Lying vehicles

It has become a sarcastic proverb that a thing must be true if you saw it in a newspaper. That is the opinion intelligent people have of that lying vehicle in a nutshell. But the trouble is that the stupid people – who constitute the grand overwhelming majority of this and all other nations – do believe and are moulded and convinced by what they get out of a newspaper, and there is where the harm lies. (Mark Twain, 1873)

The laurels on which I was complacently resting after my fervent New Year’s wish for Earth Science Literacy have instantly withered, and my understanding of the heroic – if not futile and stupid – nature of my wish cruelly underlined. I reproduce for you below, essentially in its entirety, a piece published on Tuesday by one John Trumbo of the Tri-City Herald in the State of Washington. This was taken up by a number of newspapers, both online (the sadly misnamed “Seattle Post Intelligencer”) and hardcopy. And it appeared as news. Read this and weep – scarcely a sentence goes by that does not include utter, mind-boggling-numbing, lying, rubbish. I despair.

Richland man sees sandstone proof of global flood
WEST RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — A swirling, twisting sandstone formation in northern Arizona is evidence of Noah’s flood, says a West Richland man who recently visited the unusual geologic phenomenon.
Greg Morgan, a nuclear safety engineer at Hanford, said he was amazed to see sandstone resembling waves, whirlpools and reversing currents that appear to have been frozen in place.
Morgan’s photographs of The Wave and his article, “Flood Currents Frozen in Stone,” are in the latest issue of Answers magazine, a quarterly publication of Answers in Genesis, a Christian creation research organization based in Petersburg, Ky. The nonprofit organization’s 70,000-square-foot facility also houses the Creation Museum.
Mike Matthews, editor of Answers, said the way the layers of sandstone came to rest at Paria Canyon “fits with the viewpoint that these are flood layers.”
But the strongest evidence of a global flood is in the sandstone itself, he said.
“It’s that the layers themselves have been traced out worldwide, even to Europe and the Mideast,” Mathews said.
The Wave at Paria provides a little more – what Matthews called important “signature details.”
Morgan, who is a mechanical engineer and worked in the aviation industry before coming to Hanford, said he was shocked when he first saw a picture of The Wave because it contradicted his original thinking about an ancient Earth and evolution.
Morgan, who became a Christian as an adult and takes the Bible literally, said the convoluted formations at Paria Canyon forced him to consider there must be another explanation.
“There are no broken rocks. All of this happened when it was still mud,” Morgan said.
Morgan first visited The Wave at Paria Canyon in 2008 and again in September, each time taking many photographs he later could study.
The whirlpools suggest the stone was flowing, as if it was a slurry of sand that suddenly froze in place, he said.
“This is excellent evidence for Noah’s flood. It is far better than what anyone believes for an ancient Earth,” Morgan said.
The formation itself is classified as Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, and according to conventional “old Earth” geology, was formed 200 million years ago when seasonal winds laid down the layers to create the dramatic land forms.
Morgan explains it differently in his article for Answers magazine.
“Creation geologists believe huge sand waves were piled up and laid down deep under the ocean water. The fast currents then created tell-tale features, known as cross beds or ‘striations,’ with the steep cut-offs we see today,” Morgan wrote in support of a global flood event.
The article also mentions that the sand at The Wave has been identified as having come from the Appalachians, about 1,800 miles to the east.
Moses’ account in Genesis of Noah’s flood describes a worldwide inundation that covered even the tallest mountains.
Morgan, who initially thought The Wave was just an example of water and wind erosion cutting through many layers of sandstone, says the evidence at Paria Canyon shows “what Moses wrote was true.”
“I may be the first among creation geologists to openly promote this as evidence of Noah’s flood,” he said.
If such a cataclysmic flood event deposited the twisted layers of sand and whirlpools that later were to turn to stone, then how did the flood currents frozen in stone become exposed in a waterless desert?
Morgan believes a second flood catastrophe – perhaps similar to the Ice Age floods that scoured Eastern Washington thousands of years ago – unleashed icy waters that ravaged the Southwest, as well.
That would account for the rapid erosion in Paria Canyon and in the Grand Canyon, which is about 70 miles south of The Wave, he said.
"About half the people I’ve talked to say, ‘Yeah, that’s proof the Earth is young,’ " Morgan said.
Andrew Snelling, who has a doctorate in geology and is a content editor for Answers magazine, said two items of evidence at Paria Canyon point to a massive flood event.
One concerns analysis of grinds in the sandstone at Paria, which match mineral sources in the Appalachians. It would take a lot of wave action to move sand that far, he said.
And the sheer size of the Paria sandstone cross beds, at more than 100 feet thick, would need a massive wave – a tsunami-sized wall of water – in order to be laid down as they are. Snelling said such a wave would have to be twice as high as the bed of sand it deposits, which is on the scale of a global flood.
“The volume of sand we see out there is enormous. We don’t see anything like that happening today,” Snelling noted.

Mr. Trumbo, you are welcome to get in touch with me – or any other professional geologist - should the bizarre notion of adding a counter-argument disturb your intellectual complacency. SIGNATURE

Comments

Justin O’Shay (2012-01-05):

Michael,
First of all thank you for your posts, I always get great enjoyment out of reading and following your blog. Secondly, I think that this is a very interesting argument as a Christian and as a Geophysicist (I will defend my Master’s thesis at the end of this month). What I would be interested in hearing about from you is where do your “initial assumptions” stem from and how important do you feel it is to constantly examine them?
I as a Christian believe that the Bible is a source of truth. This stems from my belief in the incredible beauty that I see in the earth and on the unbelievability, in my opinion, of it being caused by randomness. However, I do not make some of the same assumptions about the bible that Dr. Snelling does (see Section 4 at http://www.answersingenesis.org/about/faith) and I also find trouble with his use of assumptions to build support for fact (see his assumption about the age of the earth, etc.). I feel like he is using his perceptions and interpretations in order to skew his view of reality and force incorrect conclusions. Yet, as a scientist this is a constant struggle for me also, and I can relate to what I see as his error for I know that I do the very same thing.
Thanks again for the blog.
Very Respectfully,
Justin O’Shay

Sandglass (2012-01-06):

Justin,
First of all, thanks for taking the time to write this thoughtful comment - and thanks for your kind words about this blog.
Second, let me make it clear that I respect your perspective and beliefs - and your right to hold them. Similarly, I would never dispute Mr. Morgan’s right to believe what he does. But what I do dispute (and which led to what is, I admit, an atypically emotional post) is the portrayal of Mr. Morgan’s views as news, as science, and as credible; the whole piece is so riddled with fiction that it detracts from the possibility of any kind of intellectually responsible discussion.
Personally, I see the diminishing respect for objectivity and truth, whether it be in the media or in politics, and regardless of country, as not only disturbing, but a threat to a rational and informed society. And the kind of lazy and subjective reporting that this piece represents is irresponsible and utterly disdainful of its readers. Mr. Morgan is entitled to his views, but he is not entitled to completely ignore other evidence and reasoning while being given a public platform from which to broadcast those views as fact. Your point about assumptions, perceptions, interpretations, and the skewing of reality, is right on.
And it’s interesting, Justin, that you and I share the same view of the stunning beauty of our planet and yet the paths that that view takes us down diverge. For me, that beauty is, in itself, more than sufficient, and, if anything, its origins in “randomness” only make it more wondrous. But, at the end of the day, we are both scientists, and yes, the constant struggle to question, to clarify. to test - and, if necessary, to reject - is a vital and intrinsic part of being a scientist. This process has got us to where we are today with “conventional Old Earth geology,” and it works.
It doesn’t just work, but it works extremely well - not only in explaining what we see but in pointing us in the direction of all the fascinating things we still need to address. The origin of the Navajo Sandstone is not, however, one of these - as I am sure you would agree.
Thanks again.

Malcolm (2012-01-06):

There is a pretty big disconnect with geological reality involved whenever Young Earth Creationists cherry-pick any rock formation and attempt to link it to a biblical account. Thus they challenge the basic reality of lithification, which takes longer than 6 thousand years.

Originally published at: https://throughthesandglass.typepad.com/through_the_sandglass/2012/01/lying-vehicles.html