Working in Fort Worth I became acquainted with an attorney whose friendship is now a fine memory. We had many conversations about life and science and religion. And we have lost track with one another as so often happens in this life.

One such discussion veered onto the “age of the earth”, which for some reason was a big deal at the time. The attorney was convinced that the earth was multiple billions of years old. Although I was also taught likewise in my elementary and high school science classes, I nevertheless remained doubtful.

I asked, “Remember Mount St. Helens?” Of course, we both remembered. After all, at the time of our conversation, that cataclysmic event had not been that long ago.

That volcanic eruption took place on May 18, 1980, forty-two years ago this month, and changed the face of the earth for miles around. 

The eruption blew out the side of the great mountain at 300 miles per hour with temperatures of 660 degrees Fahrenheit. One hundred-year-old trees snapped like toothpicks. The surface of the earth changed in a matter of minutes. Mudflows cut 100-feet canyons in hours, leaving layers of rock which would usually be interpreted as geological ages. In the following months, mudflows cut hundreds of feet of solid rock. The canyons created are reminiscent of the Grand Canyon, only smaller. 

My attorney friend and I had been taught that the Grand Canyon had to have taken hundreds of millions of years to have been formed. However, Mount St. Helens canyons were formed in mere months. 

Trees clogged Spirit Lake and formed three feet of bark peat in just a few years. Huge trunks sank to the bottom of the lake and stood upright as “buried trees”, similar to the “millions of years old” buried trees in Yellowstone Park’s fossil forest. Only the Spirit Lake buried trees came about in roughly a decade.

The Mount St. Helens catastrophe was minuscule compared to the worldwide flood of Noah’s day. Yet, she changed the face of the earth around her in a matter of days and weeks and a decade or two. Even forty-two years later, its impact is still developing.

Should geologists return to their ancient roots and consider that the earth’s age cannot be determined woodenly? That is, instead of “uniformitarianism”, believing (by faith) that whatever is seen on the surface of the earth has occurred by uniform, natural processes, perhaps we ought to consider cataclysms, including the Great Flood of Noah’s day when “were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.”

Surely such a cataclysm gave an appearance of age which modern geologists would be wise to consider, no?

My attorney friend and I discussed this at great length including finding seashells atop mountains and being told they were millions of years old. Really? They looked exactly like those we’d find on the beach over the weekend. As children we wondered about that assertion.

We still wondered.

It was a stimulating conversation.

But we never had the opportunity to discuss again.