Theories of Continental Drift Help Promote Evolution
The development of continental drift and plate tectonics in the 20th century helped promote the idea of millions of years by providing a mechanism that seemed to support the uniformitarian time scale. Continental drift was proposed by German scientist Alfred Wegener in 1912, a theory that advocated that the continents of the earth move slowly horizontally at rates of centimeters per year over long time periods. Theories of continental drift had been proposed as early as the 16th century by European naturalists but Wegener introduced the most developed version of the theory. Wegener also proposed that the continents seemed to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and were once joined together and have since moved apart. Plate tectonic theory built upon continental drift in the late 20th century by proposing a system of tectonic plates (the earth's crust and upper mantle) that moved horizontally on top of the earth in a variety of directions, including by diverging or rifting away from each other or converging underneath each other in a cyclic uniform pattern as a conveyor belt motion over millions of years. Today, however, mainstream geologists have incorporated occasional catastrophic events within the slow, gradual uniform geologic processes throughout earth's history.
The existence of the mid-ocean ridges around the world are strong evidence that Earth’s crust likely split open by some mechanism in the past. The mid-ocean ridge system represents the longest mountain range on earth and is connected throughout the world’s ocean basins. These mid-ocean ridges were discovered in the 20th century. In 1925, the Germans decided to study the seafloor to look for gold. They used echo sounders to map the deep sea topography and discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge through the Atlantic to southwest Africa. This ridge was later discovered to extend across the entire earth. In 1953, American physicists discovered the deep canyon that runs between the mid-ocean ridges. In addition to the mid-Atlantic ridge, another mid-ocean ridge is the East Pacific Rise that runs from Mexico southward and westward below Australia and into the Indian Ocean. Mid-ocean ridges also connect the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean ridges into the Indian Ocean ridges.
Alfred Wegener, the German meteorologist, proposed the theory in 1912 that the continents moved horizontally thousands of miles over the Earth’s history. The theory was constructed when Wegener noticed that the continents seemed to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, particularly the continents on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. The theory was proposed several times earlier but Wegener published a detailed proposal of continental drift in 1912. Skeptics called continental drift pseudoscience and the theory was not widely accepted at the time. However, the theory was eventually accepted by the 1950’s after discoveries in paleomagnetism and continental drift theory paved the way for Plate Tectonic theory. The mechanism that caused continental drift was an issue for Wegener and an explanation was difficult.
In the 1960’s, discoveries of seafloor spreading by mainstream scientists along with Wadati-Benioff Zones gave further evidence to mainstream scientists in support of continental drift. The Benioff Zones refer to a zone of earthquakes produced by the continental and oceanic tectonic plate boundary. The emergence of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) eventually made it possible to measure continental drift directly, according to mainstream scientists. However, some creationists continue to be skeptical of continental drift and question the idea of the horizontal movement of continents thousands of miles regardless of the time frame. In addition, some mainstream scientists are also skeptical of continental drift and plate tectonics.
There is a tendency in mainstream science to promote "theories of everything" that can be accepted by the mass population. However, these theories tend to be simplistic and in reality do not cover the entire story. In other words, concepts such as plate tectonics are much more complicated than described in science textbooks and many real-world observations in the field do not fit the model. Theories of continental drift and plate tectonics are similar to other "theories of everything" in science, such as the Big Bang model for the origin of the universe and the molecule-to-man macroevolution used by mainstream scientists to explain the origin of life on earth. There are many problems with the Big Bang and macroevolution theories that mainstream scientists continue to ignore for convenience. Some mainstream scientists point out these problems but most scientists ignore these problems and stick to the models simply as a result of the difficulty in addressing these problems.
Mainstream scientists are also dedicated to preserving the old-earth and old-universe models, or ages of more than 4.5 billion years for the earth and the solar system while promoting an age of more than 13 billion years for the universe. Any scientific discovery that contradicts these ages is ignored by mainstream scientists in order to fit the established models. Identifying the problems with plate tectonics, macroevolution, or the Big Bang models could expose evidence for a younger earth or universe. Therefore, mainstream scientists ignore problems with their "theories of everything" in order to preserve their time frame in the billions of years.
The existence of the mid-ocean ridges around the world are strong evidence that Earth’s crust likely split open by some mechanism in the past. The mid-ocean ridge system represents the longest mountain range on earth and is connected throughout the world’s ocean basins. These mid-ocean ridges were discovered in the 20th century. In 1925, the Germans decided to study the seafloor to look for gold. They used echo sounders to map the deep sea topography and discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge through the Atlantic to southwest Africa. This ridge was later discovered to extend across the entire earth. In 1953, American physicists discovered the deep canyon that runs between the mid-ocean ridges. In addition to the mid-Atlantic ridge, another mid-ocean ridge is the East Pacific Rise that runs from Mexico southward and westward below Australia and into the Indian Ocean. Mid-ocean ridges also connect the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean ridges into the Indian Ocean ridges.
Alfred Wegener, the German meteorologist, proposed the theory in 1912 that the continents moved horizontally thousands of miles over the Earth’s history. The theory was constructed when Wegener noticed that the continents seemed to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, particularly the continents on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. The theory was proposed several times earlier but Wegener published a detailed proposal of continental drift in 1912. Skeptics called continental drift pseudoscience and the theory was not widely accepted at the time. However, the theory was eventually accepted by the 1950’s after discoveries in paleomagnetism and continental drift theory paved the way for Plate Tectonic theory. The mechanism that caused continental drift was an issue for Wegener and an explanation was difficult.
In the 1960’s, discoveries of seafloor spreading by mainstream scientists along with Wadati-Benioff Zones gave further evidence to mainstream scientists in support of continental drift. The Benioff Zones refer to a zone of earthquakes produced by the continental and oceanic tectonic plate boundary. The emergence of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) eventually made it possible to measure continental drift directly, according to mainstream scientists. However, some creationists continue to be skeptical of continental drift and question the idea of the horizontal movement of continents thousands of miles regardless of the time frame. In addition, some mainstream scientists are also skeptical of continental drift and plate tectonics.
There is a tendency in mainstream science to promote "theories of everything" that can be accepted by the mass population. However, these theories tend to be simplistic and in reality do not cover the entire story. In other words, concepts such as plate tectonics are much more complicated than described in science textbooks and many real-world observations in the field do not fit the model. Theories of continental drift and plate tectonics are similar to other "theories of everything" in science, such as the Big Bang model for the origin of the universe and the molecule-to-man macroevolution used by mainstream scientists to explain the origin of life on earth. There are many problems with the Big Bang and macroevolution theories that mainstream scientists continue to ignore for convenience. Some mainstream scientists point out these problems but most scientists ignore these problems and stick to the models simply as a result of the difficulty in addressing these problems.
Mainstream scientists are also dedicated to preserving the old-earth and old-universe models, or ages of more than 4.5 billion years for the earth and the solar system while promoting an age of more than 13 billion years for the universe. Any scientific discovery that contradicts these ages is ignored by mainstream scientists in order to fit the established models. Identifying the problems with plate tectonics, macroevolution, or the Big Bang models could expose evidence for a younger earth or universe. Therefore, mainstream scientists ignore problems with their "theories of everything" in order to preserve their time frame in the billions of years.
