CC: Young earthers- do you believe in plate tectonics?

[TravelingChris]

I am not trying to start any arguments. We are old earth creationists and while watching a Teaching Company show, my girls had questions I couldn't answer. I am not really familiar with the young earth ideas except I know that there is a big emphasis on the catastrophic Flood. SO one of their questions was about plate tectonics and I had no idea about what the ye view on this was? Can anyone enlighten?

 

On another point, I think the ye view is that the rate of radioactive decay has not been steady and that is okay because God is all powerful. Is this a correct interpretation of your views?

 

Thanks for any help.

[momofkhm]

I am not trying to start any arguments. We are old earth creationists and while watching a Teaching Company show, my girls had questions I couldn't answer. I am not really familiar with the young earth ideas except I know that there is a big emphasis on the catastrophic Flood. SO one of their questions was about plate tectonics and I had no idea about what the ye view on this was? Can anyone enlighten?

 

On another point, I think the ye view is that the rate of radioactive decay has not been steady and that is okay because God is all powerful. Is this a correct interpretation of your views?

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Maybe I'm an odd one, but I hold to a young earth view because I believe that God made the earth in 7 actual, 24hour days. He created trees fully grown for instance. My husband is an old earth creationist. God created trees as seeds that had to grow. I haven't really thought about plate tectonics or radioactive decay.

 

I do have an old Answers magazine where they talk about plate tectonics (I think, it's been a few years!) as an established thing. Answers mag is part or Answers in Genesis and they are most definitely young earth. I searched their on-line site. Here are 2 of the hits when searching on plate tectonics:

 

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v2/n2/a-catastrophic-breakup

 

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/catastrophic-plate-tectonics

 

They may be the same information, I don't have time to read them right now, but they do have some of the same illustrations.

 

Forgot about the radio active decay. Another search at the Answers site:

 

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v1/n1/radioactive-dating

 

http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v15/i2/acceleration.asp

 

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v4/n4/assumptions

 

Let me just say again, I haven't read these articles. I don't subscribe to everything they say but I do look to them as a source. I'm offering these as a young earth creationist viewpoint.

 

HTH

 

Cheryl

Edited March 4, 2010 by momofkhm
radioactive decay articles

[Lovedtodeath]

I am old earth creation, but believe in a literal recent date for the flood. I read an idea that when earth's atmosphere changed at different times (and the flood was a big one, because there was a lot of water in the atmosphere that shielded the earth from certain radioactive elements of the sun) the rate of radioactive decay also changed. Another thing that changed after the flood was the lifespan of man. It was much longer before the flood, which leads some to belief that the sun's radioactivity has something to do with it. I am going off of my memory, so I may not have stated everything accurately, but you get the gist.

[Guest mrsjamiesouth]

During Noah's time when God brought on the flood, it says that he opened up the waters of the deep. It is believed this caused the breaking up of the continents and also created the plates that now exist.

[angela in ohio]

SO one of their questions was about plate tectonics and I had no idea about what the ye view on this was? Can anyone enlighten?

 

There is no problem with plate tectonics. I can't think of anything I've ever heard from anyone claiming to be YE that disagreed with the theory of plate tectonics. We just disagree with the speed at which past plate movement happened. The second link from Cheryl is a good explanation.

[mrsrevmeg]

I believe that like someone else said during Noah's flood the earth opened up to allow waters from the deep to rise. Then there was another time in the Bible that mentions the earth splitting.

Genesis 10:25: Two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.

 

Also, during the creation account, it mentions that all the waters were gathered together to let the dry land appear. Since the dry land is not all together, something must have happened. Which is explained by plate tectonics.

 

Even before having ye views, I always wondered how scientists could be sure about radioactive decay. That is one of those topics we can never really prove, ykwim?

[Harriet Vane]

There is no problem with plate tectonics. I can't think of anything I've ever heard from anyone claiming to be YE that disagreed with the theory of plate tectonics. We just disagree with the speed at which past plate movement happened. The second link from Cheryl is a good explanation.

 

:iagree: Plate tectonics seems scientifically sound as a documentable, observable phenomena. There may be some debate about how or why but there's not a question that the plates exist and move.

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

During Noah's time when God brought on the flood, it says that he opened up the waters of the deep. It is believed this caused the breaking up of the continents and also created the plates that now exist.

 

This is just one of the reasons I changed my pov from young earth to old earth. I just can not believe the absolutely horrendous cataclysmic forces that would have been in play during the break up of the continents would have happened that quickly or that recently. If they had, I do not think human life would have been supportable.

 

I'm not saying that Noah's flood was not relatively recent. Just that I don't think it is possible for it to have occurred simultaneously with all the changes that have obviously happened to the continents.

 

Not only that, there is pretty good scientific evidence that the sea floor spread in the mid-atlantic happened over about 200 million years and is still happening in the same manner. The ocean floor also has patterns of magnetism that show the many alterations of the in the Earth's magnetic field over a long time. These are not manufactured things.

[Pamela H in Texas]

There are OE creationists who believe that God put whole trees, completely new species, etc. The fossil record backs up the order (and "springing up") of the creation acct.

 

To me, the old joke, "what came first, the chicken or the egg" is simple. The chicken. God created the chicken. The egg was in the hen. Similar with trees.

 

And I believe in the flood a few thousand years back.

 

I don't believe in discounting scripture or science. They are complementary. Science seems to catch up with where scripture discusses history/science. It has in some ways. I figure it will in regards to this whole evolution/creation debate one day also :)

Edited March 4, 2010 by 2J5M9K

[hillfarm]

This is just one of the reasons I changed my pov from young earth to old earth. I just can not believe the absolutely horrendous cataclysmic forces that would have been in play during the break up of the continents would have happened that quickly or that recently. If they had, I do not think human life would have been supportable.

 

 

 

I'm on the YE side. The reason I am able to believe in that pov is based on the incredible power of nature. For example, scientists are now saying that the Chilean earthquake was actually strong enough to knock the earth off it's previous axis just a bit. Can you imagine the incredible disruption if there were several earthquakes strong enough to break up the continents happening at the same time or within a relatively short time period?

 

My dd is studying prehistoric mound builder Indians for her 4-H project. As she reads more about them, she has discovered that scientists agree that the climate here in Ohio was much different for the early prehistoric Indians than it is now. And that is in just 3-4,000 years.

 

I previously mentioned in another YE related post about how the buildup from our mineral rich water usually deposits well over half an inch thick concretions in our warm mist steamer in only a couple of months.

 

IMO, the YE perspective is a bit uncomfortable. If I am merely a speck in a multi-million year chain, my life has minimal meaning. However, if that chain is truly only a few thousand years old, then I've got a lot more responsibility and influence than I previously suspected!

 

BTW, I am a double anomaly. I am a YE believer and a scientist. I worked as a marine biologist b/c (before children).

[Pip]

I have absolutely no problem with plate tectonics.