According to the most straight forward reading of
the Bible, a person
would assume that virtually all of the animals in the fossil record were
victims of the great catastrophic flood of Noah. Many critics of this
view seem to envision that the animals killed during the the flood should
be buried all mixed together, but this is not what is found. An analysis of
the strata has revealed that the fossils are
sorted. Organisms are typically found within a limited span of layers, and
frequently above or below other specific fossils. This sequence of
distinct layers, known as
the geological column, has been interpreted to represent the
history of life on earth of millions of years, and the time when the
organism evolved and then went extinct.
If the Bible is correct, then the geological column
has been misinterpreted. The rocks that cover the earth may indeed have
captured a recording of history, but instead of a history of life on
earth, they simply illustrate the rate at which organisms died during the
Biblical deluge. The flood
was an extended
event lasting an entire year, and the waters did not reach
their peak elevation until 5 months following the beginning of
the event. This allowed organisms time to avoid the event depending on
their own abilities and tolerances.
There are many geological, behavioral, and physiological factors expected to affect an
organism's time of death during a flood
as described in the Bible. For example, habit elevation, mobility, environmental
tolerance, and intelligence were probably the most significant
influences upon relative times of death, and therefore, when or
if the organism was found in the geological
column. The fossils in the geological column demonstrate this expected
trend. The first organisms to be buried were the bottom dwelling
creatures, followed by free-swimming marine life forms, cold blooded, then
warm-blooded, and then humans. It is obvious that organisms possess
varying abilities to survive environmental stress (i.e. cold blooded animals
such as reptiles are extremely sensitive to temperature fluctuations, and
amphibian will die upon contact with salt water).
Although sorting is expected to occur during the
Biblical global deluge, exceptions to their normal position in the flood
strata are also a given. According to the global-flood model, out of place
fossils should be somewhat common, forcing regular revisions of the
proposed evolutionary history. Indeed a close investigation reveals a tremendous number of
anomalously occurring fossils, and living
fossils, which defy conventional explanation. Based on the
global flood interpretation of the geological column, "earlier
than previously thought" will be heard repeatedly from
the scientific community because their explanation is totally
incorrect, and instead all organisms buried in the sedimentary
rock were all alive on earth just a few months before.
