Bell-ieve It: Rapid Rock Formation Rings True

Originally published in Creation 20, no 2 (March 1998): 6.

These ‘fossil’ ship’s bells (pictured in Creation magazine) were found recently about 50 metres (170 feet) off the coast of Victoria, Australia.

These metal bells have become firmly encased in solid rock. The specimen is currently in the possession of the Maritime Archaeological Unit of Heritage Victoria, where it is being desalinated.

Most of us have been so ‘evolutionized’ by our culture that things like rocks or fossils are immediately associated with millions of years of slow processes. It does not often register with the general public that there is no scientific reason to believe that rocks take millions of years to form—it all depends on having the right ingredients.

Of course, these ship’s bells are not millions of years old. They come from the wreck of the wooden sailing ship Isabella Watson, which sank off the coast of Victoria in 1852.

The bells are firmly cemented in a rock matrix. Found in one metre of water, they have been highly polished by surf action.

Such concrete evidence (excuse the pun) should remind us that there has been ample time for the hardening of sediments into rock in the thousands of years of real earth history given in the Bible, God’s Word.

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