Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 65 (9162 total)
3 online now:
Newest Member: popoi
Post Volume: Total: 915,817 Year: 3,074/9,624 Month: 919/1,588 Week: 102/223 Day: 13/17 Hour: 0/0


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   Dating methodology for the Vishnu Schist
Matt P
Member (Idle past 4775 days)
Posts: 106
From: Tampa FL
Joined: 03-18-2005


Message 9 of 17 (360839)
11-02-2006 2:07 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Centrus
11-02-2006 4:59 AM


The grand canyon
Hi Centrus!
I am also a devout Catholic and I went through a similar period of questioning science and faith about 10 years ago. I'm currently at the University of Arizona doing origins of life research, and have been in contact with several Jesuits who are active researchers in astronomy and planetary science here at the U of A. They are faithful Catholics and good researchers, and many criticize creation science.
In regards to your Grand Canyon question, consider an analogy: let's say you wanted to dig a hole in your backyard. You grab your shovel and start digging. An hour into it, you've gone down three feet and want to take a break. You take an hour break, then start back up for another hour, digging another three feet. Then you get tired and go to bed, sleeping for 8 hours. You dig another three feet as soon as you wake up over the next two hours, then you get bored. You don't dig your hole any more for two months (61 days), during which time a foot of the soil you dug out falls back in. You then dig the hole for another hour, getting four feet of soil removed this time.
What was your average digging rate over this time? Doing a calculation analogous to your grand canyon calculation, you'd get:
(3+3+3-1+4)/(62 days * 24 hours/day) = 0.008 feet per hour. Is that a realistic digging rate?
A more reasonable digging rate would be (3+3+3+4)/4 hours = 3.25 feet/hour. That's the average amount of dirt you were able to remove per hour. These calculations are more accurate overall for what you're actually interested in.
Analogously, the Grand Canyon records several different episodes of deposition, times where no rock was deposited, and times where rock were eroded away (like the dirt falling back into the hole you dug). The rock types of the Grand Canyon were deposited in different environments, from solidified sand dunes, to marine deposits, to lava flows to mudslides. These were formed in different environments and frequently are from very different times. I agree with some of the posts here and encourage you to look at some of the topics on the Grand Canyon and Carbon Dating.
Good luck!

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Centrus, posted 11-02-2006 4:59 AM Centrus has not replied

  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024