Geographical evidence points to a global flood that coincides w/ Genesis account of Noah's Ark

Welcome to debate.org, Casiopia. I am its resident Geass Canceller. _________ I'm going to be assuming that Genesis's account of Noah's Ark and The Flood is true for this debate, as I lack the space in this measly 7,800 characters-per-round setup to critique that standpoint. [COINCIDE] is defined by dictionary.com to be "to occupy the same place in space, the same point or period in time, or the same relative position". [*] = looked the thing up on Wikipedia. With that, let's begin the refutations. "The earth's features […] require some type of catastrophic explanation." 1) He gives no reason to believe that it requires, so drop the whole point. 2) Floods do not explain mountains, canyons, or regional stratigraphy. 3) The earth's features give reason to believe otherwise. 3a) Mountains: These are caused by plate tectonics, and even the newest [well known] mountain range, the Himalayas, started to form over 70 MYA*. They're still forming today because the Indian and Eurasian plates are still at odds with one another. I fail to believe that a flood can cause two such plates to create this in about a year (according to his site) 3b) Canyons: Let's use everyone's favorite; the Grand Canyon. It started forming over 17 MYA, and is still forming today because the Colorado River is still running. I also doubt a flood could create canyons either. Both the Grand Canyon and the Himalayas already knock out PRO's entire position, as they started forming way over 1MYA, whereas the Biblical account of the world is quite under 100,000 years. 3c) Stratigraphy: "Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, studies rock layers and layering (stratification)."* From my understanding, if there was a great Flood that was all around the world, then the sediments would be so mixed up that somewhere in the last several thousand years, geologists EVERYWHERE would be able to see this obscenely wide layer in the sedimentary forms. Until there is such evidence, Stratigraphy PROVES that such sedimentary formations formed so OVER TIME, as different eras/ages/times have their own "signature". "Sedimentary[…]" 1) Re-apply 3c from above. 2) Rivers do this too. You don't need a flood for every Sedimentary form. 3) "Sedimentary rocks are formed because of the overburden pressure as particles of sediment are deposited out of air, ice, wind, gravity, or water flows carrying the particles in suspension."* Apparently, you don't even need water for every Sedimentary form. "Coal, Oil, Ore" 1) These deposits happen over time. 2) He has no evidence to show that there is no evidence. 3) Any swamp in existence is a forming coal deposit. http://www.dkimages.com... 4) How does a flood explain any of this? "Fossil Beds" 1) LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, YOU CALLED FOR A FORMING FOSSIL BED. WHAT'S THAT? YOU'RE JUST DYING TO SEE IT? BEHOLD, I GIVE YOU: http://images.google.com... 2) Any mud slide is also a forming fossil bed. 3) Probably rock slides too. 4) And let's not forget the Swamps. 5) Or the Quicksands. 6) Or the Volcanoes. (source: http://science.howstuffworks.com...) "Ocean fossils are found at high altitudes on all five continents" 1) I thought there were seven continents. Last I checked I didn't fail earth science. 2) I'll use the Rocky Mountains as my example. (Way way way way way way) Way back in the day, the Rocky mountains did not exist. In its place was a sea. Which was presumably filled with living things. Those living things presumably were not immortal. Some of those presumably fossilized, along with some of their ancestors from previous eras. The Rocky Mountains formed, again to our friends at Plate Tectonics. (source: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov...) "Exceptions" 1) Then they're the EXCEPTIONS and not the RULE. Some great flood eh? 2) I would like to see some of this. As in reports and pictures. Or some websites. Before we dive into this part, I think we need some definition clarification. His link/site says that dating of the flood is at about 3000BC, but it does not say what exactly was dated in order to find out when the flood happened. The second reason to disregard that dating is because it's not from the Genesis, and the resolution is clearly talking about the Genesis account of the flood, not some radiocarbon dating that doesn't even tell us what was dated. So, I looked it up and got Answers in Genesis (lol pun): 2304 (+/- 11) BC. This will be the date of the flood. (source: http://www.answersingenesis.org...) "The origin of civilization is generally agreed to be in the Middle East, which is where Noah's Ark landed[…]" 1) Egypt: "The civilization began around 3150 BC[1] with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and it developed over the next three millennia."* And that's AT UNIFICATION. Their society existed long before that. The flood happened WAY after Egypt's beginnings. 2) Mesopotamia: "The history of Mesopotamia begins with the emergence of urban societies in southern Iraq in the 5th millennium BC"* Using either the false date or the real date of the Flood, neither would have worked as Mesopotamia existed over 2000 years before. "Oldest Written Materials" 1) Sure, but does not coincide with the flood since it only happened four thousand years ago, instead of five to six. "First signs of civilization[…]" 1) Wrong: "Two pottery pieces were unearthed at Liyuzui Cave in Liuzhou, Guangxi Province dated 16,500 and 19,000 BC." (Ancient China)* 2) Still no link, as the flood did not happen in ~8000BC. "Bristlecones" 1) Still no link, as the flood did not happen in ~3000BC. "Study of the buildup of human population[…]" 1) I would like a citation on this, as I cannot find it in the link. "An analysis of 30,000 radiocarbon datings[…]" 1) I can't find this paper on JSTOR, nor Google, so I would like a copy of it. Nonexistent papers have nonexistent weight in debate. But even if we were to assume it was true… 2) I'm sure 30K radiocarbon datings means a really accurate answer, so let's assume that it was right and there was a spike of death in living things at about ~3000BC. Well, the flood happened in ~2000BC. Therefore, no coinciding. I look forward to the following rounds.