Aristotle's views on biology support the thesis that
Essential Types of Life (horses, frogs, humans etc.) remain stable and vary
within limits. That is, stasis along
with change that has a boundary. There
is an excellent episode of In Our Time
with Melvyn Bragg (BBC) on Aristotle's Biology. My interview with David Kitts, who taught
Philosophy, Geology and History of Science, touches on Aristotle as well.
Now, when we combine this premise, stasis of Essential
Types of Life (ETL's), with the fossil record, how do we proceed? Tertullian pointed to fossils found on
mountains as evidence of the Great Flood, the mega-catastrophe Earth endured just
a few thousand years ago that even the founder of modern paleontology Georges
Cuvier accepted. Augustine saw fossils
as the remains of creatures living before the Flood. Martin Luther referred to fossils as being the
result of the Deluge in his commentary on Genesis. Agostino Scilla published a work in 1670 on
fossils which he illustrated himself which pointed to the Flood as their cause.
[1]
But what about the fossil order? There are places on the earth where ALL the
geologic periods overlay the Pre-Cambrian (Pre-Flood). In fact, 23.2% of the Ordovician is directly
on top of the Pre-Cambrian and 18.6% of the Devonian is directly on top of the
Pre-Cambrian. This would seem to imply a
shrinking of the traditional geologic time scale.
What if most of the geologic record was part of a single
event, how is the general fossil order explained? Ecological zonation, shallow marine organisms
would be in the lower layers, hydrodynamic sorting and the higher mobility of vertebrates
seems to be the solution. That is, there
was no "Age of Trilobites" or "Age of Dinosaurs."
Now, if most of the rocks were formed rapidly, that is
catastrophically, then we need to drastically reduce the traditional geologic
timescale. Derek Ager was President of
the British Geological Association and wrote The New Catastrophism which provides a plethora of examples of
rapid geologic action. If most rocks
formed fast, could this planet be young (thousands, not billions of years old)?
Is there a pointer that implies most of the geology came
from one event? Let's look at the
Strontium ratio (87Sr/86Sr) combined with sea level
changes through geologic time:
The fact that these graphs match up fits better with the
idea the most of the rocks were made from a Singular Event of Rapid Geologic
Activity (SERGA). Did the giant
dragonflies live Millions Of Years Ago (MOYA)?
Maybe not.
For more cool info on the young earth, be sure to get
your copy of Is a Young Earth Possible? today! Your feedback is most welcome:
YoungEarthScience@yahoo.com
Note:
1) The Deluge Story
in Stone by Byron Nelson (Bethany Fellowship, Minneapolis, MN, 1968), pp.
9, 10, 18.
