Re: 12 Questions... please answer.
Jean-Luc Picard (matcmjk@lux.latrobe.edu.au)
Sun, 6 Aug 1995 16:06:50 GMT
: In a correspondence with a literal biblical creationist, several questions
: have cropped up. Since these questions cover several fields, none of
: [literal biblical creationism: the world was created in 6 days, about
: 6000-4000 bc]
: 1) What is the accuracy of the forms of dating used? He maintains that no
: dating is accurate after 6-8 kya. I maintain that though it is
Ask him how he knows.
: inaccurate, it is accurate enough to say that a remain is more than 1mya
: or so.
: 2) Is there any sharp difference between remains RELIABLY dated at 4kya
: and those at 10kya? ie those definitely within the creationist timeframe
: and those outside?
What sort of differences do you mean?
: That is, it is possible to say there are two sets of remains, those
: created before, and those deposited afterwards (to within the accuracy
: of the ? If not, then it must be
: argued that if there is a God, then He must have made some very fresh
: (geologically speaking) remains, for them to be dated at just before
: creation.
: 3) Are there any races with a written record that goes back to before the
: time of the biblical Creation?
I'm not sure how old Egyptian hieroglyphics are, but perhaps older than
4000ya (?)
: 4) Is there any evidence to support the Great Flood. In particular, a
: severe change of climate from a globally temperate climate (the whole
: world surrounded by water) to one of polar icecaps and equatorial deserts,
: about 5kya, coupled with a simultaneous flooding. Evidence that would go
: against this: Ice on icecaps of greater than 3000 bc, animals that would have
: died in climates even slightly different from those they have now.
No. One wonders where all this water eventually went...
: 5) Given a perfectly built human 6000 years ago, and given that evolution
: is all codswallop, exactly how serious could our situation have been that
: our bodies are so crap now? (Rhetorical question: our actual makeup is
: from those muscles and bones required for quadrupedality, pressed into
: service under new functions for bipedality. To be that badly designed we
: actually need several million years, and NOT starting from a perfect
: being, either.)
Also, why do we have an appendix? etc...
: 6) To quote him (no, not Him!):
: > to my knowledge, carbon dating is done by comparing the fossil with the
: > layer of earth it came from to get it's age. Parts of the earths crust are
: > said to be upside down, such as portions of the Grand Canyon!?!
No. Carbon-dating is done by finding of different isotopes of
carbon in a substance. If you simply compared it with a layer of earth, you
would have to know how old that layer was somehow...
The layers are tilted, or upside-down because of the movement of the Earth's
crust.
: How is dating carried out in these circumstances?
: 7) I have heard that we only use 7-10% of our brains. I have also heard
: that this is untrue, and that we use all of it, but just not all at once.
: Which is the truth? Is there any part of the brain which is never used?
: 8)What is the oldest artefact with writing or symbols that has been
: dated by the author (And no, I do not count anything that says 'made in
: 8000 B.C.'!)
: 9) The Flood is supposed to explain why "so many predicted rock formations
: are out of whack, and in improper order", for instance sections of the
: Grand Canyon being upside down. Can this not be explained by 'simple'
: geological forces?
Yes.
: 10) The Flood is also used to explain fossils: "The extreme amount
: of natural disruptions on the earth pushed creatures deep into the
: earth". I am skeptical about this one: Surely such events would have
: caused geological rifts in the strata that would have been obvious.
: 11) The Flood would have caused a permanent rise in sea level. Surely
: there are places where, due to shellfish and other evidence, it can be
: seen that the water level has not changed for a much longer time than the
: biblical timescale?
: 12) Assuming that all the animals in the Ark were in suspended animation
: so they needed no air, food or water, exactly how big would it have to
: be? What about if Noah needed to have all the plants as well? And the
: Aquatic creatures (no, not including Man, he was too busy supervising and
: stuff)?
: I am envisioning something the size of the UK. Am I right, or am I way out?
: --
Basically, creationism is rubbish. On one side, you have centuries of research
in many different fields - Geology, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy,
Paleontology etc. and all their branches, which have shown how fast things
decay, how things change etc., and on the other you have the Bible - a
collection of texts written over a large period of time by a number of men in
one small area of the Earth and translated. Pick one.
M.
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