The vacation this past weekend included a day trip to Fossil Butte National Monument. Fossil Butte is a 50-million year old lake bed. The Visitors' Center has hundreds of fossils on display. It also has an impressive exhibit showing the timeline of the Earth.
The Earth is 4500 million years old, according to their information. Life began 700 million years ago. The fossil record within this one National Monument shows advanced life on this planet 50 million years old.
We are able to know the age of these fossils with unprecedented accuracy in this location because of a wide array of age-indicators. Carbon dating is of course used. But there are also volcanic markers in the now-exposed layers of the Earth's crust. These markers allow a given layer of fossil evidence to be dated in comparison to known volcanic activity in the area.
There is also a continuous, unbroken fossil record from the beginning of that ancient lake to modern times. Almost each passing season can be documented thanks to the cross section that now appears in the butte.
See, the top of the butte is actually the ancient lake bottom. The land around the lake bottom has since fallen because of seismic activity, exposing millions of years of documentable history. There is no doubt about the age of the life now buried there.
I asked Donna as we left, "I wonder how people who believe the Earth is only 6000 years old reconcile a place like this in their minds."
"I don't know", she said.
I know from my conversations with her that she does not hold that belief herself. Her claim is that man has been on Earth for 6000 years and that God's method for creating the planet may have taken eons. While there are still gaping holes in this belief, clumsily duct-taped together with faith and hope, it at least does not shun the most obvious of observable reality.
My brother-in-law used the opportunity to point out, "see, this place was once tropical. The Earth cools and warms naturally without any help from man. You can't buy into everything the liberals are trying to sell you."
"True", I said, "But there's more evidence of man-caused warming than just historic temperature data. There are ice core samples, for example, that show a rapid and unprecedented increase in global temperature since the man-made industrial revolution. There's more than one variable to take into account.
In fact, every single reputable scientific source, politically motivated and otherwise, agree that human activity has been increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Plus, what's the worst thing that could happen if you bought into all this 'liberal rhetoric'? Less dependency on oil? Alternative fuels? Lower energy consumption? Lower energy bills?"
"No, the worst thing that could happen is that one group of people gets to tell another how to think", He replied.
"Explain to me how that is different from the conservative rhetoric about gay marriage and prayer in school."
He couldn't.
Filed under - Donna | Family | Science | Travel
Home | About | Fresh Fiddley | iBlog | Buy Swag | Archive | Search | Contact | Blogroll | BLOW | Mobile | Login/Register
