I just read, a short time ago, that Arkansas is home to many marine fossils - especially in the Ozark region of the state. Even fossilized shark teeth have apparently been found here. The explanation offered was that Arkansas was once covered by a sea.

Also explained by the Arkansas history site was how fossils are formed - objects must be quickly covered by sediment and pressed into stone or they will just be eaten or decay on the sea floor.

I found this interesting because the state of Kansas, and especially the western part of the state where I lived and roamed for years, is home to an abundance of fossilized sea life, including huge sharks and other prehistoric sea creatures. I remember seeing fossils in the many limestone formations left in valleys and plains where much was apparently washed away by the receding waters of seas. Some of the fossils and drawings of these ancient and apparently fierce sea creatures were enough to make a person think twice about setting foot into a Kansas lake or river - just in case one escaped extinction.

A little more research revealed fossilized sea life in western states, eastern states, southern states, northern states, Canada, the Grand Canyon in Arizona and on the top of Mt. Everest in the Himalayas. Whale fossils have been found high in the Andes Mountains.

The explanations offered suggest ancient seas and slow changes over millions and millions of years - going back more than 500 million on some sites, even though I don't know how anyone could accurately determine anything that long ago.

Yet, the slow changes don't make any sense to me. They don't seem to fit the facts these websites provide.

The fact of marine life everywhere, including on mountain tops, and the sudden and quick covering of plants and animals in sediment and, with great pressure, turned into stone, seems much better evidence of a sudden change in the earth and a sudden covering of the earth by the seas. The erosion, in so many places, doesn't look like erosion from a gradual lifting up of the land and drying up of the seas, but of a sudden lifting up and runoff of huge amounts of water, cutting canyons, leaving buttes and rock formations and layers of sediment pressed into stone by the weight and pressure of the deep waters which for a time covered everything.

I find the evidence rather convincing proof of the truthfulness of Genesis 6-8, where God, in judgment upon the wickedness of humankind, sent a flood to cover all the earth and destroy man from the face of the earth.

In the Genesis account, it not only rained and poured for a straight 40 days and 40 nights, the floodgates of the deep were opened, thewaters continued to rise until they covered the highest mountains by more than 20 feet (the Bible says 15 cubits). The flood prevailed on the earth and didn't begin to recede until after 150 days. The ark did not come to rest on the mountains of Ararat until the second half of the seventh month. The tops of the mountains were not seen until the 10th month. Noah, his family and the animals were on board the ark for a year and 10 days. God caused the waters to cover the mountains and, at His word, they "fled" and "hastened away" ... down into the valleys and to the place He had founded for them (Ps. 104:5-9).

The great flood which covered the earth for nearly a year could explain a lot of marine life in places one might not expect to find it. The pressures of the flood waters sweeping over and covering the land would explain the covering of plants and animals with silt and mud. The height of the waters offers reason for the mud and debris to be pressed into hardened rock. The runoff of the flood waters after the flood would explain the plains, deep valleys and canyons, the buttes and rock formations filled with fossils.

Indeed, there is no need to speculate about unknown millions and millions of years when a world-wide flood of less than 4,500 years ago, recorded in the Bible and mentioned in other ancient literature and traditions from around the world, can explain it all!

Randy Moll is the editor of the Westside Eagle Observer and may be contacted by email at [email protected].

Opinion, Pages 6 on 02/06/2013