CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE BIBLE'S
FLOOD STORY AND THE FOSSIL RECORD

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Background:

The theory of evolution requires a very old earth -- billions of years of age. A main part of this theory is the belief that fossil-bearing rock layers were laid down over an interval of hundreds of millions of years. Fossils thus represent evidence of the evolution of various species over that a very long interval.

Many creation scientists are young-earth creationists. They interpret the Genesis account of creation as describing an young earth -- one which is only 6,000 to 10,000 years of age. A main component of this theory is that the flood of Noah, as described in Genesis 7, laid down layers of sediment that later hardened into the fossil bearing rock layers that we see today. This took only 150 days, circa 2349 BCE according to the Schofield Reference Bible, as described in Genesis 7:24.

Most North American adults are quite certain that one of these theories is right and the other is wrong. They might assume that there are some indicators in the fossil records and/or in the rock layers which will indicate which is correct.

There appear to be two indicators that the flood is not the source of the fossil bearing sedimentary rock. We have never been able to find a valid rebuttal to either indicator. Of course, one may be found in the future.

A conflict based on the number of fossils observed:

Creation scientists teach that the fossil remains of land animals which have been found trapped in the many rock layers were all actually alive at the time of Noah's flood. These few generations of animals all drowned. Some turned into fossils and were trapped in the layers of sedimentary rock which were laid down during the 150 days of the flood.

With our present knowledge, it appears impossible to harmonize this belief with the actual number of fossils in existence.

Robert Schadewald wrote: "Robert E. Sloan, a paleontologist at the University of Minnesota, has studied the Karroo Formation [in Africa]. He asserts that the animals fossilized there range from the size of a small lizard to the size of a cow, with the average animal perhaps the size of a fox. A minute's work with a calculator shows that, if the 800 billion animals in the Karoo formation could be resurrected, there would be twenty-one of them for every acre of land on earth." ₁ That is, if all of the fossils of animals in the Karroo Formation had been alive at one time, were drowned during the flood of Noah, and ended up evenly spaced around the entire land surface of the earth, there would be 21 animals per acre. ₂ A very conservative estimate is that there are about 100 fossils elsewhere on earth for each fossil in the Karroo Formation in Africa. Thus, assuming that all of these animals were evenly distributed, there would have been over 2,100 living animals per acre of land  - "ranging from tiny shrews to immense dinosaurs" when the flood hit. This is clearly impossible.

To make the creation science story even more unlikely, only a small percentage of animals ever form fossils when they die. Assuming that 1 of each 1,000 land animals is fossilized, (an outrageously high number) then there would have been about 50 land animals per square feet of land wandering around at the time of Noah. The Earth would have been packed "wall-to-wall" with creatures. Animals would have been stacked on other animals to form multiple layers. Even if, as many creation scientists believe, the land area on earth Earth was much greater than it is today -- that is, closer to 100% than to 25% -- the number of animals alive at the time of Noah would have had to be enormous -- massively beyond the ability of the Earth to support.

To make the creation science story even more unlikely, animals could not be evenly distributed around the entire land mass. This means that the piles of animals covering some areas would be even deeper.

Scientists have concluded that the world's fossils came from millions of generations of animal life spread out over many hundreds of millions of years. Since all of the fossils were formed over a very long interval, then only a very tiny fraction of the animals would have been alive at any one time. The Earth could and did accommodate them all.

We have not been able to find a creation science rebuttal for this observation. This may be a "killer" observation that makes a major part of the young-earth creationism an untenable theory.

A second conflict based on the lack of mixing of fossils:

If you looked long enough, you would find (for example) the occasional dinosaur mixed in with human remains. You would find a Jurassic Cycad (an extinct tree) mixed with some more modern Maple trees. Trilobites would be found everywhere. As Charles Pellegrino stated:

"As we dug deeper and deeper beneath Thebes, everything would be the same; we would find hand axes, clams and dinosaurs mixed together all the way down."₃

In addition, as you excavated through layers of rock, you would occasionally discover signs of human habitation at the bottom layer -- cities, towns, villages, cornerstones, etc. -- which were covered first by the flood. Scientists would find shaped rocks that were once part of buildings; remains of campfires; fabricated tools; fabricated timbers, graves, corner stones, etc. at the bottom of the fossil record.

Many tens of thousands of geologists and paleontologists have been studying rocks and the fossils that they contain for centuries. They have found that the species of fossils in the rock layers do not resemble the scenario required by the flood of Noah. They match exactly the scenario required by the theory of evolution.

References:

1. Robert Schadewald, "Six 'Flood' Arguments Creationists Can't Answer," Creation/Evolution IV, (1992, Summer), Pages 12 & 13:
2. One acre is approximately equal in area to a square 209 feet by 209 feet. A detached house lot measuring 60' x 100'in a suburb of North America is about a seventh of an acre.
3. Mark Isaak, "Problems with a Global Flood," at: http://members.shaw.ca/

Copyright © 1996 to 2006 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Last update: 2006-MAY-20
Author: B.A. Robinson