Fast as a Fossil

by Dr. Gary Parker

First published in
Creation: Facts of Life
Chapter 3: The fossil evidence

All the courses I took concerning fossils were taught by professors who firmly believed in evolution. Yet, when it came to the kinds of life we studied, it seemed the actual evidence made it overwhelmingly difficult to believe in evolution and very easy to believe what the Bible says about Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, and Christ.

But even if you could accept my conclusion, or, at least, consider it reasonable, I’m sure you’d have another question...

When I read this article on AnswersInGenesis it really excited me. I love reading about all the facts behind evolution and how most of them have no grounding whatsoever. So I decided to write on what was said. I found it very difficult to say anything that hadn't been said or in a way that wouldn't confuse the issue.

So this is what I'm going to do. Here is the link to the article and you can read it yourself. I know it isn't a short read but even if you just read the first half you'll come away with good foundation knowledge. The more you read the more you'll have to understand why evolutionist in the media and in schools aren't giving us all the facts.

Here is a small snippet to chew on first:

But even if you could accept my conclusion, or, at least, consider it reasonable, I’m sure you’d have another question:

How fast do fossils form, and how fast do rock layers get stacked up like we see in Grand Canyon? Believe me, those questions bothered me, too! I knew that some believed, for example, that even though God especially created the first of each kind, he “spaced out” His creative activity over a vast period of time, a sort of “progressive creation.”

Can science help us decide how fast fossils form, and how fast those sedimentary rock layers pile up? That’s what I wanted to know when I signed up for courses like Stratigraphy that deal in part with rates of sediment-layer formation.

Surprisingly enough, just about everybody—creationist, evolutionist, and everyone in between—agrees that individual fossil specimens themselves begin to form very, very rapidly! If a plant or animal just dies and falls to the ground or into the water, it’s quickly broken up and decomposed by scavengers, wind and water currents, even sunlight. Fallen logs, road kills, and dead aquarium fish don’t just become fossils, nor did the millions of bison slaughtered in America’s move west.

Most fossils are formed when a plant or animal is quickly and deeply buried, out of reach of scavengers and currents, usually in mud, lime, or sand sediment rich in cementing minerals that harden and preserve at least parts of the dead creatures. Evolutionists and creationists agree: the ideal conditions for forming most fossils and fossil-bearing rock layers are flood conditions. The debate is just whether it was many “little floods” over a long time, or mostly the one big Flood of Noah’s time. In fact, until Darwin’s theory came along, most educated laymen and scientists—including the founding fathers of geology—assumed that fossils were the remains of plants and animals buried in Noah’s Flood.

Read the rest and comment here to discuss what you thought of the piece.