FOSSILS AND STRATA: 3

In this article we will focus our attention on the rock strata itself. You will learn interesting facts about evolutionary falsehoods. Evolution is a myth. God created everything; the evidence clearly points to it. This is science vs. evolution—a Creation-Evolution Encyclopedia, brought to you by Creation Science Facts.

CONTENTS: Fossils and Strata: 3

Coal: Where did coal come from?
5 Problems with the Strata: Fundamental problems which destroy the evolutionary theory about the rock strata
Summary of the Strata Problems: Here are 13 reasons why the evolutionary strata theory is worthless

Page numbers without book references refer to the book, FOSSILS AND STRATA, from which these facts are summarized. An asterisk ( * ) by a name indicates that person is not known to be a creationist. Of over 4,000 quotations in the set of books this Encyclopedia is based on, only 164 statements are by creationists.

COAL

Where did the coal come from?

What is coal? Coal comes from anciently buried plants, and petroleum is from animals. Yet neither are made in significant quantities today.

Rapidly buried plant and animal life, at some earlier time, produced both coal and petroleum.—p. 47.

Evidences that coal was laid down during the Flood. Coal can be made, and it is produced when plant remains are compressed and heated by the weight of overlying sediments.

Some coal seams are up to 30 or 40 feet thick and 300 to 400 feet wide. Enormous forests must have been rapidly buried in order to produce coal. There are no modern conditions which could duplicate such coal production.

Yet the evolutionary theory runs counter to these facts: Evolution requires that plants died, fell to the ground, and a little here and a little there were covered by dirt for millions of years. Then they turned into coal. But geologists know that the truth is far different: Great coal beds were produced by massive amounts of forests swept into place by flood waters and then quickly buried and compacted.

In addition, marine fossils, such as fish, mollusks, and brachiopods are commonly found in coal.

Many instances have been discovered of upright fossil trees in the rock strata. Evolutionary theory cannot explain this.

The hollow trunks of trees in coal seams will be filled with material not native to the coal—showing it was washed in at the time of burial.

Coal is found in layers. Between each layer will be material washed in from elsewhere (sandstone, shale, clay, etc.).

Under and over the coal will be found clays which are not natural to forest soils. The clay was washed in, then the trees, and then more clay.

Large rocks, not native to the area, are frequently found in coal beds.

Coal and petroleum are only found in sedimentary strata—the only place fossils are found. All the evidence points to a rising worldwide Flood as the event which laid down these strata.

Research scientists have discovered that coal and oil can be made fairly rapidly through quick burial and compression.—pp. 47-49.

You will find a discussion of the origin of petroleum in our book, Fossils and Strata.

5 BASIC PROBLEMS WITH THE STRATA

Here are fundamental problems which destroy the evolutionary theory about the rock strata.

As if the problems with fossils were not bad enough, we now turn our attention to the strata itself.

1: Fossils in wrong places. Fossils are frequently found far below the strata where they are first supposed to have "evolved" into existence.

The experts deal with this in one of three ways: Either ignore the evidence, state that the fossils "downwashed" through solid rock to lower levels, or say they "reworked" themselves to lower strata; that is, they slipped, slid, or fell through the solid rock.

How could a fragile fossil imprint, even half a foot long, "wash down" through rock to a lower level?—pp. 49-50.

2: Missing strata. This is one of the big secrets of evolutionary geologists. You are about to discover another fact the evolutionists do not want the public to learn:

Evolution teaches there is a "geologic column" of 12 major strata (Pleistocene, Pliocene, Miocene, etc.). Each one lasted millions of years; one came after the other, and all the fossils within each were laid down during that time.

But now for the secret: Anywhere in the world you wish to go, most of the strata are missing! Most of the time, only two to eight of the 21 theoretical strata can be found. The classic of them all, the Grand Canyon, only has a little under half of the 12 major periods and epochs.

If the evolutionary theory were true, those strata would have to be there! How could millions of years of strata vanish?

Yet if the strata were laid down at the time of the Flood, then the situation would be exactly as we would expect to find it. Materials were washed in here and there. The result is strata which starts, covers an area, and then stops.

The scientists' name for this problem is "unconformities"; they dare not call them "missing strata."

There are not only "fossil gaps," there are "strata gaps" also!—pp. 50-52.

3: Geosynclines. Evolution teaches "uniformitarianism," the theory that everything has always been as it is now. But instead, we find evidences in the earth that a major catastrophe occurred. It was a worldwide Flood, which not only laid down strata, but then twisted and turned the strata. The name for those tortured layers are "geosynclines."

In many places, layers of sedimentary rocks have been buckled into folds. Some of these folded strata are small, others are massive and cover miles in area (folded mountains). In other places, the strata angles itself downward into the earth, or upward, breaking off as the sharp edge of high mountains (fault block mountains). At times, rocks are bent into right angles by such buckling.—p. 52.

4: Megabreccias. These are gigantic boulders which were moved by an immense flood. They are surrounded by rock strata. How could that happen?

Mud and sediment were washed into place, then the boulder was pushed there; then more mud and sediment were washed in around and over it.

The evidence in the earth agrees with Flood geology, but not with evolutionary geology.—p. 52.

5: Overthrusts. This is probably the strangest problem the evolutionists face as they try desperately to defend their theory. Overthrusts are the most shocking of the many evidences disproving evolutionary geology.

If the theory was correct, the strata, which the theory classifies as ages "older," would always be below the more recent strata. But if the theory was incorrect, the strata would often be confused—and that is the way it actually is.

In every mountainous region on every continent on the globe, there are numerous examples of supposedly "older" strata superimposed on top of "younger" strata! This just cannot be if each strata is millions of years younger than the one it rests upon!

Evolutionists call these situations "overthrusts," and they have devised a fantastic solution to the problem! They say that the giant masses of "older" strata, which are on top of "younger" strata,—slid sideways for 50, 100, or more miles and got there! Sometimes they had to "slide" uphill.

Many of these immense overthrust areas are hundreds and even thousands of square miles in size!

We are not talking about taking a bulldozer and shoveling a mountain from here to there. We are speaking of an immense layer of rock that has to be moved without disturbing it!

Evolutionists have to make up these myths, in order to defend their theory about fossils. If they lose their fossil theory, they really have little left.

Heart Mountain is 30 miles wide by 60 miles long, and is next to the northeast corner of Yellowstone Park. Within this area are 50 separate blocks of "older" strata on top of strata which is supposed to be 250 million years younger.

Geologists are unable to locate where the blocks came from! But they say they slid in from someplace, probably hundreds of miles away.

Yet the "older strata" which "slid in" is high above the surrounding area! It had to slide up from wherever it came from!

Lewis Overthrust is another example. It is 135 miles long and 3 miles thick, and includes all of Glacier National Park in western Canada.

Did you know that, according to the evolutionists, the famous Matterhorn, in the Swiss Alps, hopped over there from somewhere else? It is all "older" rock, which is on top of "younger" rock.

Then there is the Mythen Peak in Switzerland. The evolutionary geologists tell us it ran there—all the way from Africa! Also keep in mind the entire Appalachians. This is an enormous mountain range, stretching from eastern Canada to central Alabama. Did you know that it climbed up out of the Atlantic Ocean basin—and up onto "younger" strata?

The truth is that the overthrust theory is foolishness. The strata would crumble if any attempt were made to move it from one place to another. We are here dealing with fragile rock, massively weighted down. So many fractures would be produced that it would crumble. Yet scientists have analyzed it—and found that it is not fractured any more than other strata above or below it.—pp. 52-57.

SUMMARY OF THE STRATA PROBLEMS

Here are 13 reasons why the evolutionary strata theory is worthless.

What is really there? What we find in the strata agrees with Flood geology. Consider these facts:

1: We find pockets of certain animals and plants here and there, washed into place.

2: We find mixed up and missing strata everywhere we look.

3: We find geosynclines: twisted and folded mountains.

4: We find megabreccias: giant boulders washed into place, with strata washed in around it.

5: We find overthrusts and upside-down strata.

6: We find vertical tree trunks washed into place.

7: We find the slowest sea creatures in the bottom strata.

8: We find the slowest land animals higher up.

9: We find few birds, since they could fly to the highest points.

10: We find few apes and humans, since they could run to the highest places.

11: We find complex forms suddenly appearing in great confusion at the very bottom.

12: We find only separate, distinct, species.

13: We find species which have become extinct.

That is what we find, and it all agrees with Flood geology. And none of it agrees with evolutionary geology.—p. 52.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Forward to the next major topic in this series:

SCIENTISTS SPEAK ABOUT FOSSILS: Evidence showing that humans did not evolve from apes or descend from anything else.