Introduction

We will explore some key challenges to evolution in greater detail, in future posts. In this brief post, I will provide a summary of some challenges to the belief that the earth is billions of years old.

Whilst the Bible does not provide a specific age to the earth it does imply that it is much younger than recent scientific theories propose.

What is Science?

First, we need to understand what it meant by science. When people speak about science, they are really talking about one of 2 key areas:

• Operational Science; or
• Historical Science.

There is a distinction between these two areas in terms of how the science is performed and whether the findings are repeatable and can be validated by third parties. Despite this, when people refer to science a distinction is not normally drawn.

Operational Science

This refers to the use of science to design car engines, rockets, computers, etc. Operational Science uses repeatable scientific principles that can be tested in the lab.  Engineering uses operational science to solve real-world challenges and to develop products that can be used in the world.

Historical Science

Historical Science looks at discoveries and findings from the past. We cannot repeat events that happened in the past, but can look at the evidence and draw inferences and conclusions. This means that we can’t recreate the events and circumstances that shaped the evidence e.g. we can’t repeat the circumstances that created the Grand Canyon; we can only see the geological features and infer what caused them.

Historical science is based upon our assumptions, so if we see 2 footprints in the rock, we assume that there were two people walking side by side.  We can’t be sure though – it could have been one person one day and then another following on, the next day or week. What we deduce depends upon our assumptions.

This is the difficulty with Historical Science.

Our Assumptions Shape Our Conclusions

The evidence that is normally produced “in favour” of evolution is the same evidence that is used to draw conclusions in favour of creation. This is Historical Science, as described above.

We see the evidence, apply foundational beliefs and assumptions, and then draw conclusions from that. Some conclusions will be the same, others will differ. As a Christian, we should also be aware that there are billions spent on research and science, that is based upon Evolutionist Foundational Beliefs and Assumptions – most of it funded through your tax dollars (and pounds and euros). There is very little spent on research with Creationist Foundational Beliefs and Assumptions – and this is funded by Christian organisations.

Sample Evidence: for Earth being 1000s not millions of Years Old

Comets Disintegrate too Quickly

Comets product a vapour trail, as they pass the sun, and this causes them to disintegrate over time. Given the rate of disintegration (“decay”) they have a maximum life of about 10,000 years, and this is the estimate of secular scientists.

This means that, if the solar system were 4.5 to 5 billion years old, there would be no comets. They disintegrate in a maximum of 10,000 years so there is no chance that they would still be here after billions of years.

To overcome this, secular science has not reconsidered the age of the solar system (to be in line with the fact that comets still pass the earth). They have proposed that there are places, just outside of the visible solar system, where comets are “born”. Both the Oort cloud and Kuiper belt have been proposed as where comets originate, and scientists have been searching for evidence to back up these theories since.

This is because they have started from the belief that the solar system is billions of years old, and the conclusions and theories follow from this basis. This is patching up a weak theory with an idea for which there is no evidence.

There is not enough Sediment on the Sea Floor

The sediment on the sea floor is around 400m deep.  It is about 400m deep which implies the earth could not be more than 12m years old. This assumes a constant rate of sedimentation, but as we know the rate would not have been constant. The flood described in Genesis would have deposited huge amounts of sediment in a very short timescale. In any case, 12 million years is far too short a timescale for evolutionary theories to be correct and neither position is provable beyond doubt.

(Mud enters the seas through rivers and dust storms. This occurs at much faster rates than plate tectonic subduction can remove it. Annually, 19 billion tons of mud accumulates. If the oceans were ancient, they would be choked with sediment dozens of km deep.)

Not enough salt in the ocean

There is not enough salt in the seas for the earth to be ancient. Every year, salt accumulates in the ocean from rivers.  Given the present rate it is increasing per year, the current 3.5 percent ocean salinity is much too low if this process has been going on for a very long time.

Fossils are the Exception and not the Rule

If you observe what happens to a dead animal, it is either carried off and eaten or it disintegrates (consumed by insect larvae, etc). The finding of large numbers of fossils together is evidence for rapid sedimentation – and provides a stronger case for the flood than a non-evolutionary perspective. If fossils had been created over the course of billions of years, we should see many more of them and they would not have been accumulated in the same rock strata.

The Earth’s Magnetic Field

The earth’s magnetic field is too strong for the billions of years model of the age of the earth. Since we have been measuring this, the magnetic field has decayed. If we use this rate of decay extrapolate back, then the field strength would be enormous – it would be too great to sustain life. This means that, based on the decay rate, the earth is much younger than has been assumed by evolutionists.

Again, neither position is provable – but there is no actual evidence to suggest that the rate of decay is now lower than it was in the past.

Helium is in the Wrong Places

Scientific investigation has demonstrated that rocks give out helium.

Given the rate of helium emission, the fact that there is still helium in rocks, and very little in the atmosphere, indicates that they are not as old as has been postulated. If the earth was as old as evolutionists theorise, then this would be reversed – lots of helium in the atmosphere, and little or none in the rocks.

Other Challenges to Evolution

There are a number of other challenges, that have not been described. These include:

• Galaxies wind themselves up too fast – they would be featureless discs if it was billions of years old;
• Many rock strata are too tightly “bent” for the ancient earth theory to be correct;
• The irrefutable evidence is too recent for ancient earth theories – it is up to around 5,000 years old which is a better match to a Creationist view of the age of the Earth.

In Closing

The next article in this series will look at the Premise and Process of Evolution. It will provide an essential understanding of how evolution is said to operate and how it is said to establish improvements through the generations of an organism (or animal).  As you will recall the previous article in the series, Genesis, looked at the book of Genesis, its important to the Christian Faith and the range of topics that it introduces.