Review by Greg Neyman
© 2006, Old Earth Ministries
First published 21 March 2006
One of the featured articles in the geology section of Kent Hovind's website, Creation Science Evangelism, talks about the ability of water to rapidly erode rock.1 This article is written by Bruce Malone. He starts out with a sight picture of the Grand Canyon and its many visitors, and poses questions about its formation. Sight-pictures are common in young earth arguments, and are meant to emotionally draw the reader in, without giving any real scientific facts. The same is true of the leading questions. Rapid-fire questions will grip the young earth reader, while not providing any answers...it's all an emotional game, to not lose the young earth creationist to old earth creationism.
Malone does get around to his arguments, but as you will see in the end, they mean nothing...even if they are true! First, he mentions the spillway tunnel of Glen Canyon Dam. In a matter of minutes, a 150 foot hole had been cut into the rock. Impressive, but it means nothing by itself.
Next, he moves on to the scab lands of Washington state. Geologists accept the rapid erosion from this site (while maintaining an old earth as a whole). He says that 10 cubic miles of basalt was eroded in a matter of hours. Since nobody witnessed it, the "matter of hours" is a guess. Nevertheless, I agree with Mr. Malone, that this is a great testimony to the erosional power of water.
Using these two examples, he then asks if the Grand Canyon could have formed from a similar event. Sure, it may be possible, but there are problems. It was all caused by the sudden release from a gigantic lake or lakes. Yes, there is an old lake to the north, Hopi Lake, but it is much too small to have carved the canyon, and it existed from 16 million to 4 million years ago. Young earth creationists have proposed other lakes, but the evidence to support the prior existence of these lakes is very scanty.
Do not be decieved by Malone's claim that many qualified geologists are coming to believe this rapid formation theory. The only ones who believe this are young earth creationist geologists. No real geologists (who are also scientists) accept the young earth theory.
Even if these stories are true, and the Grand Canyon formed quickly, it doesn't have any impact upon the age of the earth. Here's why. The erosion of the Canyon is not the real issue that testifies against the young earth creation science model. First, you have to be able to deposit all those rock layers, which all perfectly fit the old earth model, and testify against the young earth creation science model. For an in-depth study of the rocks of the Grand Canyon, see our series on Stratigraphy. To examine the young earth claims about the Grand Canyon in detail, see the young earth book Grand Canyon: Monument to Catastrophe.
1 Water Can Move Mountains (Rapidly), by Bruce Malone. Posted on the Creation Science Evangelism website at http://www.drdino.com/articles.php?spec=36
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