“So how did the seed get so high, and how did Mt. Everest get covered with water?” interrupted Kami.

“I was just getting to that. Almost 200 years ago, the founder of modern geology, Charles Lyell (who was an agnostic and wanted to explain everything without God or the Bible), proposed that the slow, gradual processes we see happening today explain why everything looks the way it does. This is a foundational assumption of modern geology called uniformitarianism—the idea that observation of the present is the key to understanding the past. This is not a fact, but a belief that guides our thinking and (if wrong) can blind scientists, even today. The Bible tells us something completely different—that miraculous acts of God in the past (Creation, the Fall, and the Flood) are why the universe and life exist and why everything looks the way it does today. In other words, Satan has twisted the truth backwards. The past is actually the key to understanding the present.”

“But what does this have to do with water covering mountains?” Kami and Ruby asked together.

“Once again, I was just getting to that. Did you know there are fossilized sea creatures both on top of the White Mountains and Mt. Everest? The rock layers covering 75% of the exposed land surfaces on Earth are made of sedimentary rock formed from particles (sediments) fused together under water. We also know there has been enormous land movement and volcanism around the Earth in the past. Modern scientists are simply trained to believe these things happened slowly over millions of years because we see these changes happening slowly today. They misinterpret the past because they leave the worldwide Flood out of their thinking. But there is enormous evidence—often ignored—that shows the mountains of today were shoved upward midway through the year-long Flood of Noah, and that the sedimentary rock layers of the planet formed recently and rapidly.” At this point the Professor stopped talking to let them think about what he had explained.

It didn’t take long before Ruby piped in with another question. “What kind of evidence?”

The Professor pointed to the side of the mountain with exposed rock layers. “Do you see how the layers of rock ahead of us are not flat and level, but bent and tilted upward? Sediments that drop to the bottom of oceans, lakes, or streams form flat surfaces—not stacked layers that are bent and folded. At some time in the past, these huge, thick layers of sediment were pushed upward, causing them to tilt and fold.

“Modern scientists teach that this happened slowly over millions of years. A Biblical understanding infers enormous earth movement over a matter of months as entire continents shifted midway through the Flood, causing ocean basins to deepen and mountains to rise. By observing the characteristics of these folded layers—using scientific observation—we can determine which belief fits the evidence.”

This time the Professor paused deliberately, baiting the two into asking another question.

“So how can we know which belief is the truth?” they asked.

“If the mountains were pushed up slowly, millions of years after the rock layers formed, the sediment layers would either break as they folded, or be compressed on the inside edge and stretched on the outside edge of the bend. This means the density and/or structure of the rock within a bend would be different at the top and bottom surface.”

The Professor stopped, pulled his Bible from his backpack, and bent it in half. “Do you see how the pages at the bottom of the bend are compressed into a shorter distance, and the pages at the top are extended farther? The same is true with bent sediment layers. The pages are flexible so they can slip past one another. If rock layers were bent when hard, they would have broken or shown different structures (density or morphology) at the top and bottom. But they don’t.

“The only explanation that fits the evidence is that entire mountains were pushed up while the sediment was still relatively soft—like very thick mud. Then it would flow uniformly into its new folded and tilted position without breaking. This is exactly what would have happened in the later stages of the Flood and we find these unbroken folded sediments in mountains across the world. It means these rock layers could not have been millions of years old when the mountains were uplifted and this event happened rapidly and recently – just as the Bible teaches.”

By now the team had reached the hover-jet. With much to think about, they carefully packed their precious samples and headed for home.