A lot of water over a little time or little water over a long time?
That
was the geological hot-button in the late 18th century through the
beginning of the 19th. Before the advent of uniformitarian thought in
the West, most geologic structures in the Western Christianity were
interpreted through a Young Earth & a recent Global Flood lens.
Though the specifics were not known, this was the general way of
thinking because the people, including the scientists (like Newton),
took the Bible as the ultimate authority source, especially during and
after the Reformation. Now they knew that the Bible did not go into
detail on such issues, but the historical reality of the Flood would
leave reminders.
However,
as the Scripture was being attacked by humanistic thinking on theologic
and philosophic grounds, it was also being attacked on historical
grounds. When the history of the Bible in Genesis was denied, a wide
range of emerging scientific philosophies took root. The predominant
view popularized by Charles Lyell in the 19th century was
uniformitarianism. Uniformitarianism is the scientific model that the
present is the key to the past--i.e. most geologic structures are formed
slowly over eons of time. However, Lyell was no mere unbiased objector
of the truth. On the contrary, not only was he a rabid anti-Christian,
he pushed his philosophy of uniformitarianism with great veracity, and
many people bought into it. Alleged great eons of time was now
theoretically available to then push the molecules to man evolution, and
this is exactly what spearheaded Darwinian thought several decades
later. Macroevolution (molecules to man) was already being propagated,
but Darwin could popularize the teaching because of Lyell's time scale.
We
deny that the earth is billions of years old and uphold the Global
Flood because of our commitment to Scripture. Nonetheless, how has this
theory of uniformitarianism stacked up in the scientific community?
Not to our surprise, many evolutionary scientists themselves deny that
the earth has come to be slowly one sand grain at a time by one drop of
water at at time. Though most of them believe the earth is old, due to
other philosophic assumptions they make, they do acknowledge that the
geologic layers are filled with catastrophe. Mass fossil graveyards are
interpreted as occurring through catastrophic events.
We
should not be surprised when we see evidence for a global catastrophe
because that is exactly what is recorded in Scripture, primarily through
the Genesis Flood. We interpret such catastrophic layering, fossil
formation, mountain building, and canyon erosion through the lens of
Scripture. Much of the upper level topography that we observe today is
best interpreted as being caused by the Flood or by post-Flood events
like the Ice-Age and subsequent smaller local scale catastrophes.
As
for geologic structures like the Grand Canyon, we can best understand
them through Biblical glasses. Only the Scriptures give us a reliable
lens to interpret the world, and, though our scientific models are
modified at times, the general creation model itself is sustained by
Scripture. Though it is difficult do delineate exactly what may have
been formed during creation week and what has been formed after that
through the Flood, we can get a general idea. Much of the upper layers
of the canyon are formed through rapid sedimentation laid down by water.
We can see this through 'bent layering', which is to say that we see
many layers flowing together and then bent in one or many directions
while still soft. This must of have occurred rapidly while soft;
otherwise, the layers would have been crushed upon themselves.
As
for the canyon itself, it is likely that it formed after the layers had
been laid down during the Flood. Sometime before and at the end of the
Flood or most probably after the Flood, giant inland lakes once existed
in that area (as understood through topographical scars of such lakes).
There was a breached dam of some sort, it appears, and this could have
occurred at the end of the Ice Age. As the glaciers began to melt,
large quantities of water would fill these lakes by means of rivers and
such. Eventually the lakes would have overflowed, and a water pouring
out by means of a massive catastrophic breached dam would have carved
out the Grand Canyon.
The Bible had it right all along! Amen!
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