Ancient Forest Discovered in Gulf of Mexico
Wave action from Hurricane Katrina (2005) uncovered an ancient cypress forest at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Located about 10 miles off Alabama’s coast in about 60 feet of water, the cypress is so well-preserved that, when cut, smells like fresh wood!
What is surprising, and humorous though is how a submerged cypress forest can uproot irrational and downright false claims about the past, present, and future!
Old Earth or Young, dinosaurs and humans lived at same time
First watch the video below, then read this article (click here for article). The video claims the forest is 12,000 years old, while the article claims it is 50,000 years old! I would claim both are wrong! The 50,000 year date was arrived at by using radiometric dating methods (C-14), the same methods that are revealing dinosaurs were around at the same time as the submerged cypress trees!
Like many Christians, I trust Biblical history as true history, so I think the 12-50 k year-old dates are incorrect interpretations anyways. It’s the folks who trust radiometric methods to give reliable ages who have A LOT of explaining to do! In the old earth/young earth discussion, reasonable arguments can be made by both sides. However, as anyone whose had some basic high school logic instruction knows, just because an argument is logical, doesn’t mean it’s true. And while there are reasons to believe radiometric dating gives real ages, I say they are not good reasons.
Radioactive Carbon-14 (C-14) decays into Nitrogen, and should be non-existent in objects millions of years old. Researchers used the C-14 method to date the cypress trees at 50,000 years old. But C-14 in dinosaur tissue is giving similar ages! Plus, “old earthers” believe humans have been around for hundreds of thousands of years, so the only reasonable conclusion, whether you interpret the earth as young or old, is that dinos and humans lived at the same time. It is irrational to claim otherwise. So, not only are the old earth conclusions about time not very reasonable, they are downright irrational, too!
Massive sea level rise in the past
Global warming alarmism continues, with doomsday prophets claiming 2047 as the point of no return. But look at this cypress forest, buried in 60 feet of water. Old earth or young, the timeframe here was post-Ice Age. But, talk about sea-level rise! Global warming alarmists have entire nations in a panic over prophecies regarding miniscule sea level rises. These cypress trees reveal though, that not so long ago, the sea level was much, much lower. It’s been rising since the last Ice Age! This is not cause for panic of any sort.
The cypress forest is just one more in a multitude of data points affirming the biblical pattern of Creation, Flood, Ice Age, present. As Michael Oard and other natural historians describe, post-Flood seas were warm, generating massive evaporation, which in turn would generate massive precipitation and ice-buildup. As the oceans cooled, the ice buildup slowed, then started to melt, creating huge spring floods. A catastrophic flood, hurricane, etc., is responsible for rapidly burying the massive cypress trees and submerging them in a rapidly rising Gulf of Mexico.
Federal Mismanagement of Red Snapper
From Alabama to Texas and beyond, red snapper populations are definitely not in jeopardy! In the video below, red snapper are seen swarming around the cypress trees. The same is true around oil and gas platforms off the Texas coast. Yet, in a move that defies reason and reality, the federal government keeps claiming snapper populations are in jeopardy! In recent years, including 2013, excessively tight restrictions were placed on recreational anglers, including month-long seasons (or less), and 2-fish limits. States are getting fed up with the feds, and hopefully they will respond by allowing states to manage snapper populations in federal waters past their own state boundaries. A lot of the confusion over red snapper management stems from bad population models, coupled with politics related to recreational and commercial fisherman. The reality is, there’s plenty of Gulf of Mexico to go around for everyone. With some common-sense management strategies, a reef-dwelling fish like red snapper can be turned into a bounty for commercial and recreational angler alike.
By trusting Scripture as true history and trusting God’s directive to “do science” in Genesis 1:26-28, Christians everywhere can come to more reasonable conclusions than the world does regarding the past, present and future.
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Studying His Word and His Works 
October 12, 2013 at 4:40 am
So, let me get this straight. It’s not the evidence you care about (whether dating methods are accurate or not) you will always trust the history of your religion and I take it if you were to discover evidence that dispelled the history you believe in, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference anyway. If that is correct, why would you bother posting videos that only agree with your presupposition? When you say those who accept dating methods and can show you the work, why do you get a pass and not have to show yours?
October 12, 2013 at 6:55 am
Hi Jordan,
When discussing natural history, the main issue isn’t the evidence, it’s the interpretation of the evidence. Regarding history, yes, I trust a plain reading of Scripture, and believe it is a valid tool for interpreting natural history. So, in an example like these cypress trees, I have no disagreement that this event occurred towards the end of the Ice Age. I have no disagreement that the trees must have been buried rapidly in sediments that quickly became anoxic, otherwise they wouldn’t be so well-preserved. The only disagreement I have is on when this occurred.
And notice, even the article and the video I linked to disagree on the dates! The video says 12 kya, the article says 50 kya, I say about 4 kya. So the problem here is that there is no interpretation that has “dispelled the history” I believe in. Whether 4, 12, or 50 kya, these are just interpretations. And honestly, does it make more sense to say a fossilized tree, that when cut smells like fresh cut wood, is 4,000 or 50,000 years old? Both dates surprise me, but 4 kya makes a lot more sense. Plus, the probability of a Katrina-sized storm uncovering these logs goes way up if they have been around for 12 to 50 kya compared to 4 kya.
So, you see, natural history research is about interpretation of a one-time event that occurred in the unrecorded past. Scientific research is about verification of testable, repeatable phenomena. The media and some dogmatic evolutionists would do well to discern better between the two. Natural history should be a discussion, not a “battle”. Discuss history, do science.
And by the way, if you want me to show you my research on problems with another radiometric method, Ar/Ar, go here: https://drshormann.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/ar-ar-calibration-against-novarupta.pdf
October 12, 2013 at 3:08 pm
Let’s say for a moment that these dating methods are competely false. What methods are you using to date your preceieved notions? You can’t use scripture, after all it can not only not be demonstrated, but doesn’t give a specific frame of time. In other other words, can you show your work to give credence to your claim. Thank you and may God bless you.
October 12, 2013 at 7:52 pm
Well, I trust Scripture as true history. I know there are logical reasons not to do that, but I just don’t think they are very good reasons. A plain reading of Scripture says God created in 6 normal days. I don’t feel a need to limit His power by saying those were 6 periods if time, etc. If He wanted to create everything in 6 seconds, I’m quite sure He could! But He says it took 6 days, and the Adam to Christ genealogies leave no room whatsoever for millions of years.
The dates on the cypress trees range from 12k to 50k. Obviously, there’s a lot of confusion out there regarding how old things are.
October 13, 2013 at 7:14 am
You put too many limits on God. God is limitless. Scripture is fallible and written by man. It can be trusted, but one must be careful in trusting things that men who knew very little about the world, much less anything outside their own communities. The study of God’s world has shown us how the intrepations of scriptures such as Genesis are wrong and why they are wrong. To ignore the evidences left by the natural world tarnishes the glory of God’s creation.
October 13, 2013 at 11:54 am
Hi Jordan, I totally agree that God is limitless, so please don’t suggest that I am “limiting God.” Scripture reveals a pattern of Creation, Flood, Ice Age, Present. People reject free inquiry into natural history when they reject a plain reading of Scripture as true history. And they set man up in God’s place when they say “Scripture is fallible.” As if God is wringing His hands and exclaiming “Oh no! How will I use these fallible humans to teach the Truth about history?!”
The pattern in Scripture IS visible in the rock record. I hope the big differences in ages in these fossil cypress trees will encourage you and other readers to be more skeptical of man’s interpretations of the past, and less skeptical of God’s ability to work through broken vessels to reveal True history to us.
October 15, 2013 at 3:11 am
“…, just because an argument is logical, doesn’t mean it’s true.”
However, if an argument is illogical, it is unlikely to be true.
October 15, 2013 at 8:56 am
Right Dave, like the arguments made here that a cypress forest at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico could be 12,000 years old AND 50,000 years old at the same time 🙂