Proposal
One of the grandest spectacles in all the world is the Grand Canyon, the king of canyons, the colossus of canyons. This spectacle has inspired many to write of it in superlative terms. Robert Sterling Yard declared that the Grand Canyon is the colossus of canyons, by far the hugest example of stream erosion in all the world. According to Charles Dudley Warner, "It Is by common consent the most stupendous spectacle in the world." Early explorers heading for the North suddenly found their northward progress stopped by this impassable canyon.
Coming down to the 19th century, we read about U. J. C. Ives a Confederate soldier in the Civil War. He was a resourceful and articulate explorer of the Colorado River who gave this report upon seeing the canyon: "Ours are the first, and doubtless the last whites to visit this profitless locality." Lt. Ives could hardly have been more mistaken. Long before the lapse of the century, the Grand Canyon teemed with explorers, painters, prospectors, photographers, scientists, musicians, writers and tourists.
The Grand Canyon is nature's finest monument of combined forces of uplift and erosion. Evolutionary geology accords a time period of some thirty million years for this uplift and subsequent erosion. Creational geology crowds all this upheaval and subsequent erosion In a time period since Noah's Flood of few thousand years, when we measure some half a million tons of sediment being carried down the stream every day. That means rapid erosion between the Rocky Mountains and Arizona. It Is equivalent to nearly 100,000 five-ton dump trucks passing by one second apart for 24 hours to carry away the load the Colorado seems to carry so easily. Studies show the overall rate of denudation for the entire Colorado River range is 6.5 inches each 1000 years.
Now we arrive at fallacy number ONE in evolutionary time measurements. Between the river and the north rim of the canyon we find Mississippian Redwali limestone resting apparently conformably on the Cambrian Muav limestone, with no sign of erosion. This repetition occurs twice. The Ordovicia and Devonian are missing with no sign of erosion. What happened during this hundred million year gap? Apparently nothing. Let's be logical--the geologic column is pure EVOLUTION.
After President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Grand Canyon, he wrote the following observation for posterity: "In the Grand Canyon, Arizona is a natural wonder which so far as I know is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world." Professor Charles Schuchert of Yale University made this comment: "For eight days the writer had the greatest scientific pleasure of his life in that geological wonderland, the Grand Canyon of the Colorada River in Arizona. It Is a paradise for the stratigrapher."
Keywords
Creationism. Grand Canyon
Print Reference
Volume 1:I, Page 39-42
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Recommended Citation
Burdick, Clifford L.
(1986)
"The Canyon of Canyons,"
Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism: Vol. 1, Article 9.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/icc_proceedings/vol1/iss1/9