Thanks for all your help everyone! I think I'm done with this topic for a while. Managed to correct several misconceptions that I had and re-learned some basic Earth Science.
One of the main questions was "why does it HAVE to take such great breadths of time to see what we see?" I think the answer is that it really doesn't have to, however, all current evidence suggests that on Earth, things did take a long time to happen, and things are still happening today, at a very slow pace...but sometimes it's "fast".
I have interests over several topics, so I'll be around, not sure how often I'll participate...this is only the second time since I became a member.
Mods, feel free to close this up if you like.