Creation Facts of Life (31 page)
The Kaibab upwarp (monocline) through which the canyon is cut seems to have dammed up a great deal of water. It is possible to map the outlines of giant "fossil lakes" that once covered parts of Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. Since there seems to be no renewable source for such a vast amount of water, it may have been "leftover" Flood water trapped as the mountains rose and valleys sank. Post-Flood rains and snow melt would have added more water behind this "Grand Dam."
Then the dam broke! Water rushing through the breached dam formed
"cavitation bubbles"
which act like hand grenades to shatter rock on contact. When water released through spillways at a man-made Grand Canyon dam reached cavitation speed, it ate through the steel-reinforced concrete tubes in seconds. Water pouring through the breach in the natural, earthen "Grand Dam" would have cut the essential features of the canyon very rapidly indeed. The Colorado River is just a modest trickle caught in the twists and turns where the dam was breached.
The canyon came first; the river came second.
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Now, if the evidence is as clear and simple as I'm suggesting it is, then even evolutionary geologists who were totally unwilling even to consider my biblical conclusions could at least accept the individual points as scientifically logical — and they do.
Consider Harlan Bretz. For years and years, he studied the "Channeled Scablands" of eastern Washington, an area of 15,000 square miles (40,000 km
2
). It looks as if a giant, braided stream cut channels up to 900 feet (275 m) deep in hard basaltic lava (much harder to cut than most of the Grand Canyon layers). Bretz postulated that a tongue of glacial ice blocked off what we now call the Columbia River near Spokane, damming up a huge body of water called glacial Lake Missoula. Then the ice dam broke. According to Bretz, the stupendous drainage from that lake cut the essential features of those channels 900 feet (275 m) deep over 15,000 square miles (40,000 km
2
) in — one or two million years? — no, in "a day or two." That's the conclusion presented by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in its pamphlet
135
"The Channeled Scablands: the Story of the Great Spokane Flood."
At first, the "slow and gradual" school of evolutionary thinking (uniformitarians) laughed Bretz to scorn, but after examining his evidence, a team of geologists decided Bretz was right after all, and they gave him geology's highest award, the Penrose Medal. In accepting the award, Bretz said that his greatest contribution to geology was reviving the idea that great catastrophes have shaped the physical features of the earth (neo-catastrophism).
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Less dramatic in scale, but directly and awesomely visible, was the second modern eruption of Mount St. Helens in June of 1982. The heat generated from that explosion melted frozen mud, producing a mud flow that filled up the North Fork of the Toutle River. The smoke cleared five days later to reveal that the mud flow had eroded a zigzag main channel with many sharply tapered side canyons. Horizontal bands of sediment, some thick, and some exceedingly fine, lined the walls of the newly formed canyon. Right before our eyes, a small volcano (which never even produced a lava flow) had stacked up horizontal bands of sediment and cut channels
, forming a 1/40th size "scale model" of the Grand Canyon in just five days!
All sorts of features once thought to take millions of years were formed, instead, by
a lot of water
in just
five days!
My wife and I got to see it on a dizzying flight down the length of that "Little Grand Canyon." (See Morris
137
and Figure 35.)
 |
Figure 35. |
Although very dramatic, both the Channeled Scablands and Mount St. Helens are quite modest events compared to the epic geologic work that would have been done by a global flood like that described in the Bible. The stupendous events that shaped the Grand Canyon are summarized in detail in
Grand Canyon: Monument to Catastrophe
(book and video
138
) and in a beautiful, easily readable coffee table book edited by canyon raft captain Tom Vail
, Grand Canyon: a Different View
.
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(The latter was singled out for "negative discussion" by Dan Rather on the CBS evening news in 2004, but it's "selling like hotcakes" at the Grand Canyon bookstore!)
At least the worldwide evidence is now so clear that even evolutionists are talking about worldwide catastrophes. The most highly touted is supposed to be an asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs and a host of other life forms. Scientists have calculated that if an ocean were hit by an asteroid about 6 miles (10 km) across (and several that size pass near earth's orbit!), a wave of water would slosh over all the continents and bring nearly instant destruction on an unimaginable scale!
The Bible doesn't say whether God used secondary agents, such as an asteroid impact, to trigger the Flood. Either way, it's encouraging to see that evolutionists recognize the evidence that points toward global catastrophe. Indeed, some evolutionists now believe the earth has suffered
multiple
global catastrophes, and I mentioned that others even see evidence of colossal flooding on Mars, a planet that presently has no significant surface water!
The asteroid catastrophes some evolutionists postulate are dramatic, and so is the biblical narrative, as it tells how "all the high mountains under the whole heaven" were once covered with water. If that were so, we ought to find billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth. Grab your pick and shovel and go looking, and what do you find?
Billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth!
Right up to sea creatures fossilized in the high Himalayas, it looks like the scientific evidence in God's world encourages us to trust the Bible as God's Word!
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Sometimes, I imagine a geologist who has spent 20 years roaming through the Grand Canyon. Finally, he decides to take a break and hike up to the rim. There, on a park bench, he finds a Bible. As he opens it and reads the first few chapters, he jumps excitedly to his feet:
"Eureka! I've found it! That's what I've been seeing here in the Grand Canyon!
"Now I know why the first forms of life to leave an abundance of fossil remains are so complex and varied, and classify into groups like we have today. They were created well-designed to multiply after their kinds.
"Now I know why the 'geologic column' shows a decline in variety, even extinction, for so many groups. We're not looking at a record of evolutionary progress, but a record of death — a corruption of the world God had created all very good. The Grand Canyon is really a vast, open graveyard.
"Now I know how fossils were preserved, how the Precambrian rocks were tilted up and sheared off, how the huge Tapeats boulders were moved great distances, why 150 million mythical years are missing at the great paraconformity, how trackways were preserved in the Coconino, and why the Colorado River is trapped in the sharp curves of the canyon. We're not looking at a record of a lot of time, but of a lot of water — the tremendous worldwide catastrophe of Noah's flood!
"Now I know I can look to Christ to raise me to new life. Nobody could ever have survived the awesome destruction of the world we see reflected at the Grand Canyon. If Christ could save Noah from the Flood, he can save me from death, too!"
When I started working on my doctoral minor in geology, I really thought my study would make it very hard to accept the simple truths and promises in the Bible. My excellent professors all believed evolution, but what I learned about
fossils made it hard to believe evolution and very easy to believe what the Bible teaches about creation, corruption, catastrophe, and Christ!
We find evidence of creation not only in the design and complexity of the "first" fossils found of each group, but also in the wonderfully constructed "language" of DNA; in the intricate way a baby develops in his or her mother's womb according to the plan fully present at conception; in the similarities that point to a "common Creator," not common ancestry, in classification; in marvelously interdependent adaptations, like those of the woodpecker; in the incredible variability, like all the human skin tones, stored in the first parents of each created kind.
We find evidence of corruption, the way God's creation was ruined by man's self-centered arrogance, not only in the death, decline, and extinction seen in all the fossil groups, but also in the effects of mutations producing disease, disease organisms, and other defects, and in the struggle to the death that is an essential part of Darwinian selection.
Evidence of a great catastrophe, like the worldwide flood described for Noah's time, is clear from the billions of dead things buried as fossils, extinction, rapid formation of huge sediment layers by turbidity currents, polystratic fossils that cut through many rock layers without evidence of falling over or rotting, paraconformities (vast amounts of supposed evolutionary time missing without evidence or erosion), the tilting and shearing and boulder flows in the Grand Canyon, etc., etc.
All the above can be inferred directly from the scientific evidence, although it's the Bible that really puts these together in a pattern of meaning. Evolution is based on genetics that have never been observed and fossils that have never been found. The Bible is supported by laws of heredity we put into practice every day and on thousands of tons of fossils buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth.
In short,
evolution is a faith that the facts have failed.
Biblical Christianity is a faith that fits the facts.
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As I told you in the beginning, I didn't always believe that. It took me three years of trying to
"prove"
evolution to two colleagues, professors of chemistry and biology, before I saw that the scientific evidence available
disproves
the traditional view of evolution taught as "fact" to millions of young people worldwide. Does that mean I've
proved
creation? Not at all. Contrary to a popular misconception, scientists can only
disprove
or
support
a theory, never prove it. As every working scientist knows, you can never tell when some new discovery will shift support to a competing theory. People (including scientists!) are finite, limited by space and time. As finite creatures, we must live by faith; there is no other choice.
We
can choose
the object of our faith. We can put our faith in our own opinions or the words of "experts," as I did through my first several years of teaching university biology. Or we can put our faith in the Word of the Living God, who stands outside our limits of space and time. Only God can tell us what is truly true, now and forever.
The difference between evolution and the Bible is certainly evident when we look back at where we've come from, but the difference is even
greater
when we consider where we're going! I once let my students watch two well-known evolutionists on a TV talk show that aired during class time. The audience wanted to know, "What does the future hold?" The fossil expert said the fate of essentially every species is extinction, and that mankind, too, would someday become extinct. The audience broke into applause, although I've never figured out what's so wonderful about becoming extinct! When they asked the evolutionist astronomer about the future, his reply was that one day the sun would expand and all life on earth would be burned to death, and again the audience broke into applause.
However, the Bible offers a more lively hope! The same God in Christ who created us, is the same God who did not turn away from us when we turned away from Him. Indeed, Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our rebellion, died to conquer death, and rose again to raise
those who believe
to new and eternal life in Him.
Jesus himself asked, "How can you believe me when I tell you heavenly things if you don't believe me when I tell you earthly things?" (John 3:12). Science shows us we
can
trust the Bible when it tells us earthly things about creation, corruption, and catastrophe. That encourages us to trust the "fourth C," Jesus Christ, for the promise of a new and abundant life now and forever, and of a "new heaven and new earth," where God will "wipe away every tear" and restore the creation to the way He made it for us in the beginning: a garden of Eden, a garden of delight. Then once again, "the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb …and a little child shall lead them…. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:6–9).