Editor, The Smithfield Times:

I often read the A to Z Kids News published on the last page of the paper because there are sometimes fun facts that I may have forgotten as a kid, and to see what kind of information our kids are being taught about different subjects. 

Last week the article was about the Grand Canyon, but after reading the article I felt I needed to write to add some perspective and correct what could be considered misinformation. The story used facts that stated the Grand Canyon was carved by the Colorado River over a period of 6 billion years. We often hear this logic and it has been repeated so many times that most people think it is a fact, even though there is mounting evidence that the canyon could not have been formed this way and was most likely formed by a cataclysmic flood erosion event more like 6,000 or 7,000 years ago. This geological phenomenon was shown to be possible with the creation of massive canyons in mere minutes during the eruption and subsequent erosion events of Mount St. Helens. At a minimum articles like this need to state that “some scientists believe that the canyon was created by the Colorado River” instead of often repeating these theories as facts. That way when some kid asks, “How come all of the other rivers in America didn’t carve mile-deep canyons over 6 billion years?”, you can truthfully say that it is just a theory since no one was here 6 billion years ago and there is other evidence to refute that theory. That is how we develop critical thinkers and not fill our kids’ heads with misinformation. 

If you would like to find out more about how the Grand Canyon was probably carved, go to https://answersingenesis.org/geology/grand-canyon-facts/.

 

Keith Armstrong

Smithfield