Creation Science Rebuttals
Creation Magazine
Greenland Aircraft Claims (The Lost Squadron)
Volume 19, Issue 3, June 1997
Review by Greg Neyman
© Old Earth Ministries
First Published 19 September 2004
You may be familiar with the claims of young earth creation science experts concerning buried aircraft in glacial ice in Greenland (if not, click here for one of their articles on the Answers in Genesis website). To summarize this article, they tell the tale of an aircraft squadron that was lost in Greenland in 1942. When they were rediscovered in 1988, the aircraft were beneath 250 feet of snow and ice. The young earth author, Carl Wieland, claims this is evidence that it doesn't take long periods of time for ice to build up, refuting evolutionary claims that glaciers are hundreds of thousands of years old.
It is common practice, as claimed by Wieland, to use ice cores as measuring devices for age. However, when considering this, as Wieland correctly points out, isotope ratios are examined to determine ages. To say that an airplane was buried by 250 feet of snow and ice in 46 years only proves there was snowfall at this location...it has no bearing on the age of the earth issue. Now, if the snow at the level of the aircraft were dated by the isotopes, and it showed that it was vastly greater than 46 years old, then he may have a useful argument. As it is, Wieland's argument is just an empty claim. Thanks for proving that it snows in Greenland!
A more recent article on CNN.com shows the opposite. An aircraft which had been lost on a glacier in Greenland in 1962 was recently explored (in 2004) for the purpose of returning the lost human remains. In the summer of 1995, a British crew flew over the site, and saw human remains on the surface. Therefore, between 1962 and 1995 there was no snow accumulation at this location. When compared with the site that Carl Wieland mentions, we can only be sure of one thing...it was colder and snowed more at the location where the aircraft were buried. Thus, young earth creation science experts are using the fact that their location has much more snow to prove a young earth…in reality, it only proves that snowfall rates vary by location. This has no bearing on the age of the earth!
When examining young earth evidences, you have to be careful, as they will try to take a topic that has absolutely no bearing on the age of the earth, but they will word it in such a way as to claim that it does. This is usually done because they can't find any firm evidence for a young earth, so they have to prove their position by slick words.
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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