In short, the Young Earth Creationist position is that all the plate tectonics and radiological dating issues happened because of the flood. This means the plates would have to have moved very fast, and the resulting friction creates heat. Incredible amounts of heat. Likewise, radioactive decay releases heat, too. To do all the changes necessary to do that in the space of about a year it would generate enough heat to turn the entire planet into a plasma.
This may actually be “checkmate, YEC!”, at least in a sense. Not because they’ll change their mind about God or anything, but because they prefer to have physical solutions if possible. It’s easier to convince other people if you keep reliance on the supernatural to a minimum. But there’s just no way around this one. You have to rely on the supernatural to fix it. There’s just too much heat, otherwise.
That’s what I’m eluding to in another reply. The two most common YEC arguments are “hydro plate” and “catastrophic plate techtonics”. Both of them have the same heat problem.
While there is technically enough water locked in underground rock to cover the land completely, water has a high heat capacity.
On my last project we were working with gypsum, which is a hydrated Calcium sulfate. Above around 60°C/120°F that water is driven off to produce anhydrite. There are hydrate minerals that require much more heat to dehydrate them.
At 120°F and 100% humidity, human life would be impossible.
Have you seen the heat argument?
In short, the Young Earth Creationist position is that all the plate tectonics and radiological dating issues happened because of the flood. This means the plates would have to have moved very fast, and the resulting friction creates heat. Incredible amounts of heat. Likewise, radioactive decay releases heat, too. To do all the changes necessary to do that in the space of about a year it would generate enough heat to turn the entire planet into a plasma.
This may actually be “checkmate, YEC!”, at least in a sense. Not because they’ll change their mind about God or anything, but because they prefer to have physical solutions if possible. It’s easier to convince other people if you keep reliance on the supernatural to a minimum. But there’s just no way around this one. You have to rely on the supernatural to fix it. There’s just too much heat, otherwise.
That’s what I’m eluding to in another reply. The two most common YEC arguments are “hydro plate” and “catastrophic plate techtonics”. Both of them have the same heat problem.
While there is technically enough water locked in underground rock to cover the land completely, water has a high heat capacity.
On my last project we were working with gypsum, which is a hydrated Calcium sulfate. Above around 60°C/120°F that water is driven off to produce anhydrite. There are hydrate minerals that require much more heat to dehydrate them.
At 120°F and 100% humidity, human life would be impossible.