Review by Greg Neyman
© Old Earth Ministries
This question was published in Dr. John's Q&A by John Morris in November 1991. The answer to this question depends on whether or not you ask a young earth geologist (of which there are extremely few).
Morris starts out, not talking about geology, but theology, by claiming that the Bible specifically teaches a young earth, which makes it biblically and theologically impossible for the earth to be old. However, this has thoroughly been refuted on this website and others. Morris then says "if the earth is young, the geologic deposits of the earth's crust should show that." Morris claims they do, but that is not the case.
The only evidence he mentions is soft sediment deformation, claiming that the Tapeats sandstone, in the Grand Canyon, had to be soft and pliable when it was shaped by the uplift during/after the Flood. Being an engineer, he should understand the principle he is talking about, known to geologists as "Plastic Deformation." Plastic deformation has no problems explaining the Tapeats, or other folded rock layers.
Actually, I'm quite surprised that he would make such a weak argument, when there are obviously better (but still weak and false) arguments available to him.
There are no geologic evidences for a young earth. One of the common tricks is to point out one example of rapid deposition, or rapid burial of a fossil. However, this is pulling out of context. The young earth author trumpets these as evidence of a young earth, but he fails to mention the rock layers above these features, which took millions of years to form!
If a 50-foot tall haystack represented the geologic evidences for an old earth, the young earth creationist is standing in front of the haystack, holding a handful of straws, but he ignores the haystack in front of him. Yes, you can find a handful of evidences and claim that they indicate a young earth, but they are all pulled out of context from the rest of the evidences. Even these few straws in his hand are not good evidence for a young earth.
Dr. John's Q&A #35, published on the web at https://www.icr.org/article/there-geological-evidence-for-young-earth
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