Just wondering if FC’s [fundy christians] believed in plate tectonics or not? Do they think the earth looked as it does today 100 million years ago? Or do they contend it was made a few thousand years ago? Anyone know the dope on this?
I would WAG that they wouldn’t think much of it (it terms of it’s relevance to the truth) , perhaps a interesting side theory as a worldly explanation of creation.
I used to attend a church that was very into young-earth creationism, and got most of their information from Answers in Genesis.
As far as I recall, plate tectonics didn’t come up very often- dinosaurs, carbon dating, and the Grand Canyon were much more popular topics. But if I’m remembering correctly, when it did come up, God created the continents in their current positions. And if you line up the continental edges against each other, you can easily see that they don’t REALLY line up like jigsaw puzzle pieces.
As a side note, it’s fun to learn about science as an adult instead of a kid. There’s so much beauty in the way the world works…
This is what I heard as well, and I must say, they may not line up like perfect puzzle pieces, but they are close enough, especially Africa and South America.
The coasts don’t fit together as well as they might, but the edges of the actual plates combine astonishingly well.
Isn’t it supposed to be that the continents separated as a result of the Great Cataclysm? (I.e., accd. to most YEC’s, the Flood?)
-FrL-
Yep. The hydroplate theory indicates that that (due to lubrication from the flood waters) the continental plates moved rapidly during the period of the flood (or just after) from a supercontinent to the current arrangement.
In theory, it works. The computer models show that it could work. But the man who created the concept (a real and respected geophysicist who is a YEC) acknowledges that the one year timescale would dump enough heat to turn the surface of the earth into a molten slag :smack:
A miracle. It has to be a miracle.
The other problem is with timing. If the continental shift occurs during the flood, then land animals have trouble migrating to isolated continents. Usually “land bridges” or “human assistance” are thrown in to cover the gaps.
Don’t even ask how flightless birds (and no mammals) get to islands isolated by 1000km of ocean without people (New Zealand for the geographically challenged). Or how flying birds lose their wings and grow to twice the size of humans in 5000 years.
Si (who is a Christian but will take his chances with God on the issue of the age of the earth)
Christians who reject evolution in favor of some kind of creationism generally fall into two types - Young Earth Creationists (YEC) who believe in a universe less than 10,000 years old, and those who believe that the earth is billions of years old but that God individually created all kinds of animals during the initial creation of the world (not that this does not rule out micro-evolution in the meantime). The latter group would not have any reason to dispute tectonic plate theory. The first group would have no interest in how the world looked 100M years ago because, according to them, the world didn’t exist yet.
By the way, I’m neither a fundamentalist nor a creationist, but one does not equal the other (although there is probably a lot of overlap).
Yes, I’ve noticed that too. 