Comment on Are LSU professors breaking the 8th commandment? by Sean Pitman.
Carl: What “catastrophic model of origins?†You have offered speculations that seem to violate the laws of physics. That does not make a model.
Here is the most recent finding that most certainly does dramatically violate the laws of physics – – against the old-Earth model:
The Alps came about by the collision of the African and European continents which began some 55 million years ago. The famed mountain range most likely gained its greatest height millions of years ago as a result of this tectonic activity.
In their measurements over the past decades, however, scientists have discovered that the Alpine summits grow up to a millimeter annually when compared with the low land. But researchers from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences determined that the mountains eroded simultaneously at almost the same speed as they grew.
The researchers determined the speed of the surface erosion by using a “locator” – the rare isotope Beryllium-10 which through cosmic radiation develops on the surface. When a surface erodes very quickly, however, there are fewer Beryllium-10 isotopes present, as in the case of the sand of the Swiss Alps’ rivers.
http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/__PR/GIC/2009/11/12__Alps__PM.html
This article argues that the surfaces of the Swiss Alps, thought to have been uplifted some 55 million years ago, are eroding at a millimeter per year. You might not think that all too astounding. But, consider this erosion rate over the course of just one million years. That’s one million millimeters of erosion – or 1,000 vertical meters of erosion per million years. Yet, a significant thickness of sedimentary layers remain atop the Swiss Alps? How is that possible? Is this not a violation of physics? The current erosion rate is enough to wash off these layers many times over, yet they are still there?
Of course, your usual comeback is that just because this may be a problem for the old-Earth ideas of mainstream scientists doesn’t mean it supports a 10,000 year history any better. Well, at the very least you have to admit that mainstream science, to include radiometric dating methods, aren’t nearly as reliable as you make them out to be given such high erosion rates.
Can you at least admit this much? If so, this would be a signficant start.
Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com
Sean Pitman Also Commented
Are LSU professors breaking the 8th commandment?
David Kendall, BMus, MA says:
Hi Shane,
I am not sure you can make a strong connection between the statement in the excerpt and common ancestry. DNA research does point to varying degrees of relatedness among species. This does not have to conflict with a recent six day creation, though some may make the argument that it must.
What it argues for, and what Grismer clearly believes, is the idea that all life is related through process of common descent by innumerable tiny modifications from a common ancestor life form – a process that required hundreds of millions of years of time.
This notion strikes directly at the concept of the relatedness of all life because of its source in a common Designer of all the basic “kinds” of life on this planet, produced during a literal 6-day creation week in recent history.
Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com
Are LSU professors breaking the 8th commandment?
Ron Nielsn: @Sean Pitman M.D.: Sean, I am not a geologist, and I haven’t read much about this, but your argument doesn’t make logical sense. Where does the sediment that is “washed off†go, except down slope, and as long as the uplift is equal or greater than the erosion rate, there is always going to be sediment at the top
Your argument assumes that all rock is sedimentary rock – it isn’t. Only a thin layer of sedimentary rock covers the underlying granitic or metamorphic rock. So, the obvious question is, how has the very thin layer of sedimentary rock avoided being completely washed off of the underlying non-sedimentary rock if it has in fact been exposed, as an erosional surface, for tens of millions of years?
You do see how the argument for continued mountain uplift does not solve this problem? – right?
Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com
Are LSU professors breaking the 8th commandment?
BobRyan: Thus evolutionists who quickly admit that molecule-to-human-mind evolutionism (storytelling) requires “a massive DECREASE in entropy†as the net result over billions of years (at the local isolated system level of course )– are leaving themselves with no place to go.
Not true. A local decrease in thermodynamic entropy is possible using the Sun’s energy to produce the local effect (at the expense of an increase in the Earth-Sun thermodynamic entropy of course).
Recall that in the case of the dropping ball, and the iron rusting and the water evaporating — the definion for “universe†that was needed to observe those examples demonstrating entropy was simply “an isolated and localized system and it’s immediate surroundings†EVEN if that system is standing out in broad daylight (or in complete darkness). No need to “reach for the sun†before you can see the increase in entropy as iron oxidizes. Speaking of “oxidation demonstrating entropy†– our biology courses admit to that oxidation process as well.
You forget that the reverse of all these processes you use as examples of increases in local entropy can be reversed as well, by using energy derived from the Sun. The ball can be driven uphill, as can the water in the rivers that run downhill. Therefore, local reductions in entropy can be achieved by using the increase in entropy of the Earth-Sun system…
Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com
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