The vast majority of the fossils we find on this planet are the result of the catastrophic global flood around 2350 BC, recorded in Genesis 6-8, and memories of which remain throughout the histories and traditions of cultures around the world. The "billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth" are a very clear testament to the accuracy of the Biblical narrative, and to the results of human sin and rebellion against God (Genesis 6:5, 6:12, 6:17).
Some people mistakenly believe that 6000 years is not enough time to form a fossil, but this is demonstrably not the case. Indeed, some dinosaur fossils still contain soft tissue! In fact, you can watch the fossilization process yourself over just a few days using materials you may already have in your own home.
Some may argue that these rapid, modern examples are not really fossils, because, by some definitions, fossils are necessarily "prehistoric". If this is the case, though, then no fossils exist at all, since history goes all the way back to the beginning (Genesis 1:1; John 1:1). Generally, most people think of a fossil as simply being a "plant or animal that has turned into rock", and these appear in abundance around the world.
Fossils of creatures are usually formed very quickly, or else the organic material they describe would decompose before completion, leaving nothing to be fossilized. If the environment always worked slowly at fossilization over millions of years on any given corpse, we wouldn't have any animal fossils at all!
A rapid burial in sediment-rich water, such as would be expected in a turbulent global flood matching the Biblical narrative, is the best explanation for the abundance of fossils we find in the earth.
The flood destroyed life on earth because man's sin was terrible in the eyes of God (Genesis 6:5). Since death is the result of sin (Genesis 2:17; Romans 5:12, 6:23), and since all of us sin (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8), death is all we should expect. However, our gracious God has not only extended our lives on this earth instead of destroying us immediately, but He has also offered us eternal life through resurrection if we place our lives in the hands of the resurrected Son of God, Jesus (John 3:15, 17:2-3; Romans 6:23).
If you have not committed your life to Christ, recognize that through Jesus Christ God has offered you forgiveness for your crimes and disobedience against Him (Luke 5:24; 1 John 1:9; Acts 13:38). If you turn away from your sins and turn toward Christ, asking for God's forgiveness, you too can receive the forgiveness of God Himself (Acts 2:21, 4:12, 16:31; Romans 10:9, 10:13), and avoid the wrath to come, a wrath by which the great, global flood will pale in comparison (Mark 9:47-48; Luke 13:28; Revelation 14:11).
Comments
B - our planet is over 70% water. I bet it's almost all still here! Good question though!
(a) You're missing the point. The bible flood story is a blatant copy of other myths. The writer of the bible story has just jazzed it up a bit by making it a global flood. The others tell of localised floods.
(b) Assuming that there was no magical transformation of the landscape between the flood and now, the alleged floodwaters would have had to raise the sea level to about 8,800 metres above current sea levels i.e. the height of Mount Everest. The amount of water need to achieve this would be around 4.5 billion cubic kilometres. The current volume of the Earth's oceans combined is about 1.3 billion cubic kilometres. So the question remains - where did the approximately 3.2 billion cubic kilometres of water go?
Good talking to you and thanks for bringing up all that evidence of the flood!
Man, the evidence is so overwhelming! I'm really glad you brought all of that up!
http://creation.com/fossils-wrong-place
https://answersingenesis.org/fossils/fossil-record/doesnt-order-of-fossils-in-rock-favor-long-ages/
http://creation.com/geologic-column-global-sequence
Wollemi Pine doesn't seem to fit the evolutionary model, since, from their reading of fossils, it must have gone extinct 150 million years ago. But it's still around now! The nucha sponge is found in middle cambrian and upper triasic, but nowhere in between! The layers just show us what order the dead things were buried in, not necessarily what order they were born in!
To quote one of those articles: "we observe cacti growing in desert zones and pines growing in alpine zones rather than growing together"... so we wouldn't normally expect them to be buried together after a global flood, though we would expect some exceptions, as you point out, and as we actually find in the dirt -- exceptions that don't make sense from an evolutionary perspective!
If you mean what you say and you actually care about evidence, would you (unlike our host Tim) be willing to change your mind about what you believe if the evidence said you were wrong? If not, then there's no point discussing anything with you. If yes, why don't you try reading an actual geology textbook instead of the nonsense churned out by the Institute for Creation "Research" and the like.
That would be a barrel of laughs! Point me to it!
https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/creation-explorers-tracking-flood/?sku=30-9-497
I'm incredibly surprised we didn't get a theistic evolutionary response here. It's laughably absurd.
The Bible declared the earth was round 1000's of years ago, Scott.
God commanded Noah to bring all KINDS of animals on the ark, not SPECIES. There is a significant difference.
https://answersingenesis.org/creation-science/baraminology/
Noah brought dinosaurs on the ark as well. Here are some reasons we believe this:
1) Dinosaur fossils are found in flood sediment, indicating that they died during the flood. If they died during the flood, they were alive when animals of all kinds boarded the ark, so representatives of their kinds would have boarded the ark with other animals.
2) Secular post-flood human histories around the world contain dinosaurs, often referred to as DRAGONS.
3) The Bible seems to talk about them in post-flood times (ie Job 40:15-19).
These facts seem best explained by the idea that, while many individual dinosaurs died during the flood, various KINDS of dinosaurs also survived the flood on the ark.
The total volume of ALL Earth's water is around 1 386 000 000 cubic kilometres, only 1.386 billion. The total volume of solid earth is 72 larger than of the total volume of water. To cover the earth, much more than 1.386 billion cubic kilometres would be needed. There is no way billions tons of water just disappeared?
https://answersingenesis.org/the-flood/feedback-where-did-all-floodwater-go/
https://answersingenesis.org/fossils/fossil-record/where-are-all-pre-flood-human-fossils/
testingtheglobe.com
flatearthdoctrine.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoxhDtnRmBk