By Greg Neyman
© Old Earth Ministries
This question was published in Dr. John's Q&A by John Morris in October 2001. Morris claims that common folklore believes that it takes millions of years to petrify an object. Sadly, in this claim he is correct. The public has not kept up with current scientific work which shows that petrification can occur rapidly. However, one thing must be understood. Although petrification can be rapid, that does not prove that all petrification is rapid, nor does it prove that the earth is young.
Unfortunately, the young earth community over the years has been less than honest when it comes to petrification. For instance, there is the bags of flour that were claimed to be petrified, however, this is not petrification. The geologist who wrote this claim surely must know what petrification is, but he is counting on the general public not knowing.
In another instance, petrified wood experiments were conducted by secular scientists, but the Institute for Creation Research misreported the results. They omit the fact that some petrified samples that they were compared to were 5.3 million years old, however, they were not completely petrified.
In this answer, Morris tells about petrification, and then gives the example of a petrified fence post. While interesting, the fence post does not prove anything, other than the fact that yes, some human artifacts are petrified. It does not prove anything about the age of the earth.
Unfortunately for Morris, it is bad science to date the earth based on an old fence post.
Dr. John's Q&A #154, published on the web at http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=569
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