This from the Grand Canyon website

[donheld]

http://www.nps.gov/archive/grca/education/LessonPlans/Geotimeline_LessonPlans.htm




The Colorado River began to Carve the Grand Canyon 5-6 million years ago

Uplift of the Colorado Plateau began 60 mya

Dinosaurs went extinct. 65 mya

Age of dinosaurs began 245 mya

The Kaibab Limestone formed 270 mya

The Coconino Sandstone formed 275 mya

The Redwall Limestone formed 340 mya

The Bright Angel Shale formed 515 mya

The oldest rock visible at Grand Canyon formed 1.8 bya

4.6 billion years ago the Earth took form

[justice1]

1. Another urban legend for snopes?

[Bluebear]

15. Hardly.

[opihimoimoi]

2. Human Stupidity Level Peaked 6 years ago

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. I disagree

I don't think the human stupidity level has peaked yet.

[opihimoimoi]

10. Ya got me with that one...evidence strongly suggest you are right...

[Warren Stupidity]

3. Meanwhile the complaint from PEER is quite specific.

"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."

http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=801

'kay?

And happy new year.

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. I am offended

that someone else's religious beliefs are being forced down my throat.

My religion says the universe is billions of years old.

[Warren Stupidity]

9. Actually scientific evidence establishes the age

of the universe within certain margins of error. It has nothing to do with religion.

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. Unless of course

Science is your religion.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. It would seem you don't understand the difference.

Religion is based on faith. Science is based on reason.

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. So you can't have a religion

that is based on reason?

[Warren Stupidity]

16. Not if it believes in a supernatural diety.

Which would be within the common meaning of a religion. You could adhere to or follow a reason based philosophy, but most people would not think of that as a religion. If you want to redefine the common meaning of words to argue some obscure point, have fun.

[Toots]

4. I thought the "Big Bang only occured four billion years ago..

I also thought the oldest rocks on earth were in Canada and they were five hundred million years old. The rocks at the bottom of the Grand Canyon are supposed to be four hundred million years old. Funny how these figures differ from what I was taught...

[IDemo]

6. between 10 billion and 20 billion years ago

Earth cooled roughly 4 billion years ago, which is about how old the oldest rocks found (in Canada) are.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html

[City Lights]

5. Their FAQ page answers the age question:

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.

http://www.nps.gov/grca/faqs.htm#old

[Bluebear]

14. This is not about their "website".

It's about what park guides are being told what to say and selling books in a government bookstore that explains that Noah's flood made the canyon. Thanks.

[Warren Stupidity]

17. Indeed.

And it seems that no amount of putting noses in the plain facts as reported by PEER make a difference.