Thoughts in a Haystack

Hoo Hah!

Creationists are a lot of fun!

A small but stunning collection of fossils gathered in a church basement in Goodwood is hoping to change the way many think about the origins of the world and mankind.

Martin Legemaate, in cooperation with Pastor Michael Liew and the Goodwood Baptist Church, has set up the Creation/Flood Evidence Museum of Southern Ontario, and has recently put the museum and its information online.

So what's their big evidence?

"This collection of fossils gives evidence of a flood, a catastrophic event, occurring worldwide, which we call Noah's Flood," explains Legemaate. "These creatures were captured quickly, and the rock formations that grew around them happened quickly," he says, using an example of a fossilized mussel from the Georgian Bay Formation Shale to make his point. When mussels are frightened, they close up.

When they die, they open. The fossilized mussel he is holding is shut, which means the mussel was buried alive and so deep that it couldn't burrow out, and that the surrounding sediments hardened too quickly for it to open up after it died.

But what about dating the fossils?

When asked about carbon dating and the evidence it has appeared to present, Legemaate states: "Carbon dating isn't accurate because it works on the presumption that things have always been the same. Carbon content of certain materials has always been the same. Sediment gets deposited at the same rate over a period of time. This just isn't rational. We can see in our world today just how quickly things can occur."

Forget about the fact that carbon dating isn't appropriate for anything over about 50,000 years old ... that's a common bit of creationist misdirection. What's funny here is the complaint about science's "presumption that things have always been the same." But what about Legemaate's presumption that the behavior of mussels closing up when frightened and opening when they die has remained the same over time? When they like the "result" they are more than willing to apply uniformitarianism but only object to it when it contradicts their beliefs.

There is also this bit of craziness:

Crude oil is formed by masses of plant and animal matter that have been gathered in one spot, are unable to rot because of being quickly covered by rock and sediment, and are compressed over time into oil. Martin maintains that the proliferation of oil all over the earth gives evidence to the fact that the world was once covered in much lush vegetation, and many forms of individual animal life. When Noah's Flood occurred, all this plant and animal life was forced under the water, and then under ground, thereby making the massive oil deposits that we find all over the world today.

"Most people miss the point that, if the plants and animals had died and were slowly covered over time, we would have no oil today," says Mr. Legemaate.

No, there is no explanation of this non sequitur about "rotting." Apparently, Legemaate has never heard of compost heaps ... which is strange, giving the smell coming off this stuff.
.