Rayburne F. Winsor #fundie considerthegospel.org
If anything, the fossil evidence at Mistaken Point would be far better interpreted as a sequence of deposition, burial and fossilization by sediments rapidly laid down by a global food and its after-effects rather than a sequence of layers representing a sequence of ages with different types of creatures over millions/billions of years of gradual evolution.
How else would you explain the fossils of soft-bodied creatures (i.e. jellyfish)? Such fossils certainly could not have formed gradually over millions of years because how long do dead jellyfish last after death and decomposition take place? Obviously, mineralization must occur before they decompose. No, my friend such fossils were not formed gradually over millions of years (that is ridiculous) but buried completely and rapidly by huge amounts of sediments laid down by huge volumes of water–what is necessary for rapid fossilization to occur, and what we would expect to find in a earth-shaking, earth-restructuring, catastrophic global flood (Genesis 6 to 9).
On the basis of the accumulated evidence (I.e. scientific, extra-biblical/secular, biblical, etc.) the Genesis Flood of the Bible is surely one of the best confirmed events in history. Expressions emphasizing the universality of the Noah’s Flood and its effects occur more than 30 times in Genesis 6 through 9 (I.e. Genesis 7:21-23; Genesis 6:17; 7: 19-20, 22; etc.). There are almost 200 non-biblical historical accounts of a gigantic flood that nearly destroyed all humanity from tribes and nations all over the world. The most detailed accounts come, as we would expect, from countries nearest to Ararat, where the Ark landed (Genesis 8:4).
Other versions turn up in Persia (modern Iraq and Iran), India, Burma, Indonesia, Sarawak, New Guina, Tahiti, Hawaii, China, Japan, Siberia, Australia (among the original inhabitants-the aborigines), and New Zealand (Maoris) , Alaska (Eskimos), North America (Red Indian), South America, Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Congo, South Africa, Greece, Iceland, Lithuania, Finland, Lapland, Wales and Ireland. This agrees with Genesis 9:19: “From these [three sons of Noah and their wives] the whole earth was populated.” Of course, now the Bible has come to all these countries, but the flood “legends” (I.e. The Epic of Gilgamesh) were independent of the Bible, passed down over the centuries in scores of tribal legends.
Some of the details are especially interesting; for example, Lxtlilxochitl , the native historian of the Aztecs, says that the world lasted 1716 years before it was destroyed by a flood (This figure is only 60 years different from the 1656 years which the Bible gives by addition of the ages in Genesis 5–taking into consideration the overlapping of each subsequent generation by birth. The Chinese character (symbol) for a large ship is a combination of a figure 8 and the symbol for “mouths” or “persons” (Noah + Shem + Japeth +Ham + their wives = 8). The Hottentots of South America believe they are descended from “Noh” and the Hawaiians report a flood from which only “Nu-u” and his family were saved. Very intriguing! Over 75% of the earth’s surface is overlaid by up to several miles of layer upon layer of sedimentary rocks, which according to scientific consensus are formed under water.
These massive sedimentary deposits contain billions of fossils of all life forms, both complete fossils buried in a certain order (I.e. shell fish with shell fish, animals that can climb above those less mobile, etc.) and disconnected skeletons and broken bones , such as would be expected of violent upheavals of the earth’s crust during a global flood (I.e. volcanism, tidal waves, and earthquakes). There are huge fossil graveyards on every major continent–evidence of rapid and mass death, burial, sedimentation and fossilization of life. Animals are commonly found buried in an attitude of terror with heads arched back, , mouths open, etc. (Cumberland Cavern in Maryland, U.S.). the Karroo formation of Africa contains an estimated 800 billion vertebrate fossils animals! (fossils). The Old Red Sandstone in England covers thousands of square miles and contains millions of fossilized fish (estimated more than 1000 per cubic yard) in contorted and contracted positions with spines sticking out and fins spread to the full, as in fish that die violently in convulsions and agony.
One of the most famous fossil graveyards is the Geiseltal lignite deposit in Germany where a great mixture of plants (in some instances, leaves till green) , animals, and even insects from all climatic areas of the world are found buried in one common, mass grave–evidence that they were buried deeply and quickly by water-laid sediments to seal them off from the atmosphere and bacteria that cause decay and decomposition. Add to this the fact that large scale fossilization is not occurring anywhere in the world today and you have a serious problem for uniformitarian geologists who believe these fossils were buried gradually over millions/billions of years.