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Comment: There is no geological evidence to support such a scenario. Photosynthetic bacteria have been present in the oceans of the world since between 3.5 and 4 billion years ago, a fact demonstrated by the ratio of carbon isotopes in fossil remains that is unique to photosynthesis by living organisms. Additionally, studies of crater formation on the moon demonstrate that bombardment by large planetesimals virtually ceased by 3.8 billion years ago and that crater formation fell to the current level at about that time. An Earth, two thirds its present size just 1.5 billion years ago is not a possibility.
Oxygen is the waste product of photosynthesis, itself a biological process. 3.8 billion years ago these bacteria had oxygenated the waters sufficiently to convert the soluble ferrous iron salts to the insoluble oxidized ferric form. Deposits from this process are present as sedimentary strata at Isua in Greenland and elsewhere. Barite/gypsum deposits, aged 3.5 billion years are found at places like Pilbarra in Western Australia, and are the result of oxidation of sulfides to sulfates. This oxidation process continued until 1.7 billion years ago when the oceans were cleared of the excess reduced salts.
A period of "thousands of years" during which the "sun never shone on the earth's surface" would have wiped out all photosynthetic organisms. Thus the incredibly complicated oxygen producing process of photosynthesis would have needed to evolve all over again. But the evidence is for a sharp rise in atmospheric oxygen commencing in this period, rising towards 10% of current levels by its end, 1.0 billion years ago.3,4
Page-660. 1,000,000,000 years ago. "The planet had attained approximately its present size…. The real geologic history of Urantia begins with the cooling of the earth's crust sufficiently to cause the formation of the first ocean. Water-vapor condensation on the cooling surface of the earth, once begun, continued until it was virtually complete. By the end of this period the ocean was world-wide, covering the entire planet to an average depth of over one mile. The tides were then in play much as they are now observed, but this primitive ocean was not salty; it was practically a fresh-water covering for the world. In those days, most of the chlorine was combined with various metals, but there was enough, in union with hydrogen, to render this water faintly acid."
Comment: The Urantia Paper describes a period of 500,000,000 years prior to this billion year period during which "the surface of the planet was bombarded by meteorites so that it increased its mass by one third, for much of the time was a fiery inferno due to volcanic activity, and for thousands of years was enveloped in steam." And ocean formation commenced only after this period.
In conflict with the above, craters and maree on the moon's surface date back as far as 3.9 billion years, and present no signs for a meteor bombardment that could increase the Earth's mass by one third in this period.
Also algal fossils are known aged 1.9 billion years from the Gunflint formations in Canada and aged 1.5 billion years from the Amelia dolomites in Australia. Current estimates are that the oceans reached their present degree of salinity 1.5 to 2 billion years ago.3 And sea dwelling Ediacaran creatures3 were present on the ocean bottoms from almost one billion years ago to the late Pre-Cambrian a half billion years later
The description in the Paper is diametrically opposed to the evidence of modern investigatory sciences--so much so that any new reader having a sound knowledge of the new technologies of geophysics and astronomy would be mystified as to why it was ever written.
Page-663. 750,000,000 years ago the first breaks in the continental land mass began…
Comment: We finally arrive at what is a truly prophetic statement for the period in which it was made. This breakup of a single land mass is the commencement of continental drift, now a virtually unopposed theory. But up until towards the end of the 1950 period it was vigorously opposed by the vast majority of professional geologists. The concept was put forward around 1910 by Alfred Wegener and drew almost hysterical opposition from many prominent geologists.1
British geophysicist, Sir Harold Jeffreys, spent years attempting to demonstrate that continental drift is impossible because the strength of the mantle should be greater than any conceivable driving force. Eminent American geologist, R. T. Chamberlin listed 18 points that he considered destructive of the hypothesis.
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