Creation Science Rebuttals -

Coral Grows Faster than Thought

8 February 2006

     The 8 February 06 daily feature for the young earth creation science ministry Creation Moments discusses the growth rate for coral.

     It has long been known that corals are not the fastest growing organisms.  This has been the focus of many young earth attacks, because this is viewed as a threat to young earth creation science.  They have to explain how corals could have formed entire colonies, right in the middle of Noah's Flood.  Thus, many coral colonies in the fossil record had to have formed in a matter of days.

     The authors begin by explaining how a coral lives.  Then, they say evolutionists claim it takes millions of years for them to form, such as the 2,000 mile long Great Barrier Reef in Australia.  They say that it has been shown that corals can double their own weight in just over ten days.  They say "The claim of millions of years for the age of the Great Barrier Reef has been reduced by a factor of 40."  Let's do the math on that.  Since millions is plural, let's use the lowest possible number, two million years.  Reduce this by a factor of 40, and we still have 50,000 years...still much too old for the young earth theory.

    But that's not the entire truth.  Although the reef structure has been there for 500 million years, the same corals have not.  The current reef is thought to be about 18,000 years old.  That is closer to the 6,000 years of the young earth theory, except that this current reef structure is built upon a pre-existing reef structure, and that one upon another, etc.   No matter how you analyze it, it does not fit the young earth model.

     As Christians we should thank God for corals.   However, they supply no evidence of a young earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Barrier_Reef

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