Coral Reefs and the Young Earth

Perhaps you have been able to do some diving and visit giant coral reefs, but like me, you have seen them in movies and television. Some reefs are referred to in the singular, such at the Great Barrier Reef, but they are actually several reefs in one area. They provide homes for many kinds of critters, and are a food source for many others. The formation of reefs is used by secularists as an argument that the earth is old. Is that accurate, or are they just blowing smoke bubbles?

Palmyra Atoll, NOAA photo by Erin Looney

Corals build skeletons for themselves when they draw calcium out of the water, and these accumulate. They have specific needs to thrive, and different corals have different needs. Naturally, the reefs are built at different rates. Using uniformitarian views, the reefs are mighty slow to form. However, secularists are known to ignore inconvenient evidence, and there is evidence that reefs can form much more rapidly than they want to believe. The Genesis Flood would have devastated the existing reefs, but the corals didn't mind, they just built more.

What do you know about coral reefs? Most people would answer this question with some bit of information gathered from a documentary or animated film set in coral reefs. While few people have spent much time in coral reefs, many could identify them as places of exquisite beauty and diversity. A visit to any aquarium in the world will demonstrate this, as many exhibits are dedicated to these essential ecosystems.

Marine ecologists also recognize coral reefs as places with incredible diversity and sources of diversity for many other marine environments. In fact, almost 25% of the surveyed marine animal groups living in open oceans began in reefs and spread into other ecosystems. What is it about coral reefs that allow them to support so much life and generate diversity?

To read the rest of the article, click on "Giant Coral Reefs—Too Old for a Young Earth?" For a related item, you may like to see "Rapid Reef Growth? We Don't Mind Atoll".