Arrowman

I started that thread because I have never been able to get a creationist to directly engage in this discussion - that is to propose, and more importantly defend, a "fossil sorting model".

I can't believe how crappy is the Answers in Genesis explanation offered by Jason. (See my latest post on that thread). I mean, I've seen it before - I just have great difficulty imagining what kind of (adult) mind could accept it.

Well, Jason has satisfied the first part of my question - he has offered an answer (crock though it may be). Let's see if he comes back to defend it. He has already tried to take the discussion off-topic by attacking the credentials of a web site offered as support for the rebuttal. Let's see if we can keep him on topic.

Jason - please explain how cattle are more intellgient and mobile than dinosaurs - and even if they were, how this would mean they would be "buried later" in a flood.

MrDarwin

The "sorting" explanation doesn't work for plants. Try asking why not a single grain of angiosperm pollen made it into any Precambrian or Paleozoic sediments, not even the Carboniferous forests that left enormous quantities of coal. Angiosperms (flowering plants) are the earth's dominant land plants, and those with wind-pollinated flowers (especially grasses and trees) have pollen that is durable (i.e., easily fossilized), travels long distances, and is ubiquitous in all modern sediments--even in places where angiosperms do not grow. (This last bit is important because one way they try to get around the absurdities of the sorting explantion is by coming up with "sorted environments" where past ecosystems consisted of rigidly segregated assemblages of organisms, with little or no overlap between ecosystems.)

mark24

Hi all,

Strange how brachiopods & shelled molluscs are found in recent sediments, as well as both from as early as the basal Cambrian. Why are they not ALL found in the basal Cambrian, or at least most? Drop a mussel into water & it literally sinks like a stone. According to hydrodynamic sorting these organisms should be found right on the bottom of the geologic column/flood deposits. Tiny things like bacteria, however, should be the last organisms to settle out of suspension. Strangely, if you divide up the geologic column from when the first life appeared into sixths, bacteria are found in the ENTIRE SEQUENCE, WITH BIVALVES & BRACHIOPODS MAKING A LATE APPEARANCE IN THE TOP SIXTH! That is, bacteria appear 3 billion years ago, & bivalves & brachipods appear 500 mya (roughly). Why?

Mark

scigirl

Hey Mark just wanted to welcome you to infidels, I don't have an answer to your question though.

scigirl

mark24

Thanks!

Take care,

Mark

Jack the Bodiless

...Because brachiopods and shelled molluscs could be found at all altitudes in pre-Flood times?

Watch out for the dreaded Mountain Clam next time you're out hiking. Maybe they're not ALL extinct.

mark24

Brachiopods & bivalve molluscs (which the rest of my post refers to) are marine. That means below sea level.....

Regardless, it was supposed to be a global flood, even if there were terrestrial examples they would still have been swept up & hydrodynamically sorted. Ergo, their vertical position is irrelevant.

Mark

mark24

Actually, not entirely true, but the point stands.

Mark

Jack the Bodiless

I keep forgetting that sarcasm doesn't carry well on the Net.

But creationists will claim that brachiopods once brachiated from tree to tree (hey, they're brachiopods, right?) if it suits their purpose.

mark24

Hehe, it did occur that you weren't being entirely serious, but I've heard some strange creationist explanations, so please forgive me

Mark