universal is the grouping of instances by their consistent characteristics or qualities. For example, when God later spoke to Adam and told him that he could eat from every tree in the garden, but one (Genesis 2:16–17), he used a universal to describe a set and Adam would have understood the concept to include grapes from vines, berries from bushes, and pears and nuts from trees. Universals are usually grouped into three classes: types or kinds (e.g., boats, birds, or chairs), properties (e.g., heavy, big, or small), and relations (e.g., parent, higher, colder). Since we use universals all the time, we may not understand an inherent difficulty with their existence. The problem of universals has perplexed philosophers from the earliest days.6 The challenge is how to account for their existence: Are they real? Do they exist independent of particulars? Can they exist if the universe is merely the product of random events in a material universe? Are they purely constructs of language?
The correspondence between abstractions—mathematical concepts such as ordinal counting and sets—and phenomena in nature is difficult for materialistic naturalists to explain. If mathematics is purely an invention of human minds, then it is a challenge to explain the correspondence between a mathematical equation and what happens in the natural realm.7
The efficacy of mathematics is astounding. With calculations, men and women guided the Apollo missions to the moon, can triangulate on signals generated by ‘black’ boxes to find a lost airplane at the bottom of the ocean, and can synchronize computers 20,000 kilometers apart so that they receive e-mail messages correctly. A materialistic naturalist cannot explain why pure abstractions—e.g., trigonometric equations, can have such an effect on the physical universe.
The existence of counting and mathematics is evidence that the universe was created by an intelligent designer—the God of the Bible. The laws of mathematics (e.g., commutative, associative, and distributive) come from God’s mind. Mathematics is one form of God’s thought—others include descriptive (Genesis 1), naming (Genesis 1:5), animating (Genesis 2:7), visualizing (Exodus 25:40; Exodus 26:30), and logical (Isaiah 1:18). The laws of mathematics exist in God’s mind and were not affected by the Fall of man into sin. The laws of mathematics are therefore perfect (Psalm 19:7) and can be derived without error. Of course, this does not mean that accountants and engineers (and others), affected by the Curse (Genesis 3:17–19), will always perform their arithmetical calculations without error.
Unbelievers can use the mechanics of mathematics without being able to explain what counting is or provide a logically consistent reason for why mathematics works, particularly when applied to natural systems. The problem is that their worldview claims that the universe came into existence by chance and has no non-material dimension (e.g., everlasting human souls). The fact that materialistic naturalists count and use complex mathematics to accomplish amazing things illustrates that they live in practical terms as if there is a God behind the universe, while denying His existence (Romans 1:18).8
Years ago my family and I visited the Grand Canyon. What a sight it is! The ‘Grand Canyon carves a 277-mile-long chasm through northwestern Arizona. Running from Lee’s Ferry to Lake Mead, the expansive landscape reveals some of the most colorful geology in the world and provides strong evidence for the global Flood.
Lateral Extent of Strata
As you look across Grand Canyon, observe the layers on both walls. The cliffs and the colors match from one side to the other. The gaps between the cliffs were once filled solid, the layers continuous, but the space in between has since been removed by erosion. The bottom flat layers are older and were deposited first; these are called Cambrian system rocks. The youngest layers are on the canyon’s rim; these are identified as Permian system rocks.An explorer carefully navigates a canyon wall trail, circa 1930Image credit: Henry G. Peabody Photographs, Greater Arizona Collection, Arizona State University Library, Tempe, AZ.
All of these layers were deposited during the rising phase of the global Flood. Powerful tsunami-like waves spread massive, continuous sedimentary layers for hundreds of miles in all directions across this part of North America. Even relatively thin layers extend across Grand Canyon.
Flat Contacts Show Little Time Between Layers
Grand Canyon’s layers are like stacked pancakes. The lowermost flat layer at Grand Canyon is called the Tapeats Sandstone. At about 200 feet thick, it makes a thin, dark brown layer from a distant view. This layer represents the first extensive Flood deposit at this location. The basal boundary of the Tapeats is a special type of unconformity1 called a nonconformity, where sedimentary rock resides on top of pre-Flood crystalline rock. This surface is also referred to as the Great Unconformity (Figure 1).Figure 1. ICR geologist Dr. Tim Clarey addresses a Grand Canyon tour group with the Great Unconformity behind himImage credit: Kevin Turley
This global phenomenon is found in countless locations where Cambrian system sedimentary layers overlie Precambrian crystalline rocks. Just below the contact, we observe metamorphic crystalline rocks that are oriented nearly vertically, but the overlying Cambrian Tapeats is horizontal. Although secular geologists claim the Precambrian rock surface here experienced over a billion years of erosion, the contact with the Tapeats is almost perfectly planar—it’s flat! Where are the gullies and chasms from billions of years of erosion?
The Redwall Limestone is Grand Canyon’s most prominent layer—a red, thick, vertical cliff that spans the middle of the exposed rock layers. It’s part of the Mississippian system. Right below it, the Muav Limestone of the Cambrian system appears a bit more grayish. The evolutionary narrative claims 160 million years of erosion occurred between these two rock units. But where are the v-shaped channel patterns that gullies and canyons should have carved on top of the Muav? Instead, one flat limestone lies flat on another nearly everywhere you look.Figure 2. Flat contact shows no erosion and thus no time between the deposition of the Muav Limestone (gray) and the overlying Redwall Limestone (red). The inset shows the Great Unconformity.Illustration by Scott Arledge
A third flat unconformity lies between the Coconino Sandstone and the Hermit Shale. If you look toward the top of the layers in the canyon, you’ll see a thin, light, tan-colored cliff on top of a dark red layer. About a million years of erosion supposedly separates these two units (Figure 2). But if they were really deposited millions of years apart, valleys and canyons should be found between each of these layers. Instead, the contact is almost perfectly flat everywhere we see it.
Badlands Topography Shows Catastrophic Carving
By examining the topography of areas that have been catastrophically restructured recently, we can estimate the effects of the Flood and compare that estimation with Grand Canyon’s topography. A mudflow following the 1982 eruption of Mount St. Helens created a steep-walled, 140-foot-deep canyon system, complete with side canyons, in a single day.2 It looks remarkably like a 1:40 scale of Grand Canyon.
And we see similar deep gorges and butte-and-basin (badlands) topography associated with the flooding that followed the bursting of Ice Age Lake Missoula. This occurred about 4,000 years ago in the American Northwest. Even secular geologists now recognize that this catastrophic megaflood created the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington and widened the Columbia River Gorge.
Today’s processes do not form broad, flat rock layers or carve such big and clean canyons. Different processes must be responsible—catastrophic processes. Therefore, it’s reasonable to conclude that early floodwaters laid down Grand Canyon rocks while the water was rising, and the receding floodwater carved most of the Canyon.
The present narrative for Grand Canyon’s formation is insufficient. Most of today’s secular scientists assume the Colorado River slowly carved Grand Canyon over a period of six million years. But today’s flow rates simply don’t have the power to push the 1,000 cubic miles of rocks and debris all the way out to the Pacific Ocean. Even after millions of years, we should see a lot more talus and debris. Talus refers to rock piles that lean against the cliff walls where they fell. The canyon’s base looks like it was swept clean. Only catastrophic water flow and water volume many times greater than what flows there today could sculpt badlands topography and wide gaps in the canyon.3
Noah’s Flood Explains Grand Canyon
Secular interpretations still cannot adequately explain why the Colorado River cuts right through the Kaibab Uplift that formed on the western flank of the Colorado Plateau. The Kaibab Uplift has warped an arch of rock about 3,000 feet above the surrounding terrain. Water should have flowed around it, not uphill and through it.4
How do Flood geologists explain this? The year-long Flood narrative in Genesis helps us understand what we see. After sediments like the Coconino, Redwall, and Tapeats were deposited in the rising phase of the Flood, the Colorado Plateau was pushed up 5,000 feet during the receding phase of the Flood. This caused the floodwaters to drain off rapidly. Grand Canyon is on the western edge of that plateau. When packed, wet sand is lifted up, it stretches and cracks. Water naturally follows the cracks and fractures. Some of those would have run through the Kaibab Uplift to create a path for lots of water to flow downhill and carve a vast canyon.
Rapid uplift and drainage of the receding floodwaters provide both the pathway and the necessary volume of water to quickly carve Grand Canyon.4 This was all accomplished before the Ice Age began. How do we know? Because there are about 150 lava flows that originated on the Uinkaret Plateau and poured down into Grand Canyon during the Ice Age. The canyon had to exist before these lava falls poured in.5
The lateral extent of the sedimentary layers, flat contacts between the layers, and vast badlands topography all point to rapid deposition and ultra-high-volume erosion. The rocks reveal the enormity of the global Flood, and the canyon exhibits catastrophic carving from receding floodwaters. Grand Canyon is a reminder of the immense power of the judgment of the Flood.
References
An unconformity is where some amount of erosion has taken place, removing a segment of the rock record. Unconformities can also occur if there was a brief hiatus in deposition. Unconformities do not imply vast amounts of time since they can form quickly as tsunami-like waves wash across the landscape, eroding the surface as they go.
An explorer carefully navigates a canyon wall trail, circa 1930Image credit: Henry G. Peabody Photographs, Greater Arizona Collection, Arizona State University Library, Tempe, AZ.
Figure 1. ICR geologist Dr. Tim Clarey addresses a Grand Canyon tour group with the Great Unconformity behind himImage credit: Kevin Turley
Figure 2. Flat contact shows no erosion and thus no time between the deposition of the Muav Limestone (gray) and the overlying Redwall Limestone (red). The inset shows the Great Unconformity.Illustration by Scott Arledge
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