Hey, I never claimed omniscience here. Perhaps Schweitzer will …

Comment on Scientists and the Temptation to Bias Results by Sean Pitman.

Hey, I never claimed omniscience here. Perhaps Schweitzer will find the answer that solves all the problems with explaining tens of millions of years of soft tissue, protein, and DNA preservation! – as well as the high levels of radiocarbon that exists within those tissues! That’s certainly possible. I just don’t think it likely given what seems to be the weight of evidence, as far as I can tell, for right now. Of course, science isn’t about what might be found in the future. Science is about the best explanation given the evidence that is currently in hand.

As far as the various factors that might impact decay over time, certainly various studies have taken many of these into account – to include temperature (which seems to be the primary factor in setting the rate of decay), as well as pH, amino acid composition of the protein, water concentration of the environment, size of the macromolecule, ionic strength of the environment, cross linking or covalent bonding within the molecules (as in the case of formaldehyde or iron preservation), etc. Could there be other as yet unknown factors that might contribute to protein/DNA preservation? Certainly! However, these have yet to be found as far as I’m aware – at least not to the point of explaining how tens of millions of years of protein/DNA preservation could tenably be achieved.

For example, Allentoft, M.E. et al. (2012) argued that no intact DNA bonds can be expected at 22,000 years at 25°C, 131,000 years at 15°C, 882,000 years at 5°C; and even if it could somehow be kept continually below freezing point at –5°C, it could survive only 6.83 Ma. Basically, DNA has about a “521 year half-life” (Link).

“Even under the best preservation conditions at –5°C, our model predicts that no intact bonds (average length = 1 bp [base pair]) will remain in the DNA ‘strand’ after 6.8 Myr. This displays the extreme improbability of being able to amplify a 174 bp DNA fragment from an 80–85 Myr old Cretaceous bone.”

And, this statement was published well after Schweitzer made her discoveries of fragments of protein and DNA within dinosaur soft tissues. This statement is also interesting because dinosaur bones are generally believed to have experienced greater than 20°C temperatures for tens of millions of years (Buckley, et al., 2008).

Other features, such as rapid desiccation and high salt concentrations, may also prolong DNA survival (Lindahl 1993). However, kinetic calculations still predict that small fragments of DNA (100–500 bp) will survive for no more than 10 kyr in temperate regions and for a maximum of 100 kyr at colder latitudes (Poinar et al. 1996; Smith et al. 2001).

And, the half-life for the average protein is similar since the “peptide bond has a half-life of 400 years” (Adv Exp Med Biol. 2009; 611: xci–xcviii). However, some proteins, such as collagen in particular, appear to have somewhat longer half-lives of ~2,000 years at ambient temperatures (Buckley, et al., 2008).

Now, if you know of some logical reason why some particular factor should make the ancient preservations of proteins and/or DNA a no-brainer, by all means let me know. I’ll honestly look into it and, if it makes sense to me, I’ll say so. The same is true for explaining the source of the very high levels of radiocarbon that seems to be present within the soft tissues of all dinosaur bones examined thus far. If you know a reasonable solution to this problem for the mainstream perspective, please let me know and I’ll honestly consider it. I don’t think anyone can do better than that? – do you?

Sean Pitman Also Commented

Scientists and the Temptation to Bias Results
Oh please. There’s lots of evidence to support the catastrophic concept of the formation of the layers surrounding the Grand Canyon. At least 30% of the Grand Canyon layers are thought to be turbidites and up to 50% of the world’s sedimentary rocks are thought to be turbidites. Turbidites can flow hundreds of kilometers – even over very shallow gradients (1:1000). The “stacked forests” in Yellowstone were also buried by turbiditic mud flows coming from different directions over a short period of time. And turbiditic flows can form very very fast – and thick. One turbiditic flow traveling at up to 100 km/h broke 12 underwater telegraph cables as it stretched from the coast of Grand Banks, Nova Scotia to Europe (1929). These cables were miles apart and snapped in succession one after another as the turbidite spread its layer across the ocean floor. The layer it laid down was hundreds of meters thick.

As far as impact craters are concerned, I’m not sure what you’re asking for? These objects are found throughout the geologic column, even in Precambrian layers. Dozens of impact craters have been found from the pre-Cambrian to Pleistocene throughout almost every layer of the geologic column. The problem for uniformitarian thinking, of course, is that there simply aren’t the numbers of meter impacts that would be expected if the geologic column were truly as old as neo-Darwinists claim. It seems like these meteorites are more difficult to find than expected if the geologic column does indeed represent hundreds of millions of years of elapsed time. The current rate of meteor impact over the entire globe (for meteorites greater than 100g in size) is about 14 per 10 km^2 per year. That’s 1,400 million meteorites per 100 million years (i.e., 140 million kilograms or about 280 million pounds) per 10 km^2. You’d think then that they’d be a bit more common. But, they’re not.

For example, looking at the layers in the Grand Canyon in particular, according to mainstream geology, it would take an average of 100 million years to deposit about 100 feet (~30 meters) of sediment. Sandstone weighs about 2,323 Kg/m^3. There are 3 billion cubic meters in a 30 meter layer of sediment covering 10 km^2. That’s a total weight of almost 7 trillion Kg. Of this, 140 million Kg should be made up of meteoric material ( 0.002%). Another way to look at the same problem is that there should be enough meteoric material to make up about 60,000 cubic meters of sediment in 100 million years (0.002%).

Now, this might not seem like a significant percentage, but it is quite significant given that only a handful of meteoric rock fragments have ever been found in the layers of the geologic column. There should be literally tons of them. Yet, geologist Davis Young (1988, p.127) writes that, “The chances of finding a fossil meteorite in sedimentary rocks are remote. It is not to be expected.” G. J. McCall, in Meteorites and Their Origins (1973, p.270), said, “The lack of fossil record of true meteorites is puzzling, but can be explained by the lack of very diagnostic shapes and the chemical nature of meteorites, which allows rapid decay…”

It seems that rapid decay would have to be very rapid indeed – especially since far more delicate fossils are discovered far more commonly than are meteorites within the geologic column and fossil record.

As far as being responsible for the Noachian Flood, it wouldn’t take much. A few moderately sized meteors is all it would take to significantly shake up this planet, break up the thin crust, and cause worldwide flooding of Noachian proportions.


Scientists and the Temptation to Bias Results
That’s what I think too…


Scientists and the Temptation to Bias Results
Repeated waves of sediment could be carried by tidal actions as well as massive repetitive tsunami-type waves which traversed the entire globe over and over again. Each one of these sediment-baring waves would have laid down another layer quite rapidly – and from different directions given that multiple separate impact events took place during this time (accounting for the different types of sedimentary layers coming from different regions of the globe). This also means that there would have been periods of time when the freshly-deposited sedimentary layers would have been exposed to air (allowing for raindrops, dinosaur eggs that were very hastily laid, sometimes on multiple layers within the same hatch of eggs, and the like to be finely preserved). As the next wave started to return to such an area, the water level would have gradually risen at first, filling in these delicate trace fossils without destroying them. Also, underwater turbiditic flows of sediment are known to be able to cover and preserve fine details along the surface of the underlying soft sedimentary layer.

These concepts are not nearly as far fetched as trying to explain the Coconino as a long-standing desert environment – where the creatures only walked uphill all the time and where no traces of plant material existed… etc.


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I fail to see where you have convincingly supported your claim that the GC leadership contributed to the harm of anyone’s personal religious liberties? – given that the GC leadership does not and could not override personal religious liberties in this country, nor substantively change the outcome of those who lost their jobs over various vaccine mandates. That’s just not how it works here in this country. Religious liberties are personally derived. Again, they simply are not based on a corporate or church position, but rely solely upon individual convictions – regardless of what the church may or may not say or do.

Yet, you say, “Who cares if it is written into law”? You should care. Everyone should care. It’s a very important law in this country. The idea that the organized church could have changed vaccine mandates simply isn’t true – particularly given the nature of certain types of jobs dealing with the most vulnerable in society (such as health care workers for example).

Beyond this, the GC Leadership did, in fact, write in support of personal religious convictions on this topic – and there are GC lawyers who have and continue to write personal letters in support of personal religious convictions (even if these personal convictions are at odds with the position of the church on a given topic). Just because the GC leadership also supports the advances of modern medicine doesn’t mean that the GC leadership cannot support individual convictions at the same time. Both are possible. This is not an inconsistency.