Biblical Geological Model

© Tas Walker  May 05; ammended Nov 06

The power of models

Models are powerful tools that help us understand and control our world. They give us insight into problems that concern us. You may not realize it, but you often use models in your life.

If you have drawn a plan for a new house, you have worked with a model. The plan represents something physical, a reality that you intended to bring into existence. You could easily change the rooms around, and imagine what layout you would like best.

A plan is symbolic because the lines on the paper represent parts of the house. Sometimes a model can be physical. I was once involved in an engineering project to build a weir on a river. We made a model of the weir and tested it by pumping real water over it. The model allowed us to check what would happen at different flood levels, and solve problems before the dam was built.

Sometimes a model can be a computer calculation. Accountants use computer models to understand company finance. What young person has not used a computer model these days? They can choose from thousands of popular games including war games, space themes and flight simulators.

A model is a simple representation of reality

Scientists regularly invent models because they want to understand and control the world. We should not think that scientific models are difficult or mysterious, because we use models ourselves.

Scientists have models for almost everything. These include models of atoms and molecules, models of gases and liquids, and models of the sun and the planets.

Anyone who has made a model knows that it takes imagination. Scientific models are no different. Because imagination is so important, scientists who develop successful models are honoured for their creative insights.

In the early 1900s, Niels Bohr used his imagination to make his famous model of the atom. He wanted to understand the electromagnetic radiation that atoms emit. By combining his knowledge about atoms and electricity with his creative imagination, he speculated that atoms were like miniature solar systems.

In Bohr’s model, negatively charged particles (electrons, = the planets) orbited a central positively charged nucleus (= the sun). From this mental picture he developed simple mathematical equations to represent the way charged particles behave. Remarkably, his simple concept successfully predicts the sort of radiation that atoms emit, and scientists still use his model today. They honor him as the first person to model some of the electromagnetic properties of the atom successfully.

Niels Bohr used his imagination because he did not have enough scientific data. Atomic structure is too small to see. Yet, in spite of his speculation, based on imagination and not facts, his model is remarkably accurate in certain situations. But there are many situations where its predictions do not agree with experiment, so scientists have proposed better models for other purposes.

So, models are a simple representation of reality. Compared with the real thing, they are easy to build and convenient to play with, although they are limited in their application. Models can help you develop your flying skills, plan your dream home and solve your financial problems. When you have played with a suitable model, you can be confident about how things will turn out, even before they happen.

The importance of time

For some models time is unimportant. When you are designing your home you are only interested in the way the rooms relate to each other. So the plan, or model, of your home will not include time.

But to the builder time is crucial. When he is developing his model for your project, he needs to know how long each activity will take so he can coordinate the trades people. So his model, the project schedule, will have time as one of the most important factors.

In the same way, many scientific models don’t worry about time. A mineralogist studying minerals with X-rays is only interested in its internal crystal structure. A mining geologist who needs to tell the miners where to dig is only interested in the geometric shape of the ore body. Neither scientist is interested in time. Their models won’t include time as a parameter, and neither needs to measure time in any of their experiments.

However, for many scientific questions time is essential. The seismic waves generated by earthquakes take time to travel through the earth, so the equations that model earthquakes include time. That is why the seismic equipment used to record earthquakes has accurate clocks. Volcanic eruptions likewise involve time, time for the pressure to build up, and for the lava to flow out, spread over the countryside and solidify. So, geologists who study volcanoes record the timing of different events.

When the timescale of a physical process is short, models can be tested again and again by repeated observations. Many earthquakes occur each year and geologists check their models against each new set of seismic measurements. When their predictions don’t match the new observations they adjust the model. Volcanic eruptions are also frequent and geologists can test and modify their concepts with each eruption.

Now here is a key point. When the time scale is very long and the events are rare, we cannot test our models against observations. If it’s not happening we can’t observe it. And we cannot travel back in time to see what happened in the past.

For example, no one has seen a large granite body form. So every model that describes how granite intrudes the earth, how it solidifies, and how the overlying rocks are eroded away, is speculative. They cannot be tested by observing the actual event.

Most geological phenomena fall into this category. No one has ever seen a dinosaur fossil form, observed how chalk hundreds of meters thick was deposited over whole continents, or measured the formation of a continent-sized sedimentary basin from start to finish.

In all these cases, we can only base our models on what we believe happened in the past, and not on observed geologic events. In other words, for all these sorts of geologic problems, we need to know its history so we can understand what is going on.

Earth history is important for geology

Geologists have long recognized that history is fundamental to their discipline. Traditionally, the science has been split into two parts—physical geology and historical geology. To properly understand the rocks, we need a geological model of how the rocks formed. And to understand how rocks formed, we need a reliable history of the earth.

Christian geologists have an advantage when it comes to history. Because they accept biblical history is accurate, they do not need to speculate about history. By taking the biblical account as an eyewitness record of past events they only need to speculate about how these affected geology.

The pioneers of geological science used this approach and saw nothing unscientific about it, as we will see. In fact, there are compelling reasons why all geologists should treat the biblical data seriously.

But how do those who don’t accept biblical history proceed? Without an eyewitness account they need to invent their own history. They need to use their imagination, similar to the way Niels Bohr imagined the internal structure of the atom.

Geologists who do not accept the Bible invent their history by assuming that past geological processes were much the same as the geological processes we observe today. In other words, they assume that present geological processes can be extrapolated indefinitely into the past. One direct consequence of this assumption is the idea that earth history extends for billions of years.

So we have two geological approaches to obtaining earth history—the essential component of many geological models. We can assume the biblical account is accurate or we can assume geological processes continued unchanged for millions of years. But if the Bible is accurate and geologists don’t start with the Bible, they won't get the right answer. And when they don’t start with the Bible it is not surprising that they end up with a history that conflicts with biblical history.

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