If you have not read Stories Versus Truth, you may want to read that before reading this.

Coal Indicates a Young Earth and Global Flood, NOT an Old Earth  

It should be noted that science does not, by itself, have the capacity to prove either a young or an old Earth.   Both positions, the old-Earth position and the young-Earth position, use the same scientific facts to come to very different conclusions based on either presupposition or direct revelation.   I have to say that the scientists on the young Earth side seem to be more aware of which part of their arguments are scientific and which are not than those scientists who have a belief in and old Earth.   Some would say it this way: the differences are in the beliefs, and those beliefs are based either in presuppositions or in revelation.

If the coal seams were formed by forests growing in place, then the coal would have taken long periods of time to form.   If the seams were formed by trees that were deposited quickly during the great flood, then the time period would be short.   Here is the proof that these forests were deposited quickly during the flood:  

• The roots of the trees were enclosed in the sediments just prior to burial.   The trees were not growing in this sediment.
• Coal balls show us that pre-flood trees grew in great floating mats.
• The root system does not match what would exist if the forest were growing in place when it was buried.
• The physical characteristics of the rocks between coal seams the erect lycopod stems point to an extremely fast burial-rate.
• The trees display essential botanical uniformity through consecutive seams indicate a single ecotype rather than evolution.

Source: http://creation.com/floating-forest-ecosystem  

The majority of the literature largely ignores these facts because the writers made Secularist assumptions--no flood, old earth, etc.   They did not consider the actual facts because their minds were closed to reality.  

Ungodly people are forced to hold on tightly to some basic presuppositions.  These presuppositions are just simple-minded assumptions.  They are filters and a way to censor out any information that supports the existence of God.  They set up a web of rules to filter out God.  They will only accept those things that conform to Naturalism, materialism, and uniformitarianism.  Naturalism claims that God does nothing.  Materialism claims that there is no God or spiritual realm.  Uniformitarianism claims that there was not creation and that there was no violent worldwide flood, as the Bible and numerous other historical accounts record.  Whatever they observe that does not conform to this complex filter is censored.  The way that it is censored can take several forms.  The ungodly may boldly proclaim that, though the data appears to support God's version and refute the version of the ungodly, yet it still must be interpreted to mean just the opposite of what it does mean.  A backup method that ungodly people use is to prophecy that in the future, science will be able to explain what they see as an anomaly.  If that fails, they will hide the data, set it aside, or lie to keep the public from knowing the truth.  The data clearly demolishes the story of the ungodly and clearly supports the reality of the Creator God, His Bible, and His abiding Presence in His people.  When confronted with the obvious, a closed-minded ungodly person says, "I can't understand it."  They are willingly ignorant because they refuse to hold God in their knowledge.  The reality is that these people, for whatever reason, don't what to know the Creator.  They don't want to truly know Jesus, their Creator.

There is plenty of evidence for a young Earth and a recent creation:  

• Ten Scientific Facts that Show a Young Earth
• Semi-technical Article
• Several Articles on Various Aspects
• What Evidence is Used to Show that the Earth is Young?
• The Universe was Created Recently.
• Fourteen Easy-To-Understand Reasons for a Young Earth
• Questions and Answers About the Age of the Earth
• Old Galaxies Don't Line Up with Facts