Claim CC361:
Fossils can form rapidly, so fossils are not a problem for a young earth.
Response:
- Most fossils, by themselves, are not a problem for a young earth. The
problems come from geological context, including the following:
- Independent dating of sediments via any number of techniques.
- Multiple layers of fossils. Sometimes each layer preserves an
entire ecosystem, which would have taken decades to establish.
- Large number of fossils, beyond what the earth could support at
once, showing multiple generations were necessary.
- In-place marine fossils on mountains, showing that the mountain must
have risen since the fossil was deposited.
- Reworked fossils, showing that a mountain must have risen and eroded
since the fossil was deposited.
- Many fossils occur in amber, and the formation of amber cannot happen
rapidly. First, plant resin polymerizes to produce copal, which takes
thousands of years. Then the volatile oils must evaporate, which can
take millions of years more.
created 2003-8-22