Time to wack a few minor errors..comments I do not understand or can't answer at the moment deleted. Mostly because I'm too lazy to do the needed research at the moment (finals will do that.
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"What is there to see? Evolution demands a fossil record jam-packed with transitional forms of all sorts in all stages between all species (unless you Subscribe to punctuated equilibrium). For that matter, I would expect at least some fossils of failed species--"transitional" forms that didn't make it."
AKA extinct species? Like, oh, Neanderthol (sp)? Fossils can only form under specific circumstances, as well. Especially for soft-bodied organisms.
"There is a total, 100% absence of transitional forms in our fossil record--not a single missing link."
Hmm. I'm pretty sure this is incorrect simply because I've seen pictures of primitive whales. They -don't- look like modern whales, and have several land-based features. That's microevoltion, but the point stands.
The probability for evolution is absolutely absurd. The odds for the formation of life, alone, are far above 10^55, the "line of improbability"; let alone any other part of evolution."
Time factor. Also interesting that you claim to know the odds, but say we don't know what the early earth was like. If we don't know what the early earth was like, we *can't* get any real odds. Just wild guesses.
"The earth's rotational speed (or the sun's rising speed ) is slowing down. Millions or billions of years ago, the winds would have been thousands of miles per hour."
You're assuming it falls off at the same rate as current. Rotational speed only affects wind by affecting the heating rate (and producing greater Corlis, but that shouldn't icnrease wind speed).
"Short-period comets should have long ago been exhausted."
How many did we start with?
"Jupiter and Saturn are losing heat twice as fast as they gain it. They should have cooled off long ago."
Lesse..heat out there would have to be from radioactive decay and/or pressure. Radioactive decay heat drops exponentially. At the start they would cool much faster than at the end.
"Io is losing matter to Jupiter, and should have disappeared by now."
Io didn't have to from when Jupiter did.
"The erosion of the continents should have been accomplished in 14 million years at present rates."
Volcanic activity creates more land area, as do a few other things IIRC. The continental drift maps that show the continents the -exact same size and shape- as today are weird, though.
"The rock encasing oil deposits would crack after ~10 thousand years. It's not cracked--we still have oil "gushers.""
For every single deposit? Somehow I doubt it.
"There is very little sediment on the ocean floor."
The oldest ocean floor found is a few hundred million years old. It's contunally destroyed, and that takes the sediment with it.
"The expansion of the Sahara desert should have engulfed all of Africa in a few hundred thousand years."
Assuming it expanded at the current rate. There's evidence some human activites increase desertifcation, and for that matter climate change can do the same (or shrink it).
:Earth's population should be much higher after hundreds of thousands of years. It reflects about 4-5 thousand years of growth."
Are you familiar with an exponential growth curve? Or carrying capacities? I assume you mean with that. the population has had restraints removed recently; infant mortality and deaths from disease are down, farming increases the amount of food and thus the population that can survive, etc.
"The oldest coral reef is less than 4200 years old. The oldest living tree is 4300 years old."
Living things -die-. That answers the tree part. You might as well state that the oldest human isn't more than 100 years old, therefore the earth can't be more than X years old.
As for the coral, the ocean floor would take care of most of the very old deposits. Erosin (sp could elimiate the rest after a few thousand years. Coral only grows under certain conditions, and not all coral is reef-forming.
"Stalactite and stalagmite formations do not reflect thousands of years/inch. There are 50-inch stalactites under the Washington Monument."
WACK! Oh, sorry, I broke it off.
Seriously, formation rates could vary. I don't remember exactly how they form, but I'm fairly certain they need water to form. The WM recieves quite a lot more water than most caves. Speaking of which, -under- the moment? Uh, where? In the basement? The momument itself, being really tall tapered pillar, doesn't seem well-suited to form those.
"The Mississippi River delta only reflects ~30,000 years of accumulated sediment."
Which happens to blow the literal creationist 6000-year viewpoint out of the water if true, but hey. Hmm. I'm no expert on rivers, but I know the Mississippi has moved course at least once (IIRC the 1812 earthquake moved it a bit)
"Topsoil formation rates do not support billions or even millions of years, but a few thousand."
I'm assuming you mean net formation rate. See the desert comment.
Phoenix-D