This morning "In our Time" Melvyn Bragg and his guests discussed the geological formation of Britain. You can download the podcast from this link. They inevitably touched on plate tectonics
As I was listening to it, I wondered just what the 40% of Americans who believe in the literal truth of the Bible-"young age creationists"- would make of this. They believe that the earth is about 6,000 years old.
We have teachers in Britain who believe the same. Nick Cowan is a science teacher at the Bluecoat School in Liverpool. Watch him in discussion with Richard Dawkins,
and ask yourself- would you like Mr Cowan teaching your kids science?
Back to plate tectonics.
Just how do creationists of the young age variety, like Cowen, work out how the continents turned out as they did?
They accept the continents have moved over time, but they think it happened during the 40 days and nights during which Noah, his family and all the animals, presumably including dinosaurs and monkeys, were aboard the Arc. Everything must have happened at high speed.
Richard Dawkins in his "Greatest Show on Earth" has done the sums for us. South America and Africa sped away from each other faster than a man can swim-for 40 days and nights.
