How quickly do rock layers form?
The time scales that are put on the geological column diagram below are driven by two things:
1) Evolution. Evolution demands that there has got to be millions and millions of years for things to evolve.
For example, to believe that single-celled creatures in the Precambian layer, have evolved into fish in the Devonian layer would have taken millions of years, therefore that is how long it has taken for those layers to have been formed.
2) Radiometric dating. The scientific measurements that are used in radiometric dating can be totally accurate, but the end result will be unreliable, because of the assumptions it is based on. That is how a 50 year old lava flow can be given an age by radiometric dating of 0.27 to 3.5 million years old! (See the article ‘Fossil Dating Accuracy’ which is earlier in this series).
Radiometric dating is also driven by the theory of Evolution. So we end up with the Cambrian period being dated to 543 million years.
Transitional fossils
Evolutionists say that there are many examples of transitional fossils – that is a succession of fossils that prove how one creature has evolved from one shape into another. The examples that are given are how birds, whales, horses, etc have evolved. The reality is, that all we have is just a few disputable examples.
Take the evolution of the horse. It has been given as popular evidence for a fairly complete series of transitional fossils. Scientific American claims:
"A sequence of fossils spans the evolution of modern horses from the tiny Eohippus." [SA 83]
The so-called Eohippus is properly called Hyracotherium, and has only a few things that could associate it with a horse at all. The others in the ‘transition’ show barely any more variations than horses today. One fossil that isn′t a horse, along with different varieties of horse does not make a sequence proving how the horse has evolved. [5]
Whales and birds are other examples that are quoted for showing transitional evidence, but they don′t.
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin was concerned that the fossil record didn′t prove his theory:
"Why is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely-graduated organic chain; and this is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory." [6]
In 1977 S. J. Gould wrote in Evolutions Erratic Pace:
"The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology." [7]
Article continued to:
References:
(See Refuting Evolution 2′ by Jonathan Sarfati, with Mike Matthews Chapter 8 The fossil record: prediction of evolution? on http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/re2/chapter8.asp)
[5] J. Sarfati, The non-evolution of the horse, Creation 21(3):28,31, JuneAugust 1999
[6] C. Darwin, Origin of Species, 6th ed. 1872 (London: John Murray, 1902), p. 413
[7] S.J. Gould, Evolution′s Erratic Pace, Natural History 86(5):14, 1977