On August 8th 1588, the English Navy comprehensively defeated the famous Spanish Armada, thus ensuring that England remained a Protestant country, and securing the freedom to preach the Gospel, which is characteristic of the English-speaking world. Many of the fleeing ships of the Armada were driven by poor weather up the West coast of Ireland. One, La Girona, having taken on 1,300 survivors, set sail for Scotland in October. On October 26th 1588, La Gironahit jagged rocks off Lacada Point, County Antrim, off what is now the coast of Northern Ireland, causing the death of all but nine of the Spanish sailors. The unusual rock structures located at this site are part of a remarkable formation, which can also been on land at the nearby Giant’s Causeway.

Giant's Causeway

The Giant’s Causeway, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK

Result of Rapid Catastrophe

The Giant’s Causeway looks like the remains of an enormous pavement, supposedly joining County Antrim to Scotland. Local legend has it that the Causeway was built by the giant Fionn mac Cumhaill to aid him in his battles against a Scottish giant called Benandonner. Evolutionary mythology—no less fanciful—suggests that the hexagonal prisms of basalt were formed 50 to 60 million years ago. Old Earth geologists acknowledge, however, that the strange characteristics in these rocks must have happened as basaltic lava cooled very rapidly, in successive influxes of water.

The creationist geologist, Dr. Tas Walker, has shown that the cracking of newly solidified basalt must have happened considerably more rapidly than evolutionary geologists allow. He has shown that the prisms most likely formed during a series of volcanic eruptions, during which lava, “squeezed out like big blobs of toothpaste,” flowed over newly flooded land in the early stages of the Genesis Flood. Water was successively displaced by these periodic eruptions, then flowed back, cracking the surfaces and producing the formations, which can be seen today. Evolutionary interpretations at the attraction’s Visitors’ Centre suggest that a large band of soft orange material, containing coalified vegetation, must come from an ancient soil millions of years old formed in a peat swamp. Yet the crumbly layer has preserved the vegetation too well for millions of years, and contains pollens and tree parts from species such as cedar and pine, which do not grow in swamps.

Hexagonal Basalt Prisms at the Giant's Causeway

Hexagonal Basalt Prisms at the Giant’s Causeway

Evolutionary evidence that the rocks are millions of years old comes from radiometric dating. Other articles on this site show that such radiometric dates are not measured, but calculated, using a series of unprovable assumptions. Therefore, these calculations cannot constitute “proof” of age, as different assumptions would give different “ages.”

Consistent with the Bible

Walker concludes, “The geologic evidence [of the Giant’s Causeway] is consistent with the world-shattering event described in the Bible—the event that dramatically affected the course of human history just 4,500 years ago (Genesis 6-9).”1 Evidence from creationists like Dr. Walker is so strong that even the National Trust of Northern Ireland, which operates and manages the site and Visitors’ Centre, has acknowledged in its displays that the creationist interpretation exists; a logical and honorable stand by the National Trust that has nevertheless earned them criticism from prominent atheists, like Richard Dawkins, in recent days. If you are ever fortunate to find yourself in Northern Ireland, one of my favorite places, make your way to the Giant’s Causeway on the Northern coast, pay your visitor’s fee to an organization of honorable evolutionists, and reflect on the two historic disasters of the Flood and the Armada, and how God used these events for His purposes in history.

 

  1. Walker, T., A Giant Cause, Creation 27(2):28-34, 2005, < http://www.creation.com/giantcause >