Noah’s Ark is a myth, there never was an Ark. The story in the Bible is a made up story, the dimensions of the mythical Ark would not have worked, the writers just made up some numbers out of nothing. They exaggerated lifespans and dimensions of the craft for effect. After a year of the earth being submerged in water, there would no longer be oxygen for Noah and his family to breath. Any oxygen produced by photosynthesising bacteria would have been quickly used up through reactions with decaying organic matter in the oceans.
The writers of the myth were not boat builders, they just wrote it so Noah (or Noe) would have a boat 10 times the largest boat around. Any wooden craft of about 400-500 feet would not float, it would break in two. The tensile forces are such that wood would break in tension. In addition, 350 foot wooden boats built 4000 years later could not be kept water tight, the flexing of such a length opened up the seams and even with electrical pumps they could not keep up with the flow of water into the craft and they sank.
The myth has the craft coated with pitch. Pitch is a black or dark viscous substance obtained as a residue in the distillation of organic materials and especially tars. It takes many thousands of years for the vegetation to turn into tar or pitch, the Bible does not indicate enough time went by for tar to have been created. The writers knew about tar but did not know that tar was made from vegetation that had rotted and was underground for two million years.
There were no giants (another exaggeration) and a “God” who changes his mind about having mankind on earth is not a god I would worship. Man is NOT wicked, the religion just wants you to think so to fill their plates with money.
For another, the flood of Noah is similar to the flood in the epic of Gilgamesh. Noah’s flood and Utanapishtim’s flood…both versions are myths by the way, and myths do not have to make sense are in many ways alike. Gilgamesh was written down at least 1000 years before the Torah version, and was available to the writers of the Bible
Utanapishtim (the earlier version) had a round ark made of reeds, only local animals brought in, friends included. Ea, the god of wisdom, was not to tell mankind about the pending flood, but he had figured out a clever workaround. He loudly tells a reed wall about Enlil’s plan to flood the earth, knowing that Utanapishtim is behind the wall and will overhear everything. Utanapishtim follows Ea’s instructions to build a boat of specific dimensions, load it with riches, seeds and animals of every kind, and seal it against the coming storm. After the flood had subsided he waited seven days before he sent a dove out to see if the water had receded, but the dove could not find anything but water and returned. Utnapishtim repeated the procedure. Next time he sent out a swallow, and just as before, it returned, having found nothing. Finally, Utnapishtim sent out a raven, and the raven saw that the waters had receded, so it circled around but did not return. Utnapishtim then set all the animals free and made a sacrifice to the gods.
Thus dove, dove, swallow, raven
It will also appear by recurrence to the law of nature, that such an event is in no shape whatever deserving of human credence. The law of fluids and the deficiency of water render it physically impossible that the whole globe should be overflowed at one and the same time. The mountains of Andes, in South America is, at the point of Chimberazo, 20,000 feet above the common surface of the ocean. There is, therefore, a great deficiency of water to answer the purposes of a universal deluge. For as by the law of fluids, water uniformly seeks its level, it is necessary that all around the globe the water should be raised 20,000 feet, otherwise the American Andes would not have been covered, and the deluge would not have been universal. Let anyone calculate what a vast quantity of water would have been necessary to have covered the whole earth to such a height, and he will soon discover the absurdity of this marvelous account, and still more marvelous event, related in the book of Genesis. To say that God created such a vast body of water for the sole purpose of drowning the world and all the creatures which he made in it, and afterwards annihilated it, is to assert, in the first place, that which is impossible, and throw upon the moral character of God a sarcasm, at which man ought to be ashamed, at which he ought to blush and be confounded. The account which is given of the deluge, subjects itself to strong suspicion of incorrectness and want of truth. It is impossible that the ark or any other vessel that ever was built, could have contained all the animals which are said to have taken refuge in it. This ark, according to the Bible description of it, was in length about 525 feet, in breadth 87 1/2 feet, and in height 52 1/2 feet. It is easy to perceive, that a vessel of such dimensions had not the capacity of containing the numbers, and all the various kinds of animals which are said to have been rescued from the fatal effects of this general deluge. It is in vain that the advocates of this wonderful event fly to miracles, or the operations of supernatural powers. Miracle on miracle must have been performed, the nature of things perverted, her laws wholly changed, and the immutability of the divine character completely annihilated, before it could be possible for the human mind to accede to the truth of this marvelous event.
Some curious and philosophical observations concerning the deluge, taken from Emmerson, a British writer, are here subjoined: –
“Concerning the cause of this flood, some suppose it brought about by natural causes; and others, by nothing less than a divine power. Those that are for natural causes, imagine a comet to have passed near the earth at that time, and by its approach to have raised a very strong tide, which would increase as the comet approached earth. The effect of this would be, that this great tide would lay all places under water, and would consequently drown all the inhabitants so far as it reached. That such a cause as this is capable of producing this dismal effect, is very evident. For if so small a body as the moon, at the distance of sixty of the earth’s semi-diameters, be able to raise a strong tide in the ocean, of twelve or fifteen feet high, a comet as big as the earth, and coming very near it would raise a prodigious tide, capable of overflowing all that side of the earth which is next to the comet, and also the opposite side. But then this could not drown all places at once; for at the quadratures, or in those places which have the comet in their horizon, they would have as great an ebb, but then it would have this effect, to overflow and drown all places successively. For this huge spheroid of water, always pointing towards the comet, would by the earth’s rotation pass over all the countries of the world; and, therefore, in the space of twenty-four hours, the whole earth would be involved in water, and all animals as effectively destroyed as if the water stayed 150 days upon the earth, especially as the earth must needs make several rotations after this manner, before it could get clear of this disturbing force of the comet. The natural and necessary effect of all this would be, that by such a prodigious and rapid motion of this vast body of water round the earth in twenty- four hours, all plants and trees must be torn up by the roots, and carried along with the current; all buildings demolished; the rocks, hills, and mountains dashed to pieces, and torn away; all the product of the sea, as fishes, shells, teeth, bones, etc.. carried along with the flood, and thrown upon the earth, or even to the tops of mountains, promiscuously with other bodies; hardly any thing could be found strong enough to withstand its force. In such a case as this, it would be impossible for any ark to live, or the strongest man-of- war to exist upon the surface of the ocean.”
The arguments, physical and moral, against an event of this kind, are strong and conclusive. Nature is incompetent to any such exhibition, and the moral perfections of Deity forbid it. The flood is therefore a chimera, and one of the theological errors contained in the Bible system of religion. If no other errors of greater magnitude or more pernicious consequences were to be found in this “holy” book, it would be an object rather of pleasant amusement than of severe remark and condemnation.
Oh by the way, there are two versions in the Bible, one had 2 of every animal, the other had 7 of the good guys (even then he could not count: “Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female”…..lets see, male is one, female is two, what are the other 5?).
One had Noah get in the ark and it rained for 40 days and nights. Then the next version had Noah and kids get in the ark and God shut the door and then it rained.
18 And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
Version one (18) and version two (19)
Version one:
23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
(150 days and the earth was dry)
Version two:
4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. (233 days till the mountains were seen)
13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth (320 days)
14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. (365 days)
One had one raven bird out the window, the other had a dove, they just meshed the stories together, no one would notice.
20 And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
So much for all clean animals repopulating the earth, they are dead.
21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
Yep, all bacteria, all sea life, all plants and animals dead.
Now what are the animals from the ark to eat?
The two stories of Noah’s Ark in Genesis 6-8, written by two different, anonymous authors (now known as the Priestly Source and the Yahwist) and cleverly interleaved so that the result appears to be just one, rather complicated story. Being two different stories, we have Noah and his family spend two different periods on the Ark, depending on which account you follow.
According to the Priestly Source, they entered the Ark on the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month (Genesis 7:11). In the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth; And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. And God spoke to Noah (Genesis 8:13a.14–15). Noah and his family spent one year and ten days in the Ark before the Lord asked them to come out.
According to the Yahwist, the flood was forty days upon the earth (Genesis 7:17). And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the Ark which he had made (Genesis 8:6). He stayed yet other seven days and again he sent forth the dove; And he stayed yet another seven days; and sent forth the dove (Genesis 8:10,12). Noah and his family spent fifty four days in the Ark before he could leave and build an altar to God.
The Redactor who edited the final version of Genesis no doubt felt that he would face opposition if he removed either one of the stories, he interleaved them so that the proponents of either story would find familiar text, yet the existence of two stories is somewhat hidden.
The verses attributed to the Yahwist (the first version) are:
Genesis 6:5-8, Jehovah
7:1-5, Jehovah
7:7,
7:10,
7:12,
7:17,
7:22-23,
8:2b-3a,
8:6,
8:8-12,
8:13b,
8:20-22.
Version 1
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him.
And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.
All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. the rain from heaven was restrained. And the waters returned from off the earth continually: And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:
Noah sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.
Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
The Flood verses attributed to the Priestly author (the second version) are:
Genesis 6:9-22,
7:6,
7:8-9, Elohim
7:11,
7:13-16a,
7:18-21,
7:24,
8:1-2a,
8:3b-5,
8:7,
8:13a,
8:14-19,
9:1-17.
Version 2
These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in.
And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged;
The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth.
And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.
And God spake unto Noah, saying,Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.
And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him: Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein .And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
A great many societies have myths about catastrophic floods. A substantial number of societies have very similar myths, involving a small number of people building a boat and escaping the flood and thereafter landing on a mountain repopulating the earth. One interpretation of this is that it should be unsurprising if independent flood myths were to arise. Flooding is a major threat to any settled society. Farmers depend on the rivers and streams from which they get water and on which they transport goods, but those same bodies of water can rise and wipe way everything they’re close to, which from the farmer’s point of view is effectively destroying the whole world and forcing them to start over. Very similar flood myths might very well be historically linked, with variants of a single story being carried forward.
But, and this is important, none of these stories is necessarily about a single historical even. They don’t have to be. Since myths and other folklore contain themes of interest to any society, telling stories about flooding is a natural thing for them to do. Flood myths get preserved and passed on because they deal with a topic of ongoing interest. A story about a vast flood in the distant past retains its power not because it actually happened (because it may not have), but because of the fear of flooding in the here and now.
Only ONE ancient text mentions Noah’s Ark, and that is the Book of Genesis.
There are six other sources that describe flooding:
* The Epic of Zuisudra
* The Epic of Atrahasis
* The Epic of Gilgamesh
* The History of Armenia by the Moses of Khoren
* The History of Babylonia by Berossus
* The Sumerian List of God-Kings
The Poem of Early Rulers, and
a late version of The Instructions of Shuruppak.
None of them indicate a flood which covered all the mountains in the world. The writers of the Biblical went to mythical extremes.
Many empires that existed during that time had no mention of such a flood and continued to thrive. Neither were they killed as indicated by the myth in the Bible.
Turn to Science:
1. Angular unconformities – Angular unconformities are where sediments are laid down in layers, turn into rock, then tilted and eroded, then new sediments are deposited on top. How does a global flood simultaneously deposit, turn into rock, tilt, and erode in exactly the same place?
2. Radiometric dating – All common forms of radiometric dating, including C14, K-Ar, Ar-Ar, Rb-Sr, Th-Pb, U-Pb, and fission track between themselves. The dates derived from these diverse methods, when properly interpreted rather than intentionally misapplied, show that all but the very most recent deposits in the geologic column is vastly older than any postulated flood.
3. Fossil Sorting – The sorting of fossils in the geologic record is consistent with evolution and geology across all formations worldwide. There are basically no fossils of dinosaurs found with modern mammals, even when such dinosaurs could fly. There are no flowering plants in the Cambrian, no grasses, no mammals, and no birds. The overall sorting does not show any evidence consistent with a flood or settling in water.
4. Varves – How does one create 20 million annual layers, each layer which would have taken at least a month to settle due to hydrodynamics as is observed in the Green River Formation? How does one explain seasonal pollen grains found in the layers?
5. Sedimentation rates – Why would there be Precambrian rocks below ones feet in the Canadian Shield area, yet the entire geologic column in the Williston Basin in North Dakota? Why would a global flood scour down to the Precambrian in one place yet at the same time deposit tens of thousands of feet of sediment in another when it is exactly the same process? Giant post-pyramid ice ages are not an explanation as there is no written record or other evidence of increased historical glaciation to the extent needed to scour the Canadian Shield down in the last 4500 years, not to mention such Precambrian rocks elsewhere on Earth like South Africa.
6. Lava layers with ancient soils between flows – How could lava forms which only exist with a land surface interface create interbedded deposits with paleosoils?
7. Ice sheets – Ice caps can’t reform in the time allotted since any global flood of 4500 years ago.
8. Ice core data with correlated known volcanic events – Ice cores can be dated back by multiple methods nearly a million years, yet show no evidence of a global flood.
9. Ocean core data – Ocean cores would show unsorted piles of terrestrial life and different distributions in grain sizes than observed. They would also show little difference in thickness between the mid Atlantic ridge and near subduction zones, which is not what is observed.
10. Paleomagnetism – Because the Earth’s magnetic field has reversed polarity and has wandered over the globe in the past, certain igneous rocks show such magnetic orientations when sufficiently cooled. By mapping these directions and reversals, which correlate with radioisotope dating and stratigraphy, it is easily shown that the vast majority of seafloor sediments, along with most volcanic rock, are way too old to have been deposited by any flood. In fact such measurements are one of the great evidences for plate tectonics, which alone invalidate a global flood.
11. Volcanism – According to ‘flood geology’ every igneous rock layer that overlays sedimentary rock would have to be less than 4500 years old. Yet, historical records indicate this tremendous amount of simultaneous volcanic activity could not have occurred in recent times because someone would have noticed, all life would have become extinct when the atmosphere became unbreathable. Such a position directly contradicts the existence of the Deccan Traps which are up to 2 km thick and 500,000 square km in extent, yet supposedly erupted in India despite any historic evidence after such a flood.
12. Ore deposit formation rates – Most ore deposits require a longer period of time to separate their constituent elements and then cool to create an economically viable source of minerals.
The water:
First off….the underground water. Not liquid, exists as part of of the matrix of minerals such as ringwoodite. Sorry, that water never flooded anything since it isn’t in liquid form.
Second….rain that intense for that long is the equivalent of over 2000″ of rain PER DAY. At that level of humidity, people would have drowned simply by breathing the moisture laden air. Nothing would have survived.
Oh, and the heat you generate by the kinetic energy of all that falling water? There’s a problem all its own. Ever see how they steam dumplings? That would have been the fate of Noah and his crew.
No global deluge. A disaster like that would have killed off all but maybe the simplest of life forms, assuming it didn’t kill everything and leave the earth a sterile world.
I don’t think I missed anything. Besides, how does the origin of the oceans in any way account for the extra water THAT DOESNT EXIST ON EARTH that needs to be accounted for to satisfy the traditional interpretation of Genesis?
And no, I’m not speculating about heat. Each cubic meter of water has a mass of a metric ton, and there would be hundreds of millions of cubic meters of water needed to submerge the surface of the planet. Moving that kind of mass causes friction, and friction creates heat. Simple physics. Factor in the extra heat of the so-called fountains of the deep, really just megageysers according to the usual description, and now you’ve got more heat. Now add in the accelerated tectonic action also claimed to have occurred, and you end up with a lifeless ball of magma hanging in space.
And we’ve actually stopped short of adding on the megajoules of heat released when all of the earth’s chalk beds form in a year…..
And the poisonous gasses produced in copious amounts when said chalk beds form so quickly are just icing on the cake. Any air breathing creature would have been snuffed by that alone.
Sorry, but creationists have a ton of heat to account for in regards to the global flood. If it had happened as described, earth still would be cooling off, and would continue to do so for a very long time.
This is what happens when superheated subterranean water is suddenly forced to the surface. And according to Hovind, this happened along the Midatlantic ridge.
The heat released would have been transferred to and boiled the ocean as it escaped from the sea floor. No way around it….. Millions of gigantic Old Faithfuls would have steam cleaned the majority of the planets surface over the course of forty days.
And that’s just the heat created by opening the Fountains. There’s still a ton more to account for.
It should be noted that mainstream geologists have identified a much wider stratigraphic distribution of desiccation cracks, raindrop impressions, in situ plant fossils, fusain (fossil charcoal), eolian deposits, paleosol, lacustrine deposits, and fluvial deposits than Flood geologists typically recognize. Fossil charcoal, for example, is known from all post-Ordovician periods (Scott 2000; Scott and Glasspool 2006), which by itself is enough to eliminate any of those periods from having been completely spanned by a PWS, because fire cannot burn underwater. But even without recognizing the complete stratigraphic distribution of any of these indicators of subaerial deposition, Flood geologists have still managed to confirm, with sound sedimentological reasoning, that no Tertiary epoch, Phanerozoic period, or post-Haden eon was spanned by a PWS (see Figure 1). This means that—according to the results of the studies by Flood geologists themselves—if the Flood occurred during Phanerozoic time then all Flood deposits are stratigraphically sandwiched between a pair of non-Flood deposits within the stratigraphic span of a single one of the geologic periods.
If this is the case, then the Flood left little if any geologic evidence of its occurrence. Flood geologists have difficulty accepting that a worldwide cataclysm would leave but a small geological scar, but they themselves have provided evidence that either such is the case, or the Flood was mythical.
Flood Geology began in order to find support for YEC doctrine but ironically it has now produced an impressive body of evidence against it. The defeat of Flood Geology by its own hand is a great example of how the practice of sound geology leads to correct geological conclusions.
The early people that came to the western part of North America could have seen a flood of Biblical portions. Many devastating floods have struck in living memory, and countless floods have occurred throughout human history, these flood events were very real, and not mythical.
New Orleans flood, being an obvious example.
The Bible, is not alone, many other religious and cultural groups, and oral sources, from across the world, have recorded legends of devastating floods that stretch back as far as prehistory.
Now to the fascinating catastrophic flood events that drastically affected ancient humans on a global scale, thousands of years ago.
Meltwater Pulse 1A, 14,000—12,000 years ago.
This rather unimaginative name is surprisingly self-explanatory, essentially, during the Ice Age, an unbelievably massive ice sheet straddled much of North America, entirely entombing Canada and most of the United States. This ice sheet was approximately 2 miles thick, honestly, words fail to articulate how bloody vast it was.
Anyway, when this massive, 2-mile thick ice sheet (the Cordilleran Ice Sheet) started rapidly melting, it resulted in a series of ridiculously gigantic waves that were more than 200 foot high and in some areas 1000 feet high. But these were merely the first waves of megafloods, that contained more freshwater than every river on earth.
The evidence for this series of megafloods is etched into the very earth, the path that the flood took is carved deeply into the landscape. Below is a stunning aerial photo of the Potholes Coulee in the Scablands, this ancient scare is all that remains of the largest waterfall that ever existed.
This megaflood carved across North America and then plunged 850 foot over this plateau, stripping all the topsoil from the bedrock for miles in every direction. Naturally, all the animal and human life in its path were erased from existence.
‘Joseph Pardee, a geologist for the USGS, discovered strong evidence for the massive flow of water in Montana, that had violently carved a swath of current ripples 30 to 50 feet high, that was like the sand ripples that might have formed in a river, tidal water, or on a beach, but made of gravel the size of a human head.
Pardee (May 30, 1871, in Salt Lake City, Utah; † March 2, 1960, in Philipsburg, Montana) was a U.S. geologist who worked for the U.S. Geological Survey, and contributed to the understanding of the origin of the Channeled Scablands. He discovered the trail of evidence left by Glacial Lake Missoula, a lake created by an ice dam 23 miles (37 km) wide and 0.5 miles (0.8 km) high during the most recent ice age. He discovered that when the dam broke, the water flowed towards the scablands, supporting J Harlen Bretz‘s theory of the cataclysmic floods.
The Channeled Scablands were scoured by more than 40 cataclysmic floods during the Last Glacial Maximum and innumerable older cataclysmic floods over the last two million years. One every 13,000 years or so. These floods were periodically unleashed whenever a large glacial lake broke through its ice dam at Clark Fork and swept across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Plateau during the Pleistoceneepoch. The last of the cataclysmic floods occurred between 18,200 and 14,000 years ago.
Right, I know you’re thinking – ‘This megaflood lark was in the arse end of nowhere, it can’t have been that big a deal on a global scale.’
Well, you would be mistaken dear reader, for the immense flood caused by Meltwater Pulse 1A resulted in a rapid increase in the global sea level of approximately 18 metres or 60 foot.
Not only did this catastrophic sea-level rise flood all of the world’s coastal regions, forever changing every continent on earth, and simply erasing many islands from existence, but the sudden inundation of cold freshwater into the Atlantic ocean affected the Gulf stream which is linked with causing the Younger Dryas, which was a bitter brief return to Ice Age.
This brief return to Ice Age conditions, the YD – Younger Dryas, was broken by yet another devastating series of floods, which was called…
Meltwater Pulse 1B, 11,300 years ago.
Predictably, Meltwater Pulse 1B resulted in yet another catastrophic series of megafloods that rapidly increased global sea levels, flooded the world’s lowlands on a global scale, resulting in human coastal communities being submerged forever. Core samples have hinted at an increase in Sea levels after this megaflood of between 13 metres and 28 metres, that’s 43ft to 93ft.
Seriously, just for a second imagine what life was like for the humans who actually survived and lived through this near-apocalyptic series of floods, it would have been hell on earth.
During this period of immense superfloods, the megafaunal extinction event occurred in North America, where 70% of all megafauna species including Mammoths, that had survived ice ages and human hunting, suddenly went extinct.
Recently, large deposits of crushed, twisted and broken bones belonging to Mammoths have been found along the Meltwaters flood path.
There is a very real possibility that this series of megafloods, is the true origin of the countless flood legends that are found across the world.