tas8831
Well-Known Member
Seems that the discovery of "soft tissue" in some dinosaur fossils has creationists claiming victory - for how can "soft tissues" exist for millions of years? This proves, they write or imply, that the only logical explanation is that the earth is young, just like the literalists' interpretation of Genesis indicates (never mind that the begats and begots are not internally consistent) .
If the earth is truly young, creationism young, and this is shown by the presence of "soft tissue" in some dinosaur bones, a question must be asked -
Why do we not see this "soft tissue" in nearly all dinosaur (or other) fossils? Surely we could allow for some fossils being exposed to harsh environments during their formation that destroyed the soft tissues, but nearly ALL of them?
Creationists, in effect, just 'cannot believe' that "soft tissue" (even though it is not actually tissue) could last for millions of years. Why can they just not 'believe' this? The only actual explanation I have ever seen from them is reference to a paper on DNA degradation (note that none of the "soft tissue" found in dinosaur fossils have been DNA) that gives DNA a half life of ~600 years and a maximum 'shelf life' of around 6 million (the oldest sequencable DNA I have read about was ~700,000 years old from a well-preserved, frozen horse).
If those numbers hold, then we should be finding not only "soft tissue" in dinosaur fossils, but sizeable chunks of DNA!
So, creationists - where are they?
If the earth is truly young, creationism young, and this is shown by the presence of "soft tissue" in some dinosaur bones, a question must be asked -
Why do we not see this "soft tissue" in nearly all dinosaur (or other) fossils? Surely we could allow for some fossils being exposed to harsh environments during their formation that destroyed the soft tissues, but nearly ALL of them?
Creationists, in effect, just 'cannot believe' that "soft tissue" (even though it is not actually tissue) could last for millions of years. Why can they just not 'believe' this? The only actual explanation I have ever seen from them is reference to a paper on DNA degradation (note that none of the "soft tissue" found in dinosaur fossils have been DNA) that gives DNA a half life of ~600 years and a maximum 'shelf life' of around 6 million (the oldest sequencable DNA I have read about was ~700,000 years old from a well-preserved, frozen horse).
If those numbers hold, then we should be finding not only "soft tissue" in dinosaur fossils, but sizeable chunks of DNA!
So, creationists - where are they?