Is this right? Do you evolutionists agree with your position? I tried to write it as you believe it. Do you have any disagreements or concerns or additions?
Index Fossils
a. Index Fossils are used to date rock layers. The rock layer a fossil is
in dates the fossil. This is circular reasoning and based on assumptions. How
do we know how old something is?
b.
“Are the index fossils a reliable way to date
rock layers over billions of years of history if scientists can’t agree on the
classification of living creatures today?”
c. Common
index fossils include shelled organisms like Ammonites, corals, nanofossils
(microscopic fossils), trilobites, mollusks and more.
d. Is the geologic column reliable?
e. Fossil ranges (where they are found) are increasing with more and more
fossils being found.
f.
There have been “misplace” or “out of place”
fossils in the fossil record.
g. Index Fossil Dating is not consistent with Radiometric Dating. Can
either be trusted?
i.
Can we
trust radiometric dating? (see section on Radiometric Dating)
h. There are many index fossils that they used to say pointed to millions
of years ago that were found alive today. These are called living fossils.
i.
The Coelacanth, Gingko Trees, tuatara,
lepidocaris crustacean, Metasequoia conifer tree, neopilina mollusk, lingual
brachiopod, trilobite?, algae, and many more
Title: Index Fossils by Brian
Mariani and others
Introduction:
An index fossils is a common,
widely distributed fossil that is typically found in the same geologic layers
or range.[i] It can
then be used to give a relative age of rock layers and other fossils since they
know what layer it usually comes from and therefore how old it is.
Index
fossils are mainly found in sedimentary rock. How old are they? Can we trust
their estimated ages? Are they consistently found in the same place? Are index
fossils being found alive today?
Naturalistic/Evolutionary
Answer:
“Often,
the layers of rock can be dated by the types of fossils they contain...
Scientists have determined the relative times of appearance and disappearance
of many kinds of organisms from the location of their fossils within the
sedimentary rock layers.”[ii]
The fossils preserved in the
fossil record show the history and evolution of organisms throughout time. “The
stretch of geologic history is commonly referred to as “deep time.”” By
charting the geologic layers and their fossils, we can understand the history
of the earth better and the process of evolution better. The oldest rock is
estimated at over 4 billion years old and the oldest fossils being about 3.5
billion years old. The history of life can be charted from evidence in the
fossil record as follows: little bacteria to algae to soft bodied organisms to
an explosion of life called the Cambrian explosion to land plants and fishes to
amphibians to reptiles to mammals and birds to finally everything that exists
today including humans.[iii]
Common index fossils include shelled
organisms like Ammonites, brachiopods, graptolites, corals, nanofossils
(microscopic fossils), trilobites, mollusks and more.[iv]
Creation Answer:
“The
order of the fossil record can best be explained by hydrological sorting during
Noah’s flood.[v]
Currents direct the different sediment
types to where they will be laid down. Animals often move in herds, flocks, or
groups and thus you will find similar organisms with similar organisms.
Some animals could run and climb
from tidal waves for longer or fly for longer before being submerged by the
catastrophic flood. Because of these abilities we see evidence for the order in
the fossil record.
Index fossils are not only
found deep in sediment but some have been found still living to this day. An
example of a living index fossil is the Coelacanth. This is a fish that is
found in 70 million year old rocks. This fish was thought to have gone into
extinction at that time and so we can date other things to about 70 million
years ago, but now they are found in the Pacific Ocean. So now we can’t be sure
if an organism next to a Coelacanth is 70 million years old or 10 million years
old or 10 years old.
Other living fossils include the
gingko tree, graptolites (300 million years old), “the tuatara
(supposedly extinct since the Cretaceous Period until found still living in New
Zealand), the Lepidocaris crustacean (only found as fossils in Devonian rocks),
the Metasequoia conifer tree (thought extinct for the past 20 million years),
the Neopilina mollusk (supposedly extinct for 280 million years), the lingula
brachiopod ("extinct" since the Ordovician), and even the trilobite
(chief index fossil of the even more ancient Cambrian Period).” Algae that is
supposedly in 3.4 billion year old rocks still exist today...are those rocks
really 3.4 billion years old?
Search “living fossil” on the internet
and the list goes on and on for more examples. There is simply abundant
evidence that living organisms today are practically identical to fossilized
grandparents of “millions of years ago” if not “billions of years ago.” This is
evidence that no evolution has taken place in those organisms.[vi]
Index fossils are the primary
method of dating something. Often there are huge inconsistencies between dating
based on rock layer and index fossils as compared to radiometric dating
methods.[vii]
Scientists study fossils
(including index fossils) and claim that evolution happens from one fossil to
another, but currently there is much confusion over what a “species” actually
is. A snail with a different color or shape to its shell could be a totally
different species. This is simply variety within the snail kind, but not
evidence of evolution. They still have the same DNA which allows that variety.
This leads to another question, “are
the index fossils a reliable way to date rock layers over billions of years of
history if scientists can’t agree on the classification of living creatures
today?”[viii]
Ph.D. geologist Steven A. Austin
also describes how index fossils often have a large range of layers where they
can be found and that the geologic record has many inconsistencies of fossils
and rocks in places that they shouldn’t be.[ix] There
are many examples that “as more and more fossils are found, the ranges of
fossils keep increasing.”[x] So those
fossils are less of a pinpoint to how old something is. Austin explains how the
geologic record is not as cut and dry and simple as evolution would assume by
saying “strata systems are believed in some places to be inverted, repeated, or
inserted where they do not belong.”[xi]
The jumbled and ordered nature of the
rock layers and fossils alongside of the fact of many missing transitional
fossils provide better evidence of a massive global flood rather than slow
build up of layers over millions of years.
What the Bible
Says: Genesis 6:17, Genesis 7-9
[i]
Index Fossils, Enchanted Learning, http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/IndexFossils.shtml,
accessed October 8, 2013.
[ii]
Dating Rock Layers, Genesis Park, http://www.genesispark.com/exhibits/fossils/dating/,
accessed October 8, 2013. Quoting Glencoe, Biology Textbook, 1994, pp. 306-307.
[iii]
Deep Time, PBS, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/deeptime/, accessed
October 8, 2013.
[iv]
Roger Patterson, Evolution Exposed: Earth Science, Chapter 6: Geologic Column,
January 20, 2011, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/ee2/geologic-column,
accessed October 8, 2013.
Index Fossils, Enchanted Learning, http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/IndexFossils.shtml,
accessed October 8, 2013.
[v]
John C. Whitcomb and Hemry M. Morris, The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record
and Its Scientific Implications, P & R Publishing, October 20, 1982.
[vi]
Henry Morris, Ph.D., The Profusion of Living Fossils, Institute for Creation
Research, http://www.icr.org/article/774/, accessed October 8, 2013.
[vii]
Roger Patterson, Evolution Exposed: Earth Science, Chapter 6: Geologic Column,
January 20, 2011, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/ee2/geologic-column,
accessed October 8, 2013.
Andrew Snelling, Geological Conflict: Young Radiocarbon
Date for Ancient Fossil Wood Challenges Fossil Dating, March 1, 2000, Answers
in Genesis, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v22/n2/geology,
accessed October 8, 2013.
[viii]
Roger Patterson, Evolution Exposed: Earth Science, Chapter 6: Geologic Column,
January 20, 2011, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/ee2/geologic-column,
accessed October 8, 2013.
[ix] Dr.
Gary Parker, Creation: Facts of Life, How Fast?, January 1, 1994, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/cfl/how-fast,
accessed October 10, 2013.
[x]
John Woodmorappe, The fossil record: Becoming more random all the time,
Creation Ministries International, http://creation.com/the-fossil-record,
accessed October 8, 2013.
[xi]
Steven A. Austin, Ph.D., Ten Misconceptions about the Geologic Column,
Institute for Creation Research, http://www.icr.org/article/242/107/, accessed
October 8, 2013.
