Old Earth Creationism

Why Believe In An Old Earth?

Part 1: Introduction

Evidence #1: Deserts - The Sahara

 

by Greg Neyman

 

     The purpose of this website has always been to focus on the false claims of young earth creation scientists.  In addition, and even more important, is that we want people to understand that they can believe in the Bible, and an old earth.  In this series of articles, we will explore some of the best evidences for an old earth.  They will not focus on faulty young earth arguments, but some of these arguments may be referenced.

     This is an open-ended series.  At this point, I don't know how many articles it will consist of.  As long as topics present themselves, it could go on indefinately.  To get matters started, lets look at Evidence #1, deserts, or more specifically, the Sahara Desert.  In the coming articles, we will look at other deserts.

 

What is a Desert?

 

     A desert is an arid region where little precipitation occurs.  This lack of precipitation results in little or no plant life, and very limited animal life.  Most people are familiar with pictures of the Sahara Desert, with great sand dunes.  But did you know that there are "cold deserts?"  The Antarctica and Arctic regions also qualify as deserts.  Deserts are sometimes classified as hot, cold, semiarid, or coastal.  Hot deserts are located in tropical areas on either side of the equator, whereas cold deserts are located at the poles, and at higher elevations (areas of the Himilayas are actually deserts). 

 

Geologic Features

 

     There are some easily recognizable geologic features found in deserts.  Deserts are said to be Eolian systems, or wind-formed.  The most common form of structure are the dunes.   A dune is a hill of sand built by the action of wind (see picture, a photo from a geology text).  Dunes can also be built underwater from water flow, and there are evidences that you can use to tell the two apart in the fossil record.  There are different kinds of dunes, such as transverse, barchan, longitudinal, star, and parabolic. 

     Sand formations in the geologic past can be identified as either wind-blown or water-deposited, based on several factors.  Despite the harsh conditions of desert life, some fossils are found in desert sandstones, and these fossil types can help identify the rock as being deposited in a desert environment.  However, the most common tool used is the structure of the dune.   

     A deposit of wind-blown dust, known as Loess, covers as much as one-tenth of the earth's land, and is common in semiarid regions, especially along the margins of deserts. 

 

The Sahara

 

     Young earth creationists argue that the Sahara is a young desert, only 4,000 years old. This would correspond with their dating of Noah's global flood, or about 4,200 years ago.  In reality, the Sahara in its present form started to develop after the end of the last Ice Age, approximately 10,000 years ago.  However, there has been a desert in North Africa, on and off, for at least the last 7 million years.  The oldest evidence for a desert is found in Chad, with eolian dune deposits dated at 7 million years. 

     In the next few articles, we will examine more old earth evidences based on deserts, and they are even more convincing than the Sahara.  Stay tuned!      

 

 

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     If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while still believing in an old earth.  Click here for more.

 

    Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism?  Now that we have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life?  If you are a young earth creationism believer, click here.

 

 
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 To learn more about old earth creationism, see Old Earth Belief, or check out the article Can You Be A Christian and Believe in an Old Earth?  

 Feel free to check out more of this website.  Our goal is to provide rebuttals to the bad science behind young earth creationism, and honor God by properly presenting His creation.