Most people are under the impression that all fossils are extremely old, and that the very fact that fossils exist is proof of evolution. Neither of these commonly held beliefs are true.
Fossils are the remains of once-living organisms that have been turned into stone. Normally, when living things like animals or plants die, they decay and eventually disintegrate. But in some cases organisms were caught in a catastrophe like a flood and quickly buried in sediment, and then extreme pressure compacted that sediment into rock. The carcass of the plant or creature is therefore in an airless environment where decay does not occur. Instead, it absorbs chemicals from the sediment it is encased in until the sediment and the carcass take on the same rocklike qualities. In general, for an organism to be preserved, two conditions must be met: 1) rapid burial to retard decomposition and prevent the ravaging of scavengers; and 2) possession of hard parts, such as bones, capable of being fossilized. Many fossils have been found, with more being found all the time.
[Picture:] High-tech scans of a fossil, Archaeoraptor, hailed as a “missing link” between birds and dinosaurs, have shown the specimen is a fake constructed from at least two separate specimens. Many paleontologists believed that with its mix of dinosaur and birdlike features, Archaeoraptor had captured the moment in “evolution” when dinosaurs were experimenting with flight. Later, it was discovered that the tail had come from Microraptor, the smallest adult dinosaur yet discovered, and had been glued on to increase the fossil’s commercial value.
The theory of evolution claims that simpler creatures are evolving into more complex ones. If this were true, one would naturally assume that there would be a fossil record of transitional creatures that would show one species gradually changing into another. For instance, many evolutionists believe that birds evolved from dinosaurs, therefore there has been much competition between various paleontologists to find fossils that show dinosaur-like creatures in various stages of developing feathers. Although fossils have been found that have supposedly shown this transition, they have all either been proved to be fakes or, on closer examination, do not show this transition at all. In fact, not one transitional fossil that is unmistakably genuine has been found. Every fossil ever discovered has been determined to be that of a distinct species of creature with no provable sign of having evolved from a simpler life form.
Evolutionists like to point out that fossils of simpler animals are usually found in strata lower than the more complex ones. They claim that this shows that the simpler animals were around for many millions of years before the more complex ones came on the scene. Although this is one way to look at it, there is another equally logical way to explain this-the Flood.
In Genesis chapters 6 through 8, the Bible tells of the world being inundated by a worldwide flood over 1,600 years after Creation, or about 2300 B.C.*
*This date is arrived at by the following process.
Genesis 11:10 says that Shem, Noah’s son, was 100 years old two years after the Flood had finished. The following verses in this chapter link Shem to Abraham through nine generations. It gives the fathers’ ages when they had their first son. Once it gets to Terah, Abraham’s father, it gives Terah’s age when Abraham’s elder brother was born, not how old he was when Abraham was born. But we can figure the missing numbers from Acts 7:3-4 and Genesis 11:32; 12:1-4, which state that Abraham was 75 years old when God gave him the promise that He would make him the father of a great nation. And in that same year, his father Terah was 205 years old. So Abraham was born when Terah was 130 years of age. By adding up all the ages listed in this chapter we come up with the figure of 352 years from the Flood to the birth of Abraham.
Galatians 3:17 says that Moses received the Law from God 430 years after He gave the promise to Abraham. This was the same year the Israelites left Egypt in the Exodus to return to the Promised Land.
1 Kings 6:1 says it was 480 years from the time of the Exodus till the laying of the foundation of Solomon’s temple, which date has been established as 967 B.C.
So now we work backwards as we add up the years.
Year of the laying of the foundation of Solomon’s Temple = 967 B.C.
Years from that to the Exodus = 480
Years from the Exodus to God’s promise to Abraham = 430
Years from the promise to Abraham’s birth = 75
Years from Abraham’s birth to the Flood = 352
Total years and therefore date of the Flood = 2304 B.C. +/- 11 years
We have to qualify it as plus or minus 11 years because the Bible for the most part gives us years, not the exact dates for these events. They could have been early in the year or late in the year, in which case we have to take into account that the date could vary by as much as 11 years on either side.
This was a cataclysm of unparalleled ferocity. Genesis 7:11 says that not only was there a torrential rain for 40 days and 40 nights, but also “all the fountains of the great deep were opened up,” indicating that this rain was accompanied by worldwide volcanic and seismic upheavals that make any recent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions pale in comparison. The result was the complete destruction of animal life except for the occupants of Noah’s Ark, and any sea creatures that managed to survive. The stratification (so apparent in places like the Grand Canyon in North America) resulted from the gradual settling of the previously churned-up earth, rocks, and sediment.
Along with the rocks, the animals and plants deposited are now found fossilized in the strata. Due to the flood, simpler creatures would have been drowned first as the waters began to rise, while more complex ones would have struggled for survival longer and sought out higher ground. This explains why the simpler life forms were buried in the deepest strata.
A worldwide flood of this magnitude would also account for the fossils being formed in the first place, the polystrate fossil phenomenon, why fossils of marine animals can frequently be found in the mountains, and the huge fossil graveyards that have been found around the world. Several in North America have been carefully examined. In Agate Springs, Nebraska, around 9,000 fossilized animals were found buried in “alluvial deposits,” that is to say water-laid sedimentary rock. The remains of rhinoceros, camels, giant wild boars, birds, plants, trees, shellfish, and fish are intermingled in great confusion. This obviously could not have happened over thousands or millions of years.
The Cumberland Bone Cave in Maryland contained the intermingled bones of wolverines, bears, tapirs, groundhogs, rabbits, coyotes, beavers, muskrats, mastodons, elk, crocodiles, pumas, etc. The fossils were covered and preserved by a flood deposit of gravel and rocks.
Several miles north of Como Bluffs, Wyoming, a dinosaur quarry was found which yielded 483 specimens weighing a total of 146,000 pounds. The Cleveland Lloyd quarry in Utah has yielded over 12,000 bones of 70 different animals and 10 different kinds of dinosaurs. At Dinosaur National Monument near Vernal, Utah, 20 complete skeletons, as well as bones and parts of skeletons representing nearly 300 individual dinosaurs, were extracted. There are similar graveyards in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, in Africa, in the foothills of the Himalayas, in South America, in Europe-in short, all over the world.
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