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100 Reasons to Choose Biblical Creation Over Evolution
65. Circular Reasoning
As more than one scientist has noted, the fossil record depicting the succession of life from simple to complex, upward through the rock layers, is the primary evidence that evolution has occurred.
"Fossils provide the only historical, documentary evidence that life has evolved from simpler to more complex forms." Carl O. Dunbar, Historical Geology, 2nd Ed., 1960, p.47
Remember that this "geologic column" doesn't exit anywhere on the planet. It is a mental abstraction based on the assumption that evolution has occurred. Here is a classic case on circular reasoning at work. Evolutionists date the rock layers according to the fossils they contain, with the more "simple" life forms assigned to the older periods, the more "evolved" life being interpreted as belonging to more recent time periods. At the same time, evolutionists boldly claim that the fossil record shows an evolutionary progression. Because the geologic column does not exist except in the minds of men, it is misleading to speak of evolution being documented by the fossil record. Evolutionary scientists themselves admit that circular reasoning is integral to their worldview:A
"Are the authorities maintaining, on the one hand, that evolution is documented by geology and on the other hand, that geology is documented by evolution? Isn't this a circular argument?" Larry Azar, "Biologists, Help!" Bioscience, November, 1978, p.714
"Contrary to what most scientists write, the fossil record does not support the Darwinian theory of evolution, because it is this theory (there are several) which we use to interpret the fossil record. By doing so, we are guilty of circular reasoning if we then say that the fossil record supports this theory." Ronald R. West, "Paleontology and Uniformatarianism" in Compass, May 1968, p.216
65. Circular Reasoning - Notes and References
A. "The intelligent layman has long suspected circular reasoning in the use of rocks to date fossils and fossils to date rocks. The geologist has never bothered to think of a good reply, feeling that explanations are not worth the trouble as long as the work brings results. This is supposed to be hard-headed pragmatism…The rocks do date the fossils, but the fossils date the rocks more accurately. Stratigraphy cannot avoid this kind of reasoning, if it insists on using only temporal concepts, because circularity is inherent in the derivation of time scales." J.E. O'Rourke, "Pragmatism versus Materialism in Stratigraphy", American Journal of Science, vol. 276, January, 1976, p.47