INVESTIGATING GENESIS SERIES
©2002  by Gerard Wakefield    http://www.creationism.org/wakefield/
(This article may be copied for educational purposes only.)

"The Fatal Flaw In Evolution's Dating System"

One of the chief pillars of the theory of evolution is the dating of the fossils. Animal remains found in geological layers of a certain age are deemed to be the evolutionary descendants of animals whose fossils are unearthed in layers considered even older. How do evolutionists date these geological layers? By the fossils found in them! In other words, Fossil Y is considered an evolutionary descendant of Fossil X because Y is found in a geological layer deemed younger than the layer containing X, and this geological layer is deemed younger because it contains the evolutionary ancestor of Fossil Y.

Biblically-based scientists have always leveled the charge against evolutionists that this method of dating is blatantly self-serving and useless — it uses the fossils to date the rock layers, and the rock layers to date the fossils. Astonishingly, evolutionists have admitted that this is exactly what they are guilty of. A stark example of this can be found in a statement by one of America’s leading paleontologists, Dr. Edwin H. Colbert, the author of numerous books on evolution, dinosaurs, and other ancient life. He is also Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Museum of Northern Arizona and Curator Emeritus of the prestigious American Museum of Natural History.

In his book The Age of Reptiles (New York: W. W. North & Co., 1965), he makes a surprisingly frank admission that the evolutionary method of dating goes in circles. The quote is rather lengthy, but it is so revealing that it must be cited in its entirety. This staunch proponent of evolution writes:

The sedimentary rocks which enclose fossils in such variety are found all over the world as sheets of limestone, shale and sandstone of diverse extent and thickness. Originally these were, of course, deposited as horizontal or nearly horizontal beds, by the waters of oceans and lakes, by river and stream currents, by wind, and even by glaciers. During the long history of the earth such sheets of sediments, eventually hardened into layers of rock, are commonly tilted, broken and distorted by immense earth forces — the forces that are usually manifested to us as earthquakes. Moreover, sedimentary rocks are frequently cut by volcanoes and long dikes of volcanic rock that push through them from below. Many sedimentary rocks are removed from the area which they formerly occupied by erosion. Consequently the interpretation of the sediments in which the fossils are contained is a complex and exacting discipline. But such interpretation is of importance if the sequence of the fossils and the consequent evolutionary conclusions as based on this sequence are to be correctly understood. This is the study of stratigraphy, and it involves the correlation of sediments in different parts of a continent and in different parts of the world. Correlation depends primarily upon the restriction of particular fossils to particular sediments. The occurrence of similar or closely related fossils in sediments at two separated localities generally implies a similar or nearly similar age for the beds. By comparing back and forth, by making allowances for distortions of beds or the absence of beds and so on, the stratigrapher builds up a comprehensive picture of the succession of sediments the world over, and the succession of life contained within these sediments.

WHAT HAS BEEN SAID IS, IN A WAY, CIRCULAR REASONING. The ages of sediments are determined by the fossils they contain. The evolutionary sequence of life as revealed by the fossils is determined by the succession of these fossils in the sediments. (pp. 29-30) [emphasis added]
 
 

 Evolutionists do not seem to be bothered by this gargantuan flaw in their theory, even though they openly admit that the flaw exists. Evolutionism rests heavily on interpreting the fossil record as showing a chronological procession of primitive to more advanced life-forms, but this interpretation is bogus because it is based on circular reasoning designed to fit a pre-determined theory rather than the objective facts. The theory of evolution, thus, rests not on a foundation of stone but of shifting sand.


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