Fossil Record (Young-Earth Creation View)

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When were fossils formed, and under what conditions? A young-Earth view, at its core, affirms that (a) creation spanned six 24-hour days in which all things were made (cf . Exodus 20:11, 31:17); (b) the genealogies connecting Adam to Abram in Genesis 5 and 11 record a lineage of historical individuals that spans only a few thousands of years; and (c) sin brings forth profound changes to the natural economy, including both spiritual and physical death to humans and physical death to “living” ( nephesh ) creatures. A resulting corollary is that the bulk of the fossil record is a product of a global destruction by Noah’s Flood. This contrasts sharply with old-Earth and evolutionary views that consider the fossil record as a series of snapshots over a 3.8 billion-year history of life on earth. Here I briefly address some biblical issues that should govern our approach to the fossil record, and then survey several notable scientific observations that point towards a rapid, catastrophic, and recent formation of the fossil record.