1) More detail about the vapor canopy:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/canopy.html
In short, if you're wanting to store 9km of water in the air, that means that you need 9km worth of water's mass having an effect on earth's pressure. It would apply the same force as a gas as it does as a liquid - i.e., every 10 meters of water is one atmosphere. Thus, we're talking about 900 atmospheres of pressure here. Plus, for all of this water to exist as a vapor, the temperature of earth would have to be many times higher.
Not mentioned: What if the water was ice in an unstable orbit or something of the sort? Several kilometers of water falling down over a period of a few days would create a massive series of turbulent compression waves that would devastate the entire surface of the planet. The turbulence on the atmosphere would rival that of Jupiter's. We're talking about a collision with an immense amount of material; even the most stably decayed orbit filled with the tiniest of crystals still would involve a preposterously massive displacement of Earth's atmosphere (remember - there's a 900/1 mass ratio).
Finally, the canopy would have other effects (none of which are observed). Since C14 dating virtually always (in situations where it is anticipated to work) matches up with dendrochronology, thermoluminescence dating, fission track dating, amino-acid dating, and uranium/thorium dating within 20%, something would have to not only throw those methods off, but throw them off in the exact same method by the exact same amount.
2) The John Day Fossil Beds.
Like all fossil beds, it is perfectly explained by the standard accepted scientific explanation - that the area was being deposited millions of years ago, representing 40 million years of the Cenozoic's 65 million.. However, unlike the flood theorists, science actually explains *why* certain types of fossils are found in certain strata - and *only those strata*.
To accept a flood geology account of the fossil bed, you have to be able to explain *why* fossils are perfectly sorted along strata boundaries in this manner. Why, for example, are there nimravids scattered through the strata so that a few specific species live in each strata? If your answer is "size" or "swimming ability" or "buoyancy") (in a worldwide flood???), you'll find the same trend among Felids, unrelated animals, and even plants. In each level, there is a unique ecosystem, containing animals and plants of all different sizes, shapes, and niches. However, each level has a *different* ecosystem, virtually without exception. What on earth kind of sorting mechanism in a flood would account for this miraculous sorting? And why on earth did it have (given our above examples) nimravids which closely resemble each other, but have slight differences in adjacent layers, with the differences steadily progressing (and branching) in higher layers, until you have creatures of completely different sizes and shapes - while at the same time, sorting the quite different felids alongside them, along with the quite different plants, etc. What on earth could account for this? And why is it seen everywhere on Earth?
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"Illuminant light,
illuminate me."
[This message has been edited by Rei, 09-04-2003]
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