The topic of the flood is an important one. Because if the Bible
cannot be relied upon when it tells us about things past, how can we
rely upon it when it discusses things of the future? This topic
discusses all the arguments that the author of the SAB has mentioned
against The Flood.
The evidence for the global flood outside of the Bible is literally
overwhelming. A categorized selection follows here:
Human history
- Although the Bible has the most detailed account of a global
flood, it is not the only story of a global flood. More than 500 flood
stories have been found in all regions of the world such North and
South America, South Sea Islands, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Japan,
China, India, the Middle East, Europe and Africa (see Frazer, J.G.,
Folk-lore in the Old Testament: studies in comparative religion,
Vol. 1, Macmillan, London, pp. 105-361, 1918).
All these stories agree on three points: there was a global man
and animal destroying flood by water; an ark or ship was used as means
of escape; and only a few men escaped to continue the human race. The
global flood left such a deep impression on mankind that they took
this story with them when the earth was repopulated. Evolutionists
immediately cry “common ancestor” when they see some
similarities. But of course when such a thing might confirm a Biblical
story all these hundreds of stories and there remarkable similarity
are purely coincedental.
- Even Aboriginals have their flood stories.
- Stories of a global flood abound even in America. For example the Aztecs
have a flood story.
Fossils
Fossils don't form easily. You need specific conditions. If an animal
dies, it will not turn into a fossil.
An animal will
only turn into a fossil if it is very rapidly buried under
sediment:
Clearly, dead animals will not fossilize in the ocean under
normal circumstances. Their scattered bones do not lie around long
enough to be covered by sediment. Special conditions are needed to
form fossils, especially to preserve the bones in their correct
orientation. The creature has to be buried quickly to protect it from
marine scavengers.
However, we don’t find animals being
rapidly buried in the oceans today. Well-preserved fossils point to
catastrophe—to sudden death and burial before the animal was
scavenged, scattered and obliterated. Well-preserved fossils are
consistent with the unusual conditions associated with the global
Flood of the Bible.
The usually presented conditions as “slow” and
“long time” won’t work.
The second thing to mention with regards to fossils are that we tend
to find mass graves of fossils. Surprising for evolutionists and
uniformitarians. But not surprising when we know that once the earth
was very rapidly covered with water and great layers of sediment
buried many animals.
Mass
graves point to rapid, catostrophic burial:
Remarkably, these rapidly buried fossil whales contradict one
of the ruling principles of modern geology,
uniformitarianism—i.e. rocks formed slowly in the past similar to
what we observe in the present. Interpreted according to that
principle, the whales were buried over a period of two million years
about 10 million years ago. However, the fact that 80 m of sediment
buried 346 whales within months or weeks (or less) creates a problem
for those who believe in millions of years. Where do they put the
time? There is nowhere for it in the rocks.
The whale graveyard fits much more comfortably with the biblical
timescale of thousands of years.
Besides whales turtles there are many other examples where various
animals were rapidly buried together.
Dinosours are
of course the most striking example:
Dinosaur graveyards are not found just in the western United
States, but worldwide.
Geology
- Coal is supposedly hundreds of millions of years old. One should
therefore not be able to find any trace of Carbon-14 in it. All of it
should have decayed to nitrogen during all these millions of years as
Carbon-14 decays relatively quickly. On the other hand, if there was a
global flood which destroyed all the lush tropical vegetation on the
earth and turned it quickly into coal (this can happen very quickly,
we can create high grade coal in weeks in our laboratories) about
4,500 years ago, one would expect a significant amount of C-14 still
present in coal. And the amount shouldn't really vary with depth,
i.e. the alleged Cenozoic era (34–55 million years ago) or the
Paleozoic era (300–311 million years ago) should give
comparable amounts of Carbon-14.
And that is exactly what
scientists all over the world find. The most recent of such
investigations found: we obtain remarkably similar values
of 0.26 percent modern carbon (pmc) for Eocene, 0.21 pmc for
Cretaceous, and 0.27 pmc for Pennsylvanian. Although the number of
samples is small, we observe little difference in 14C level as a
function of position in the geological record. This is consistent with
the young-earth view that the entire macrofossil record up to the
upper Cenozoic is the product of the Genesis Flood and therefore such
fossils should share a common 14C age.
- Planation surfaces are abundant on all continents. A planation
surface is a large, level or nearly level, land surface that has been
‘planed’ flat by running water. Planation surfaces are
not being formed today. Erosion cannot explain planation surfaces for
several reason, for example the contents would have been reduced to
near sea level on 10 to 50 million years (but of course, scientists
see no problem in dating planation surfaces with 100 millions of
years...). A global flood explains planation surfaces very well. For
more on this topic, see “It's plain to see” by Michael
Oard in Creation March 2006.
- The angle of repose of huge sandstones deposits clearly indicate
that they were laid down by water, not by erosion.
