I did promise to respond to the predictions alluded to be otseng, and so although I have not fulfilled my promise to read through the whole other flood thread yet, I will give some response here.
otseng wrote:In standard geology, stratas are formed over long time periods (thousand, millions of years). Each successive strata are formed on top of older stratas. So, the entire strata sequence at any point in the world could span on the order of millions/billions of years.
Speaking without detailed geological knowledge, I will simply say that I agree stratas are generally formed over long periods, at least if there are multiple layers and especially if they show different characteristics. I agree newer strata are formed over old.
I would think, however, that at a given location, sedimentary strata could be either very thick or somewhat thin, and could represent varying periods of time. I could see that at a given location, sedimentary strata could be formed during era A, then no strata are formed for a time (perhaps a long time), then either more strata are formed on top of these or uplifting occurs at this location for a period, then erosion might occur, etc.
Also, I would think that in some cases, a thick (or maybe even a thin) layer could be layed down quickly, although it might take some additional time to harden. A volcanic mudflow (lahar sp?) for example could lay down a thick sedimentary layer in a short time on top of either other sedimentary layers, or other volcanic layers, and then one might get a lava flow on top of that. So could an ordinary water flood. So, I could see that you might find places where a single sedimentary layer occurs in isolation, without any adjoining sedimentary layers, and this layer would represent only a relative instant in geological time.
With this extra nuance, I would agree that the strata at a given location would
usually, according to SG, span millions to perhaps billions of years.
In the Flood Model, practically all the stratas were formed within a short period (on the order of months). For almost all cases, only after all the stratas were formed, did things occur to the entire sequence like folding, faulting, erosion, etc. (More details on this in the link I provided above)
In standard geology, geological events should've occured throughout Earth's history, so these events should be evident in the stratas.
So, a prediction by the FM is that for the vast majority of cases, we should see folding/faulting/erosion that affects the entire rock stratas. In SG, we should see roughly a uniform distribution of folding/faulting/erosion in the stratas.
Assuming there were no additional sedimentation (or other types of layers) layed down after a flood and subsquent deformation, it seems to me the flood model prediction is reasonable. I guess I need clarification on what this model assumes is below the strata layed down by the global flood, and whether this model includes subsequent layers being layed down years after the flood.
In SG, my understanding is that what we see would vary greatly from location to location depending on where and when folding/faulting/erosion occurs. I am not sure I would expect a "uniform" distribution in the stratas.
One question I would have is how often does seismic or the effects of slow tectonic activity affect areas where strata are being layed down
at the same time these strata are forming. To the extent that strata tend to form in flat areas, and especially marine environments like continental shelves, I would expect that these areas tend to be very quiet, seismically speaking, during periods where strata are forming.
Conversely, I would expect that in most areas where folding/faulting/erosion are occurring, sedimentary strata are not being layed down at the same time.
Now, over the long history of the earth, while I wouldn't expect "uniformity", I would expect to see instances of sedimentary layers subsequently undergoing folding, and faulting and this, I would think, would effect all they layers existing at the time the folding or faulting process was occurring. Erosion, on the other hand, as it works from the top down, would not effect all the layers, at least not simultaneously.
One questions this brings is up is whether the geologic history of the earth has any cycles of sedimentary strata formation, followed by folding and faulting, followed by more sedimentation at these various points. I believe some of the examples pointed to earlier in the thread do actually show this. I wouldn't expect to happen too often, as once an area experiences folding and faulting it seems to me it would be less likely to be in a flat configuration that would foster formation of sedimentary strata.
One prediction you did not make which I think follow from a flood, especially a recent one, is that we should find fossils of the life that existed at the time of the flood all mixed together. My understanding is that weight is the principle factor effecting sinking. THus, we should find heavier life forms in the lowest layers and the lightest life forms at the top, or at least a significant trend in this direction. We should find human fossils appearing in layers with other similarly sized fossils, even of dinosaurs, but especially neanderthals, australopithecines, homo erectus, homo habilis, etc.
We should find elephants with other similar sized four-footed dinosaurs at similar depths, even in the same locations if it is reasonable to think they lived in the same kind of habitat.
Many dinosaurs were very small. Assuming such dinosaurs lived in a tropical habitat, we would expect to see fossils of these with other similar sized tropical life forms like modern day monkeys, tapirs, ocelots, etc.
Insects should tend to be found in much more abundance in the highest layers.
We should find trilobites with other similarly sized marine life, like perhaps crabs, small fish, starfish, lobsters, etc.
That this one prediction is not even close to being true is a huge, huge hit against the FM, all by itself, without any of the other voluminous problems with the FM being mentioned.
" . . . the line separating good and evil passes, not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart . . . ." Alexander Solzhenitsyn
