How Old Is the Grand Canyon?

December 29th, 2006

Update:

In the light of day, I looked at this story again and went into a state of denial. I just couldn’t believe it.

According to the National Park Service web site:

How old is the Canyon?

That’s a tricky question. Although rocks exposed in the walls of the canyon are geologically quite old, the Canyon itself is a fairly young feature. The oldest rocks at the canyon bottom are close to 2000 million years old. The Canyon itself – an erosional feature – has formed only in the past five or six million years. Geologically speaking, Grand Canyon is very young.

Are the oldest rocks in the world exposed at Grand Canyon?

No. Although the oldest rocks at Grand Canyon (2000 million years old) are fairly old by any standard, the oldest rocks in the world are closer to 4000 million years old. The oldest exposed rocks in North America, which are among the oldest rocks in the world, are in northern Canada.

So, I don’t know what National Park Service employees are telling visitors about the age of the Grand Canyon, but if the nuts are running the nut house, they haven’t gotten around to updating the web site to reflect the faith based theories.

Yet.

Via: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:

Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

“In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “It is disconcerting that the official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the Grand Canyon is ‘no comment.’”

In a letter released today, PEER urged the new Director of the National Park Service (NPS), Mary Bomar, to end the stalling tactics, remove the book from sale at the park and allow park interpretive rangers to honestly answer questions from the public about the geologic age of the Grand Canyon. PEER is also asking Director Bomar to approve a pamphlet, suppressed since 2002 by Bush appointees, providing guidance for rangers and other interpretive staff in making distinctions between science and religion when speaking to park visitors about geologic issues.

Posted in Religion | Top Of Page

4 Responses to “How Old Is the Grand Canyon?”

  1. freeacre says:

    This is appaling. I’d go on, but I’m afraid someone might throw me off a railing at an Embassy Suites Hotel.

  2. tsoldrin says:

    Err wow… I actually thought this was a joke when I saw it first. I’m just dumbfounded. I guess it’s just part of the ongoing ‘war on common sense’. Even the little things are outrages these days.

  3. cryingfreeman says:

    I agree with 99.9% of what I see on Cryptogon, and while I despise the hypocritical Fundamentalist warmongers with a vengeance, I nonetheless remain a passionate believer in Reformed Christianity. It is actually this that fuels my libertarian beliefs and my unspeakable hatred for globalism, the NWO, Big Brother, etc, etc.

    By all means, condemn the vile hypocrisy of the so-called Christian Right, but at least bear in mind that there are a small number of people with intense Biblical convictions who also share your political views. In other words, not all Christians (and Creationists) are Neocons.

  4. Dennis says:

    The Bush Administration pressure is a problem but the 6,000,000 years is not. This figure fits well with modern scientific theories about the formation of the Grand Canyon: http://www.kaibab.org/geology/gc_geol.htm

    I’d like to chip in with cryingfreeman here.
    Otherwise rational, highly intelligent people sometimes throw all rationality out of the window when they express their opinions on matters pertaining to religious/spiritual beliefs and end up guilty of the same kind of thinking that they (rightly) accuse others of: demonising a group of people on the basis of an ideological difference.

    Atheist: Out of nothing came everything.
    Theist: God created everything.

    You’ve got to admit, both of these are pretty hard to wrap your head around.

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