The Forests of Antarctica
Leviticus 26:3-4
“If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.”
In 2017, geologists studying the Transantarctic Mountain Range discovered several layers of tree stumps, with parts of the roots attached, in a matrix of leaf and twig debris. Their discovery is a textbook lesson in both how to do careful observational science and also how wrong conclusions can be drawn by using incorrect presuppositions. The scientists collected careful measurements of the dimensions of the stumps and also the tree-ring data to estimate the original age and height of these remains. They were also able to classify these trees as belonging to the genus Glossopteris, a type of extinct gymnosperm "tree-fern", whose remains are found in many parts of southern continents.
This observational work was exemplary and should be imitated. However, they then proceeded to assume that there must have been five forests, growing one after the other, starting about 260 million years ago, in a leaf-mold type soil.
Biblical creationists look at the observations differently. The stumps have only partial roots, which are broken. This would indicate that the trees did not grow where they have been found – they grew elsewhere and were carried to this spot, and deposited. Therefore, there were not five growth periods – just one brief period of deposition of several layers, which probably took place towards the end of the Flood. The matrix around the stumps therefore comprises of Flood debris.
One again, the Bible makes clearer sense of the observed data and is consistent with the biblical history of the Flood.
Prayer: Thank You, Lord God, our Creator, for giving us the Bible. Help us always to start from biblical presuppositions whenever we attempt to make sense of this world in which You have placed us. Amen.
Author: Paul F. Taylor
Ref: Snelling, AA. (2019), Stumped by Forests in Antarctica, < https://answersingenesis.org/the-flood/stumped-forests-antarctica/ >, accessed 3/24/2020.
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