Power

Flood Geology Loses Its Power and is in the Dark 

Kevin R. Henke, Ph.D.

May 4, 2014

Large Amounts of Highly Pure Quartz Sand Refute Young-Earth Creationism

As discussed in my essays at this website and their references, the claims of young-Earth creationism and its Flood geology are plagued with numerous fatal problems. One of the many serious problems is the origin of huge amounts of well sorted and highly pure quartz sands in some sedimentary rocks (e.g., St. Peter Sandstone) and modern sediments. As Young (1982) pointed out long ago, how were rocks so effectively weathered on a “young” Earth so that they could produce enormous amounts of well-rounded quartz sand grains with less than 1% other minerals? Abrasion, other physical processes and chemical reactions over millions of years will eventually break down feldspars and other non-quartz silicate minerals and leave behind large volumes of well-rounded quartz minerals with surprisingly uniform sizes. But, how could chemical and physical processes ever produce these extremely pure quartz sands during an approximately year-long Noah's Flood or even in 6,000 years? As usual, Oard (2009a, p. 120) fails to provide sufficient details on the chemical and physical processes that could produce highly pure sediments on a creationist young Earth. Instead, he does a lot of arm-waving and simply claims that there are “many ways” that large amounts of sediment could be produced during Noah's Flood. But, how would this happen, Mr. Oard? Because quartz and feldspars have similar densities and neither will readily dissolve in water, how could Noah's Flood separate or chemically weather feldspars from quartz grains to produce a highly pure quartz sandstone in about one year? Ultimately, young-Earth creationists (YECs) are forced to either invoke groundless miracles to explain the sands or admit that their biblical interpretations are wrong.

Mr. Oard’s Hand Waving Fails: No Scientific Way to Overcome the Laws of Chemistry and Physics for Flood Geology to Work

Rather than discussing water chemistry and density, Oard (2009a, p. 120) invokes the presence of a “virtually unlimited” supply of energy during a year-long Flood as a cure-all for explaining the enormous amounts of sediment and sedimentary rocks. In particular, Oard (2009a, p. 120) takes a simplistic approach where he describes the geologic record as a product of time and energy. Oard (2009a, p. 120) then attempts to equate Flood geology with actualism by suggesting that both “frameworks” rely on an abundant supply of one of these products to explain the sedimentary record. While actualism depends on an abundance of time to explain the origin and abundance of sediment in the geologic record, Flood geology supposedly is a reasonable alternative that relies on a “virtually unlimited” supply of energy to explain the same sedimentary record in much less time. In other words, Oard (2009a, p. 120) believes that the sedimentary record and its complexities could simply have originated by speeding up natural processes with a lot of energy. But, how would this work? Geologists have a pretty good idea about how the laws of chemistry and physics could weather igneous rocks and sort and round residual quartz grains with wind and water to produce large volumes of highly pure quartz sand over millions of years. But how could the same sorting and weathering processes be squeezed into one Flood year? How would that work even with a “virtually unlimited” amount of energy? How could granite mountains be reduced to pure and uniform quartz grains in only one Flood year without producing friction that would melt them? Mr. Oard has no answers. He simply invokes vague and hopeless arm-waving speculation. If Oard (2009a, p. 120) really believes that extensive weathering, grain rounding and sorting can be accomplished in a brief amount of time by just increasing the amount of the energy, I invite him to make a scaled-down demonstration to support his claim. Perhaps, he could grind and purify a house-sided granite boulder to 99% pure quartz sand in one hour without melting the rock, and then explain how the Flood naturally did it to mountains in one year without miracles. If Mr. Oard does not like this challenge, perhaps he can explain how the Flood waters achieved the proper pH and chemistry to precipitate enormous amounts of carbonate muds in about one year. Where did the calcium come from to form the muds? I think that we would find that any of Mr. Oard's “rock solid answers” would violate the laws of chemistry and physics, and are totally without scientific merit.

References

Oard, M.J. 2009a. “Landslides Win in a Landslide over Ancient 'Ice Ages'“, chapter 7 in M.J. Oard and J.K. Reed (editors). 2009. Rock Solid Answers: The Biblical Truth Behind 14 Geological Questions, Master Books: Green Forest, AR, pp. 111-123.

Young, D.A. 1982. Christianity & The Age of the Earth, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, 188pp.