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Ken Ham asks, "Coal, is it a flood deposit?"

KEN HAM ON EDUCATION! -- Coal -- is it a Flood deposit?
(October 12, 2001)

Ken Ham:    Question:  Remember being taught that coal formed slowly in swamps over millions of years?  How can we say that coal is the result of Noah's Flood just thousands of years ago?

Answer:  The theory that coal formed in swamps over millions of years just doesn't fit with the evidence.  Peat swamps that we observe today are totally different in composition and texture from coal deposits.   In these swamps we find mainly roots and a texture like mashed potatoes.

However, coal deposits have trees, bark and other material giving it a totally different texture.

In my homeland of Australia, many of the coal deposits consist largely of pine trees that don't grow in swamps.  Some of these trees are enormous - many feet in diameter.  And these trees are in coal deposits that are hundreds of feet thick.

The only explanation that fits what we observe in coal deposits is that enormous quantities of plant material, including massive trees, were washed into place.  This would require a lot of force and a lot of water. The event of Noah's Flood makes sense of this evidence - and gives us the real answers!

Patrick Spears has written a thorough rebuttal to the claims made above by Ken Ham.  Below is the concluding paragraph in Patrick's essay:

"Diluvial models of coal formation are inconsistent with a wide variety of observations, and can be dismissed as untenable. Criticisms of autochthonous models made by AiG and other creationists are based largely on factual errors, misleading statements, and failure to consider all data. Moreover, since there exists strong evidence for many autochthonous coals in the geologic record, and since peats in the modern world accumulate at rates less than or equal to about 5mm/yr (Diemont and Supardi 1987), the presence of numerous thick autochthonous coals is good evidence that the earth is older than YECs typically allow."

Click on the link to read Patrick's complete essay, Coal deposits: evidence for the Noah's Flood Model?

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