Since evolution depends upon an extreme age in the chronology of the gelogical column, I thought I'd throw this out there, which seems to cast great doubt upon the chronology of the Geological column.
"In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a number of natural scientists claimed to discover "irrefutable evidence" that contradicted the literal sense of Genesis on several points. The most important of these claims were made by geologists whose postulates violated certain fundamental rules of science.
In any scientific discipline the fundamental physical laws of nature must be respected. A law is considered to be a law so long as there are no known exceptions to it in normal conditions. Examples include the first and second laws of thermodynamics, the law of conservation of energy and the law of entropy. Respect for these laws insures that the framework within which research is undertaken is anchored by laws accepted by the scientific community.
Unfortunately, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries researchers in geology and stratigraphy abandoned these basic constraints and proposed revolutionary theories on the basis of unproven principles. The false principles of stratigraphy first arose in the seventeenth century when, Scandinavian clergyman and naturalist Nicolas Steno interpreted his observations of geological formations and published them in Canis Calchariae (1667). Up until that time, and for many years after, the idea that Stenos principles could be taken to indicate long periods of time were necessary to form stratified rock was not recognized. The idea of sedimentary rock being exceedingly old came in later. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries geology was not the structured discipline in universities it is today. James Hutton (1726-1797) although leaning towards uniformitarianism and long ages, promoted catastrophism as the main explanation of rock formations.
Hutton and subsequent geologists were already applying Nicolas Stenos principles to ascertain the age of rocks. The basic principles were superposition and continuity. Not having the sophisticated hydraulic laboratory equipment and research facilities for experimentation available today, these 17th century principles were formulated on purely field observation. Yet despite the fact they have never been tested by experiment, they are still used as the tools of geology to this day. Other principles were added by later geologists, but they were really variations on Stenos main theme of superposition and continuity of strata.
For instance, the principle of paleontological identity mentioned later, used to interpret the fossil record and develop a theory of evolution. The principle of superposition is uncomplicated and apparently so logical that for a long time most geologists never thought to put it in doubt. Steno, like geologists who succeeded him, considered that particles of sediment in rivers, lakes or seas deposited at the bottom of the water and formed a layer. Once that layer had hardened sufficiently, a further layer deposited on top. This process, it was assumed, would continue all the time there was water and sediment. After all, the water could dry up, and sediment sources cease preventing further layers from forming. Steno, looking at the massive geological formations around the earth came to the conclusion that, provided there was no physical obstruction to stop a layer or strata forming, the layer would girdle the earth. By looking at the particles of sediment in any particular sequence of layers, he deduced that similar sedimentary particles would be depositing at the same time all along the layer. He concluded from this that any point in the same layer would have the same age, and it was this reasoning which led to his principle of continuity of the layer.
During the late nineteenth century, speculation amongst paleontologists regarding the time necessary for large changes in species to take place led to a demand for a dating method. A geological time-scale was formulated on two basic assumptions. The first was that the rate of sedimentary deposit was, on average, uniform over time. The second was that the time needed for a single-celled organism to evolve into a complex multi-celled biological unit, such as a human being, would take many millions of years. Using the rate of sedimentation at the time the scale was constructed, which is the same rate today, 150 years later, and applying the principles of stratification, mentioned earlier, to all the earths sedimentary rocks, they realised that there would not be enough time for macro-evolution. So a time-scale had to be devised so that the sequences of strata corresponded with the biological evolution proposed by the paleontologists. Those strata that were empty of fossils would be considered as having deposited first and would therefore be oldest. Those containing simple invertebrate fossils would feature next on the scale, and those with vertebrate fossils would follow. Marine fossils would precede terrestrial fossils on the evolutionary scale thus providing a continuum of primitive life through to homo sapiens. Where the strata provided insufficient time for the postulated evolution to take place, it was assumed that the conditions producing strata had stopped, and only started again thousands or millions of years later. A proposed cause for this interruption in stratification was that the ocean under which strata were forming, had retreated or dried up completely.
This scenario would be perfectly feasible if Stenos principles had not left out one important detail, the effect of moving water upon sedimentary particles. The catastrophic relevance of this omission to the science of stratigraphy was demonstrated by Guy Berthaults recent experiments <--[VIDEO] in a laboratory flume with re-circulating water in the Colorado State University. The results were published in 1993 in the journal of the French Geological Society, and more recently in the Russian Academy of sciences journal Lithological and Mineral Resources (2002 and 2004).
In his experiments Berthault used a pump to create a current in a re-circulating flume and fed particles of sediment into the moving water. These were shown to deposit according to the velocity of the current: above a certain velocity all the particles were transported without any of them being deposited. When the current slowed, the largest particles started to deposit. They formed a layer, whilst the smaller ones continued to be carried by the water. A further reduction in current velocity caused smaller particles to deposit, and so on.
This meant that the smaller particles were forming a layer on top of the layer composed of larger ones. It showed that the particles sorted into strata not over time but according to size. There was no chronology between strata. An increase in the velocity of current would cause some of the particles already deposited to be eroded and re-transported by the moving water. So the superposition principle of all the sedimentary particles, irrespective of size, being deposited in a single layer, hardening and then another layer superposing on top, was shown not to occur when there was a water current. It must be recalled that in oceans and seas, where the vast majority of the sedimentary strata were originally formed, there are always water currents. Not taking them into account was thus shown to have led to over three centuries of geological confusion, and to the creation of the science of stratigraphy based upon invalid principles.
It now appears that the entire geologic column was developed on the unfounded superposition principle that layers form in succession, one on top of the other and that by adding together the time taken to form each layer, and leaving gaps for oceans to empty and re-fill, the sedimentary rocks on earth would have taken 500 million years or so to form. The significance of this data used in conjunction with the proof that strata do not deposit in succession becomes apparent when analysing existing sequences of strata. It clears the way for ascertaining the actual time needed for large stratified rock formations to arise. It also shows that the living organisms which became fossils were buried rapidly and provide no data for evolutionary development of life. Berthault undertook a paleohydraulic analysis of the Tonto Group in the Grand Canyon which is hundreds of miles long and up to 1,700 feet high stretching from the state of Nevada, through Arizona to New Mexico. The study based upon the laboratory experiments showed that it would have taken, not the 13 million years according to the geological time-scale, but less than fifty days to form. Further field research by other geologists such as Alexander Lalomov in the Crimean Peninsular has resulted in similar findings, which completely invalidate the principles underlying the multi-million year geological time scale."
.
"In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a number of natural scientists claimed to discover "irrefutable evidence" that contradicted the literal sense of Genesis on several points. The most important of these claims were made by geologists whose postulates violated certain fundamental rules of science.
In any scientific discipline the fundamental physical laws of nature must be respected. A law is considered to be a law so long as there are no known exceptions to it in normal conditions. Examples include the first and second laws of thermodynamics, the law of conservation of energy and the law of entropy. Respect for these laws insures that the framework within which research is undertaken is anchored by laws accepted by the scientific community.
Unfortunately, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries researchers in geology and stratigraphy abandoned these basic constraints and proposed revolutionary theories on the basis of unproven principles. The false principles of stratigraphy first arose in the seventeenth century when, Scandinavian clergyman and naturalist Nicolas Steno interpreted his observations of geological formations and published them in Canis Calchariae (1667). Up until that time, and for many years after, the idea that Stenos principles could be taken to indicate long periods of time were necessary to form stratified rock was not recognized. The idea of sedimentary rock being exceedingly old came in later. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries geology was not the structured discipline in universities it is today. James Hutton (1726-1797) although leaning towards uniformitarianism and long ages, promoted catastrophism as the main explanation of rock formations.
Hutton and subsequent geologists were already applying Nicolas Stenos principles to ascertain the age of rocks. The basic principles were superposition and continuity. Not having the sophisticated hydraulic laboratory equipment and research facilities for experimentation available today, these 17th century principles were formulated on purely field observation. Yet despite the fact they have never been tested by experiment, they are still used as the tools of geology to this day. Other principles were added by later geologists, but they were really variations on Stenos main theme of superposition and continuity of strata.
For instance, the principle of paleontological identity mentioned later, used to interpret the fossil record and develop a theory of evolution. The principle of superposition is uncomplicated and apparently so logical that for a long time most geologists never thought to put it in doubt. Steno, like geologists who succeeded him, considered that particles of sediment in rivers, lakes or seas deposited at the bottom of the water and formed a layer. Once that layer had hardened sufficiently, a further layer deposited on top. This process, it was assumed, would continue all the time there was water and sediment. After all, the water could dry up, and sediment sources cease preventing further layers from forming. Steno, looking at the massive geological formations around the earth came to the conclusion that, provided there was no physical obstruction to stop a layer or strata forming, the layer would girdle the earth. By looking at the particles of sediment in any particular sequence of layers, he deduced that similar sedimentary particles would be depositing at the same time all along the layer. He concluded from this that any point in the same layer would have the same age, and it was this reasoning which led to his principle of continuity of the layer.
During the late nineteenth century, speculation amongst paleontologists regarding the time necessary for large changes in species to take place led to a demand for a dating method. A geological time-scale was formulated on two basic assumptions. The first was that the rate of sedimentary deposit was, on average, uniform over time. The second was that the time needed for a single-celled organism to evolve into a complex multi-celled biological unit, such as a human being, would take many millions of years. Using the rate of sedimentation at the time the scale was constructed, which is the same rate today, 150 years later, and applying the principles of stratification, mentioned earlier, to all the earths sedimentary rocks, they realised that there would not be enough time for macro-evolution. So a time-scale had to be devised so that the sequences of strata corresponded with the biological evolution proposed by the paleontologists. Those strata that were empty of fossils would be considered as having deposited first and would therefore be oldest. Those containing simple invertebrate fossils would feature next on the scale, and those with vertebrate fossils would follow. Marine fossils would precede terrestrial fossils on the evolutionary scale thus providing a continuum of primitive life through to homo sapiens. Where the strata provided insufficient time for the postulated evolution to take place, it was assumed that the conditions producing strata had stopped, and only started again thousands or millions of years later. A proposed cause for this interruption in stratification was that the ocean under which strata were forming, had retreated or dried up completely.
This scenario would be perfectly feasible if Stenos principles had not left out one important detail, the effect of moving water upon sedimentary particles. The catastrophic relevance of this omission to the science of stratigraphy was demonstrated by Guy Berthaults recent experiments <--[VIDEO] in a laboratory flume with re-circulating water in the Colorado State University. The results were published in 1993 in the journal of the French Geological Society, and more recently in the Russian Academy of sciences journal Lithological and Mineral Resources (2002 and 2004).
In his experiments Berthault used a pump to create a current in a re-circulating flume and fed particles of sediment into the moving water. These were shown to deposit according to the velocity of the current: above a certain velocity all the particles were transported without any of them being deposited. When the current slowed, the largest particles started to deposit. They formed a layer, whilst the smaller ones continued to be carried by the water. A further reduction in current velocity caused smaller particles to deposit, and so on.
This meant that the smaller particles were forming a layer on top of the layer composed of larger ones. It showed that the particles sorted into strata not over time but according to size. There was no chronology between strata. An increase in the velocity of current would cause some of the particles already deposited to be eroded and re-transported by the moving water. So the superposition principle of all the sedimentary particles, irrespective of size, being deposited in a single layer, hardening and then another layer superposing on top, was shown not to occur when there was a water current. It must be recalled that in oceans and seas, where the vast majority of the sedimentary strata were originally formed, there are always water currents. Not taking them into account was thus shown to have led to over three centuries of geological confusion, and to the creation of the science of stratigraphy based upon invalid principles.
It now appears that the entire geologic column was developed on the unfounded superposition principle that layers form in succession, one on top of the other and that by adding together the time taken to form each layer, and leaving gaps for oceans to empty and re-fill, the sedimentary rocks on earth would have taken 500 million years or so to form. The significance of this data used in conjunction with the proof that strata do not deposit in succession becomes apparent when analysing existing sequences of strata. It clears the way for ascertaining the actual time needed for large stratified rock formations to arise. It also shows that the living organisms which became fossils were buried rapidly and provide no data for evolutionary development of life. Berthault undertook a paleohydraulic analysis of the Tonto Group in the Grand Canyon which is hundreds of miles long and up to 1,700 feet high stretching from the state of Nevada, through Arizona to New Mexico. The study based upon the laboratory experiments showed that it would have taken, not the 13 million years according to the geological time-scale, but less than fifty days to form. Further field research by other geologists such as Alexander Lalomov in the Crimean Peninsular has resulted in similar findings, which completely invalidate the principles underlying the multi-million year geological time scale."
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