Cordova and Runyon on the fossil record

I just wonder if this example will make Sal’s list of counter-points to his YECs claims he says he will also teach in his YEC “science” classes. Something tells me it won’t. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Great photos! And notice this gem from that page:

As Ian Belcher of The Guardian explains:

“The cherry on the cake was added when tectonic activity pushed the flat ground up to a brilliant viewing angle – as if nature was aware of its tourism potential.”

In other words, it is proof of intelligent design!

[Yes, that was a joke on my part.]

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Here is a nice summary of how fossilization works:

http://geology.isu.edu/Alamo/fossils/process_fossilization.php

And notice the list of fossilization processes in this article:

Meanwhile, I was taken aback by this:

Oh my.

In some other context I might have thought that his “Freddy the Fish” illustration was part of a satirical interview in The Onion. Joel Tay badly needs to read the explanations of fossilization processes at the aforementioned links. He’s a prime example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

Have you taken the time to read an introductory geology textbook? Even a Wikipedia article on sedimentary rocks and geologic strata could clear up a lot of these concepts you are wrestling.

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I’d have to say “no”, based on his major appeal to a guy he met who “has some training in evolutionary biologist”.

I am continually amazed how amateurs like Joel Tay actually believe that they have figured out some major problem which somehow escaped the notice of the world’s scientists over many decades of peer-review.

Mind-boggling.

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The Defeat of Flood Geology by Flood Geology
Link to PDF

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Just as bad are the otherwise intelligent people who will believe his nonsense uncritically because he tells them what they want to hear.

Here’s Creation.com’s description of his training:

In 2008, Joel completed a Bachelor of Science from the University of Queensland (Australia), majoring in two fields of studies: Evolutionary Biology and Genetics, with the sole purpose of increasing his own apologetics arsenal to the non-believer.

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In 2008, Joel completed a Bachelor of Science from the University of Queensland (Australia), majoring in two fields of studies: Evolutionary Biology and Genetics . . .

So he’s clearly a highly-qualified expert on geology and fossilization processes.

Oh my.

(I have several humorous quips in mind but I’m trying hard to stay within appropriate community standards while characteriziing Mr. Tay’s presentation.)

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The struggle is real.

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@davecarlson, your four words constitute a very pithy comment. Touché.

The Joel Tay clip reminds me of a very old John Belushi Saturday Night Live skit which Don Pardo would introduce with the familiar tagline:

And now, another exciting episode of “Samarai YEC Apologist.”

The character would always threaten to commit harikari whenever someone during the Q&A would point out a major problem with one of his scientific claims.

[Notice, @Dan_Eastwood, that I don’t just tell interesting anecdotes from long ago. Sometimes I tell interesting lies about long ago.]

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And now, another exciting episode of Samarai Fact Checker. :crossed_swords:

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I have tried to argue with YECs that most of this counter-evidence can be erased with a Tranquil Flood, but no. As usual, they will not listen to any kind of reasoning outside of their own narrow mindset. They are absolutely convinced of major worldwide upheaval of geology in their pet view of global catastrophism.

So unfortunately Phil Senter is probably correct as things stand now. And for the foreseeable future, YECs may be faced with an impossible task, if they do not relent.

But me, I definitely believe in a Tranquil Flood. That is, while some catastrophism must have occurred, major regions of earth geography, if not most of it, experienced an otherwise peaceful rise and abatement of Flood waters.

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Then how is the fossil record explained by your “Tranquil Flood”? Every last YEC explanation relies on a violent destructive Flood to bury the fossils so deeply and “hydrodynamic” sort them.

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An inch of rain per hour for forty days and nights only nets an 800 foot rise, surely Mt Ararat was taller than that in the pre-Flood days. What rate of rainfall are you proposing that somehow tranquil during the rainfall yet powerful enough to remake the earth’s surface?

With reason, since it makes no sense. You’re claiming that the Flood caused all of the sedimentary record, and a tranquil flood doesn’t do that at all. You need a high energy environment to erode sediment and move it around. Your idea is infeasible.

There is so much here to investigate and discuss. For me, it is a major undeveloped or underdeveloped model. So right now I have thoughts, but interesting ones. Not necessarily in order

  1. our worldviews clash - for your part you must make sure the Noahic Flood ends up being myth and for my part, I fully believe it as written. Can we even really successfully discuss these things?
  2. I have over the years looked at YECs hydro-sorting ideas and am largely unimpressed
  3. But you probably have wrong ideas too - a. about the stratigraphy, surely you do not believe it to be always complete and always ordered as the pictures indicate, do you? b. and then, you believe it was laid down over millions of years, so to even have an even-handed discussion with you at all about the biblical Flood and fossiliferous layers laid down within a years’ timeframe may be dead in it tracks from the get-go
  4. we all - and especially YECs who cannot see anything but catastrophism involved - fail to realize the enormous land mass or masses that had to be flooded. My point is that it was a slow, gradual, layer-by-layer death of all living land creatures, even water-borne creatures.

Theologically speaking, God was “uncreating”, that is, destroying, what he created, and probably very much in reverse of that original creation order. Weird? Maybe. Maybe not.

Creatures in the seas, birds in the air, land animals. Don’t like it? Well, I am not dogmatic here.

But here is what I believe happened, and here is where I and YECs part company. Enormous land regions meant a very slow rise of waters, and a very slow layer-by-layer covering and death of living creatures. This begins at least to answer your questions about burial and sorting of organisms.

That’s nice but you completely dodged the question. How does a Tranquil Flood explain the biological and chronological positioning of the fossil record?

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I am in Central time and headed towards bed, so maybe more tomorrow. But I already answered your questions, but you cannot hear me because your worldview makes you deaf to my argument.

  1. in a thread several months ago, I already answered why we [at least not yet!] do not find large mammals with dinosaurs.
  2. I already told you I believe in radiometric dating, just not employed in the manner you insist. Sure, the ‘deeper’ you go in the column, igneous contamination increases and ages returned will be older. But again, you do not listen to my ideas.

Can we even really discuss this?