Wording of this Handout:
What is a fossil?
A fossil is usually something preserved in a rock, such as the bones of an
animal.
Have you ever wondered how an animal could ever become part of a rock?
The answer is in the Bible, in chapters 6 and 7 of Genesis
The Bible says that, soon after God made the first people, they became
bad and disobedient, so God warned them. He said if they didn't change
their ways, He would punish them by sending a flood to cover the whole
world. He gave them 120 years to make up their minds!
Sadly, only one man, Noah and his family, believed God's warning, so they
built a huge ship. Into this ship went a large number of animals, and then
the flood arrived.
The water of the flood rose higher and higher, until everything was covered
- mountains, hills and forests. the water swirled and rushed here and
there, stirring up the mud and, gradually the animals in the water drowned
and sank under the mud.
After a year, the flood ran off the world and drained into the ocean,
but all the buried animals and plants were squashed under the mud and
stones. The mud hardened into rock, and now, today, people can chip into
the rock and find the bones - the fossils.
So fossils are like the remains of a cemetary: buried bones and buried
plants.
In some places the buried trees were so thick they turned into coal. In
other places the plants and animals turned into crude, black oil. This is
why oil and coal are called fossil fuels", but how many people really
understand where they come from?
So the next time to see a fossil, think of the Bible, and the great flood
which God sent to punish a wicked world.