Is There Any Justification For Teaching Evolution In School?

Part 5

not formed by slow uniformitarian rates of sediment deposits.

To become fossilized a plant or animal must usually have

hard parts, such as bone, shell or wood. It must be

buried quickly to prevent decay and must be undisturbed

throughout the long process (Rohodes, Zim, and Shaffer

10).

Thus, the actual formation of fossils requires rapid and compact

burial, and this speaks of catastrophism.

Since the uniformitarian approach to the issue is not

sufficient to accommodate the data, catastrophism is an

alternative that should be considered. Dr. Morris suggest that a

catastrophe in the form of a world-wide flood best explains the

formation of the geologic strata.

Visualize, then, a great hydraulic cataclysm bursting

upon the ... world, with currents of water pouring

perpetually from the skies and erupting continuously

from the earth's crust, all over the world, for weeks on

end, until the entire globe was submerged, accompanied

by outpourings of magma from the mantle, gigantic earth

movements, landslides, tsunamis, and explosions

(Creationism 117).

He continues in saying that "upwelling sediments and subterranean

waters and magmas would entomb hordes of invertebrates" (118).

Evolutionist will not, however convincing the evidence, accept

catastrophism because if the geologic strata was formed quickly

then the concept of the geologic ages has been misinterpreted,

and in turn, there would be no evidence for the supposedly

immense age of the earth required by evolution.

This question of age, in itself, is a very hard obstacle for

creation advocate to overcome, for it seems as if it is simply

of years old. From kindergarten though collage students are shown

pictures of cave men and artist's conceptions of the pre-historic

Earth. In the classrooms, the only evidence ever addressed in

reference to the age of the Earth reinforces this image, yet there

is, in fact, a greater amount of evidence which supports a

relatively young Earth (Creationism 150).

Of course, this

evidence is never brought to light since any calculations yielding

a young age runs contrary to the evolution model. Not only is the

evidence which supports a young Earth omitted from school

curriculum, but first and foremost, the methods of calculation

taught to justify an immense age are completely unreliable.

Again, this fact is never brought up in their discussion.

Radiometric dating is the method most often used in

calculating the geologic age of an item. An apparent age can be

determined by measuring different materials within an object.

This determination is arrived by knowing what rate a particular

radioactive material decays and measuring the amount of the

daughter component in the object. As a radioactive material

decays, the product of the decaying process turns into another

substance. This second substance is called the daughter

component. For example, as uranium decays, it turns into its

daughter component, lead. Therefore, when the uranium method of

dating is used, the amount of lead in the object would be