Claim CD501:

On an old earth, mountains would have eroded by now. At present rates of erosion, the continents would have been eroded to sea level in less than fifteen million years.

Source:

Morris, Henry M., 1974. Scientific Creationism, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, p. 155.

Response:

  1. Old mountain ranges are eroded flat. But there are also forces creating new mountains. For example, the Himalayas are still rising.

  2. Present rates of erosion are particularly high due to more mountain building and higher mountains than usual in earth's history. (Erosion slows as mountains lose elevation.)

  3. The reasoning behind this claim directly contradicts the reasoning behind the claim that volcanoes build too much material for an old earth.

Links:

Matson, Dave E., 1994. How good are those young-earth arguments? http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/hovind/howgood-yea.html#proof15

Further Reading:

McPhee, John, 1998. Annals of the Former World. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
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created 2003-4-22, modified 2004-9-14