So, it’s taken me 5 posts and an introduction to finally get to some meat. My apologies. If you know me personally you know, I always like to make a grand entrance.
As I stated in ENTRY 2, there are two kinds of science:
• Operational Science = observing, testing and retesting for verification
• Historical Science = interpreting evidence
In this post, I’m going to lean in on some of this historical science. First of all, if we are going to talk about history, let’s talk about the age of the earth. According to most scientists, the Earth is 4.543 billion years old. This is the belief held by evolutionary scientists and is often referred to as the Old-Earth Theory. In order for the evolutionary processes to take place there is a need for an exceptional amount of time. (You didn’t just wake up and were some awesome creation on your own….it took millions of years for you to develop from primordial soup, you know…)
Creationists do not believe in this time frame. We are usually called Young-Earth Creationists. The reason most literal-Bible-believing folk feel this way is because of the timeline that is presented in the Bible. That’s right, there’s a timeline. Ever hear of genealogy? It’s a family history. Nowadays, we have Ancestry.com to find our long-lost family members. The Bible has been keeping track of family lines for years! In fact, the book of 1 Chronicles lists MANY family lines and researchers have tallied up a number of years to go along with it.
Therefore, because of the genealogies listed in the Bible, the time from the Garden of Eden until Christ’s birth is about 4000 years. We know there have been about 2000 years since Christ’s birth. Therefore, there is a total of around 6000 years that the Earth has existed according to the Bible. 6000 years vs. 4.5 billion years is a bit of gap – thus the Young-Earth vs Old-Earth status.
But let’s take a little further….
I don’t know about you, but I always LOVED finding fossils in rocks. Our family went to the lake a lot as a kid and we went to an area rich in limestone. A girl could find fossils any day of the week if she wanted to. I had quite a collection as a kid of rocks with sea shells imprinted on them. So, what are fossils?
Fossils are a trace or remnant of an organism that has been preserved by natural means. Most fossils are sedimentary fossils which means they have been formed in sedimentary rock by sedimentation. Most of the earth is covered in sedimentary rock so this shouldn’t surprise you. (Flash back to a mini science lesson: Remember 8th grade science? There are three types of rocks, igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous only comes out as hot lava from volcanos so you aren’t going to find fossils there. Metamorphic rock is when igneous or sedimentary rock become pressured so much they change into something else…so you don’t typically find fossils in metamorphic rock either).
Sedimentation requires dirt, water, and a bit of time and pressure. In order for sedimentary fossils to form it must happen quickly. If an organism dies, many times there are other organisms that try to eat it or snatch it up. But if the dead organism is covered quickly with some sort of dirt and water, it can form a fossil. Something that our earth has provided for us is a VAST number of fossils. Which is awesome for studying, but if you think about what it must have taken to form all them it’s also kind of amazing. In fact, most scientists claim that our earth had to have experienced a MAJOR CATASTROPHE to provide the right condition for the vast number and wonderfully preserved fossils we have today!
Can anyone think of what that MAJOR CATASTROPHE could be? Hmmm…dirt….water…time and pressure….oh and LOTS of it.
What does that sound like to you?
Maybe a flood?
Like a world-wide flood?
Like the flood described in the Bible?
All scientists agree that there was “something” that happened on earth at the same time to cause the formation of most of the fossils we have today. They even have a name for it…it’s called the Cambrian Explosion.
What is the Cambrian Explosion? Basically it’s this : Millions of dead things, buried in rock layers, laid down by water all over the earth
What would a world-wide flood cause? Millions of dead things, buried in rock layers, laid down by water all over the earth
So, there’s that.
But wait, there’s more!
Did you know that almost every culture has a story that is eerily similar to the Genesis account of the Flood? I’m just going to list a sampling of the regions who have these flood-like stories in their culture:
Europe
Greek, Arcadian, Samothrace
Roman
Scandinavian, German
Celtic, Welsh
Lithuanian, Transylvanian Gypsy
Turkey
Near East
Sumerian
Egypt, Babylonian, Assyrian, Chaldean, Hebrew, Islamic
Persian, Zoroastrian
Africa
Cameroon
Masai, Komililn Nandi, Kwaya
Southwest Tanzania, Pygmy, Ababua, Kikuyu
Congo, Mandingo
Asia
Vogul
Samoyed
Yenisey-Ostyak, Kamchadale
Altaic, Tuvinian
Mongolia, Buryat
Russian,
Hindu, Bhil, Kamar, Assam, Tamil
China
Korea
Munda
Australia
Arnhem Land
Maung
Gumaidj
Manger
Maori
Pacific Islands
Kabadi, Valman, Mamberao
Papua New Guinea
Palau Islands
Figi
Tahiti, Hawaii
North America
Eskimo
Thompson Indians
Kato
Cherokee
Lakota
Choctaw
Pawnee
Navajo
Central America
Tarascan
Michoacan
Totonac, Chol, Tzeltal
Nicaragau, Panama
South America
Acawai, Arekuna, Makiritare
Yanomamo
Arawak
Jivaro, Shuar
Murato, Guanca, Colla
Yamana
Just to name a few….
And just when you thought I was done, I’m not….
Not only do these different cultures all have some sort of a flood story, many of them have crazy similarities. Below, is the percent of how similar these other stories were to the Genesis flood:
Is there a favored family? 88%
Were they forewarned? 66%
Is the flood due to the wickedness of man? 66%
Is catastrophe only the flood? 95%
Was the flood global? 95%
Is survival due to a boat? 70%
Were animals also saved? 67%
Did animals play any part? 73%
Did survivors land on a mountain? 57%
Was the geography local? 82%
Were birds sent out? 35%
Was the rainbow mentioned? 7%
Did survivors offer a sacrifice? 13%
Were specifically eight persons saved? 9%
Now some may take issue with the Flood account, but pretty much all scientists agree that some sort of event or catastrophe took place to give the Earth its fossil supply. Can I prove there was a flood? No. But there does seem to be strong historical evidence that supports this theory.
Comments