South polar region with
active fountains
global ocean
rocky core
For a Global Flood, the Time Was
Much too Short. / Reply, Gerhard Markwein 00 2007-09-07
The fountains of the great deep. / Borderline Science Today
… In my circle of acquaintances, we discuss your account
of a global Flood (Chapter 08: The Reorganization of Heaven and Earth.
Note FH). I myself am a believing Christian like you, but I have always
seen this biblical report as referring to a local event. There are three
reasons for this:
1. The origin of such great amounts of water for a global
flood.
I have not read any explanation until now that could answer this question
convincingly and in line with the Bible. Only your idea of connecting the
"division of the waters" in Gen 1, 6-7 with the flood offers a
relatively reasonable if ambiguous foundation for dealing with this view of
the problem.
2. The period of 40 days was much too short for a global
flood.
If one keeps in mind that there were only 40 days – if we follow your view -
to cover the whole globe with water to a height of 5000 meters (the height
of Mt. Ararat), then it wouldn’t have been rain, but the water must have
fallen from the sky like a waterfall. And the ark would have had to have
been a submarine if it was not to capsize and go down.
3. And finally the receding of this enormous amount of
water. According to Gen 8,3 the waters receded from the earth after the
rainfall stopped. If it was a local flood, then that is no problem. Then the
water just drained away into the neighboring areas. But you run into
difficulty if it was a global flood. If the whole earth was covered with
water up to a height of 5000 meters, there is no place to which the waters
could have flowed and the earth would have remained a "water planet"
since then.
The last two of these questions are therefore still unanswered – and, in my
view, cannot be answered.
First, thank you very much for your comments and your completely
plausible argumentation. If I understand it correctly, the first of the three
questions cited by you was already more or less answered by my account in
chapter 08.
(See also Chapter 08: "The
reorganization of heaven and earth.")
But since the Flood is only a secondary issue in chapter 08, in
order to answer your two other questions, this excerpt will be added here for a
better overview for those readers who have not yet read this text.
The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
Gen 7,5 Noah did according to all that the LORD had
commanded him. 7,6 Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of water
came upon the earth. 7,7 Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’
wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood. 7,8 Of clean
animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on
the ground, 7,9 there went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God
had commanded Noah. 7,10 It came about after the seven days, that the water of
the flood came upon the earth. 7,11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life,
in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all
the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were
opened. 7,12 The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
Gen 7, 5-12;
All the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered.
Gen 7,17 Then the flood came upon the earth for
forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above
the earth. 7,18 The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and
the ark floated on the surface of the water. 7,19 The water prevailed more
and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the
heavens were covered. 7,20 The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and
the mountains were covered. Gen 7,17-20;
The reliability of this biblical report is doubted by many,
however without subjecting text and context to a closer analysis. So, again and
again the question is raised where these inconceivably large quantities of water
shall come from.
We find now in Gen 1,6-8 and parallel passages quite a plausible explanation for
that.
God separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above.
Gen 1,6 Then God said, "Let there be an
expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the
waters." 1,7 God made the expanse, and separated the waters which
were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse;
and it was so. 1,8 God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and
there was morning, a second day.Gen 1, 6- 8;
The heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and in the midst of the water.
2Ptr 3,5 For when they maintain this, it escapes
their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth
was formed out of water and in the midst of the water, 3,6 through which
the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. 2Pet 3, 5- 6;
At the beginning of Creation the earth was completely covered
with water up to the highest elevations. In the subsequent text we learn then
that God created a "firmament" within this water by separating these
waters round the globe from the ground of the earth, so that a space free from
water was formed between the remaining waters on the ground and the large part
of the mass of water frozen to ice above this space – which we call today atmosphere.
An illustrative example of this is Saturn’s moon "Enceladus", which is similarly
covered with a sheet of ice.
|
South polar region with active fountains |
|
ice crust global ocean rocky core |
(See also Excursus 12: "The
Creation.")
This "separating" of the waters can be imagined in
various ways. It would be conceivable that the water was "raised" up
to a height of approximately 400 km. In this part of our atmosphere
(ionosphere/exosphere) most of the satellites rotate round the earth today. The
consequence would be that this water would have frozen to ice on account of the
low temperatures and would have surrounded the planet there in its orbit as a
kind of "protective shield" – due to the low force of gravity at this
height.
Can you, with Him, spread out the skies, Strong as a molten mirror?
Job 37,16 "Do you know about the layers of the
thick clouds, The wonders of one perfect in knowledge, 37,17 You whose garments
are hot, When the land is still because of the south wind? 37,18 "Can
you, with Him, spread out the skies, Strong as a molten mirror? Job
37,16-18;
However, the Scriptures teaches us that God always acts in his
Creation also through the regularities of this Creation. And here the thought
suggests itself that these waters quite simply evaporated as a result of
extremely strong influence of heat of extraterrestrial provenience at the
beginning of its existence, and that in that way a jacket of clouds was formed
round the earth. This variant has, however, the disadvantage that such a cloud
cover – even if one starts out from a height of up to 400 or 500 km – would
not be able to hold enough water in order to explain the phenomenon of the
Flood.
No matter in which state of aggregation this water may have been – liquid, solid or gaseous – this jacket of water, ice
or clouds, these are now those waters which – according to biblical calendar 1655 years later (Table 01) – at
the Flood, fell upon the earth again in the form of continuous rain for forty
days and forty nights. And consistently it also says then in the report about
the Flood, above, in Gen 7,19, "The water prevailed more and more upon the
earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were
covered". So, the earth was again completely covered by water, as it was
the case at the beginning of Creation.
As we read below, in Gen 8,3, in the following one hundred and fifty days
probably the greatest tectonic movements and isostatic adjustments took place
– for the most part below water. The immense pressure of the mass of water
upon the relatively thin crust of the earth, formed new, huge ocean basins,
lifted entire continents and displaced tectonic plates until the earth has
reached the form in which it basically presents itself to us today. At that time
possibly also the division of a central continent that was situated at the
Northern and Southern Atlantic threshold, into an Afro-European and an North and
South American part took place.
Therefore it can also be assumed that before the Flood the surface of the land
in relation to the surface of the seas was much larger than today, and that a
major part of the water in our present seas flew into these seas at the time of
the Flood and that the ocean basins were "torn open" in this short
time. (A scientific treatment of this subject can be found in the book "The
Flood" by Prof. Dr. J. C. Whitcomb and Prof. Dr. H. M. Morris
with TELOS – publishers, Scientific Series).
As we will learn then in Gen 8,3-4, the waters of the Flood decreased again
after one hundred and fifty days, and the ark rested upon the mountain of
Ararat.
At the end of one hundred and fifty days the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.
Gen 8,3 and the water receded steadily from the
earth, and at the end of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased.
8,4 In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested
upon the mountains of Ararat. Gen 8, 3- 4;
Since a denial of the report of the Flood on principle is hardly
possible any more today, as we know similar reports from the Sumerians, the
Babylonians (the epic of Gilgamesh), and many others, the criticism concentrates
on the various concomitant circumstances of this event. Thus, among other
things, also the global dimension of the Flood is contested. Some people want to
see here a locally restricted meteorological phenomenon at best. Now, this would
be conceivable if this area were situated in a huge basin, enclosed by
mountains, so that the "local" rainfalls could not have flown off.
But due to the mention of the mountain of "Ararat", in Gen 8,3, we
know still today, where the ark was situated at that time. This mountain is a
part of the mountain crest in the Armenian highlands which today belong to
Turkey in their western part. While the tableland is situated at a height of
1500 to 2000 m, the mountain Ararat itself rises to a height of 5165 m.
Therefore it is a physical regularity and from the geological point of view
evident that if the water level – as it is described in Gen 7,19 – was above
these mountain peaks, the water must have also overflown every other point of
the planet that was just as high as this mountain, and that we have therefore to
start out from a global flood.
Thus far the text from chapter 08 on the amounts of water at the
Flood. Now we can turn to G. Markwein’s second question regarding the period
of 40 days and reflect on the extent to which it was possible that the whole
world could be flooded in such a short time to a height of approximately 5000
meters.
We must first, however, make a fundamental statement as to why a global Flood
should not be rejected in principle – at least by a Bible-believing Christian.
In Gen 7,19-20 we have the statement that all the high mountains everywhere
under the heavens were covered – indeed, even that the water level was 15
cubits higher, i.e., about 3 meters, than the mountains, so that these were
entirely covered:
All the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered.
Gen 7,17 Then the flood came upon the earth for
forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above
the earth. 7,18 The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and
the ark floated on the surface of the water. 7,19 The water prevailed more
and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the
heavens were covered. 7,20 The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and
the mountains were covered. Gen 7,17-20;
From a biblical point of view, there is thus no doubt that the
water actually did cover the whole earth and was even 3 meters above the highest
mountain peaks. Indeed, a local flood is the preferred theory in science,
whereby, to be sure, these quite concrete statements of the Bible above are
completely ignored and there is speculation concerning the melting of glaciers
at the end of the last ice age, an inrush of water into the Black Sea, an
eruption of Santorini and the subsequent tsunami, among other things. The height
of the water, at which one arrives by this method, is a ridiculous 100-170 m.
Those scientists who accept the Flood report of the Bible but nevertheless argue
for a local flood hold that the water filled the valley basin around Mt. Ararat
and thus carried the ark up the mountain. They overlook the fact, however, that,
at 5165 meters, Ararat is the highest mountain in the whole area (the highest
mountain in Turkey) and therefore the water would have "overflowed" all the
mountains around it and would have spread out across the world from there before
it would have reached the peak of Ararat. This is to say nothing of the fact
that these scientists have no explanation for the statement in Gen 7,19 that all
the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered.
Thus, whereas the background is clear for Bible-believing Christians, these
brothers and sisters obviously wonder how to explain these immense quantities of
water within only 40 days and nights.
As G. Markwein states completely correctly in his comments cited at the
beginning, this is not a problem as such. All life on earth – except for Noah
and his family – was condemned to death by God. And, as far as that is
concerned, it makes no difference at all whether they were killed by drowning or
by torrents of water from the heavens, which must have weighed as much as
boulders. But in this context we must also always consider the safety of the ark
in these waters and, therefore, one cannot assume that the water came down like
a true waterfall. Therefore, it must have been a rain – a very heavy rain, to be
sure, but nevertheless a rain that did not place the ark in danger.
If we take that as the starting point for our reflections, we can simply ask
what amounts of precipitation were actually necessary. As G. Merkwein remarks
correctly above, the water had to reach a height of at least 5000 meters in
order to cover Ararat. Precipitation was thus needed for approximately 5000
cubic meters or 5 million liters per square meter in 40 days and nights. If we
convert that into days and hours, we come to an amount of about 125,000 liters
per day or 5,208 liters per hour and square meter.
Although we live precisely in a time of relatively heavy amounts of
precipitation, such quantities are completely inconceivable. The heaviest amount
of precipitation in the world occurs in India, but even there, rain does not go
beyond 60-70 liters per hour and square meter. And that occurs only for a few
days. In the heavy precipitation in central Europe at present, it was about 300
liters per square meter for only 60 hours. Therefore, one can ask with G.
Markwein whether an amount of precipitation of more than 5,000 liters per hour
and square meter can still be called rain or if we are talking of waterfalls
that came from the sky.
To answer this question, we will carry out a mental experiment. Many languages
have the colloquial expression, "It’s pouring" to describe heavy rain.
This is, of course, derived from pouring from a watering can, which is thus
completely comparable to a heavy rain, and such a watering can therefore perhaps
serve as a measuring device for our experiment. We thus take a completely normal
watering can with the usual capacity of ten liters. The rose with its holes on
the spout of the can has a diameter of about 10 cm. To make it even more vivid,
we will also take a plastic tube, closed at the bottom and also with a diameter
of 10 cm (e.g. 100er drainpipe) 1 meter in length and thus also with a capacity
of about 10 liters.
We will now fill the watering can with water and then pour the water through the
complete rose into the plastic pipe standing on end. We will measure the time of
beginning the pouring until the end, when the can is empty, with a stopwatch. We
can thus establish that we – somewhat differently according to the size and
density of the holes in the rose – needed about ½ to 2 minutes for this. We
have thus simulated an amount of precipitation here that corresponds to 10
liters on nearly (because both the rose as well as the pipe are round and not
square) 100 square centimeters.
Since the same result would be reached under equal conditions in equal
proportions on any large area whatsoever, we would thus have converted an amount
of precipitation of 1000 liters in 2 minutes per square meter. If we now measure
the time somewhat more liberally by 5 minutes and thus reduce somewhat the
heaviness of the precipitation, we come to about 12,000 liters per square meter
and hour or a theoretical height of 11,500 meters in 40 days, and thus more than
double the amount of rain that we calculated for the Flood on the basis of the
height of Ararat (5208 liters per hour and square meter).
From the above, it can be seen that such precipitation is indeed inconceivably
heavy for us today, but it is still rain and not a "waterfall" at all. The
danger to the ark was thus also minimal. What was in fact deadly for the people
outside the ark was the speed of the water’s rise: several meters per hour.
The highest of the buildings of the time at the lowest points of the world would
probably also have been under water after 1-2 hours and no more rescue was
possible. Also, those people who could flee to the mountains would be caught and
drowned by the water at the peak at the latest. This also shows the divine
purposes of this measure: not one person of this wicked generation would be left
alive.
And did not spare the ancient world, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.
2Ptr 2,4 For if God did not spare angels when they
sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved
for judgment; 2,5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a
preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the
world of the ungodly; 2Pet 2, 4- 5;
Until the day that Noah entered the ark and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away.
Mt 24,37 "For the coming of the Son of Man
will be just like the days of Noah. 24,38 "For as in those days before the
flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until
the day that Noah entered the ark, 24,39 and they did not understand
until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of
the Son of Man be. Mt 24,37-39;
The statement at the end of the above text in Mt 24,39: "so
will the coming of the Son of Man be" does not mean that we should expect a
Flood once again at the second coming of the Lord. The promise of God further
below in Gen 9,11 saves us from that. Here, the Lord wants simply to point out
that as those before the flood who did not pay attention to their way of life
and the signs of the time – in particular Noah’s activities! – lived their
lives, let God be a good man and were then drowned in the Flood, so it would
also be in the end times before his coming. Most people today are already no
longer in a position to understand the reality and decisive importance of this
message. They believe that they need to occupy themselves with more important
things and only at the end of their lives will they see that they have actually
passed life by completely. But then it will be too late.
To come back to our experiment, one could argue that, given the amounts of water
calculated above, the earth at that time would have had to have been flooded at
a much higher level. But we must read the text closely here as well. It says in
Gen 7,19 that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were
covered with water. Thus, it was not only Ararat but all high mountains
everywhere. It is indeed uncertain whether there was a Mount Everest then, at
8,850 meters above sea level. But there were probably also mountains that were
considerably higher than Ararat. And since in this altitude there was much less
land or mountains, the volume of water would have had to increase very
considerably in order to be able to cover the mountains.
Moreover, we must consider that we measure the height of a mountain in relation
to sea level. Before the Flood, there was probably much less water on earth and
in the oceans – insofar as there were oceans at all – so that the oceans were
also much shallower. Thus, the current height of a mountain should probably be
partly more than doubled and thus the volume of water required would also
increase. It thus appears completely plausible that the roughly 12,000 liters
per square meter and hour could be the amount of precipitation that carried the
ark up Ararat and covered the whole world at the time with water within 40 days
and nights up to more than 3 meters above the highest mountain peaks.
Also the existence of the ark itself, which cannot be found in the other reports
about the Flood, was often disputed in the past. However, there is a report of a
reconnaissance plane from world War II, which flew over this tableland on its
route and which caught sight of a rectangular, dark thing in the upper part of
Ararat, which stuck out from the surrounding ice sheet on account of its
straight-lined boundary. This crate obviously lay in an inclined position and
stuck out of the ice on one side. It had a visible proportion of about 100 m in
length and 20 m in width, with still estimated 50 m of the one end being covered
by ice. The pilot flew several times over this place and could also take some
photographs.
After the war there were some attempts made to rediscover this object. But as it
seems, at the time of the aerial photographs the ice had probably melted deeper than normally on account
of an extremely hot period of weather and therefore gave a view over the ark. In
the meantime the ice sheet has again risen in such a way that it covers
everything, and nothing could be seen from the airplane any more.
If one compares the dimensions of the object discovered with those of the ark in
the Bible, one comes to the conviction that this object that the pilot had seen
there must have been the ark. According to Gen 6,15 Noah got the order to make a
crate of fir wood. The dimensions should be: 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in
width, and 30 cubits in height. If one converts the length of the cubit with
approximately 50 cm (Eze 40,5), one gets the dimensions 150 m in length, 25 m in
width, and 15 m in height, which would roughly correspond to the data given by
the pilot from World War II.
The argument by G. Markwein concerning this question in the
reply cited at the beginning is completely valid. If the entire globe had been
covered by water up to a height of 3 meters above the highest mountains there
would actually be no place in the world to where this water could have receded.
Therefore, if we take the statements of the Bible seriously – and we should -
something must have happened to the surface structure of the planet in the 150
days after the rainfall. The text of Gen 8,1 says that God caused a wind to pass
over the earth and then the water subsided. But it also says in Gen 8,3: "And
the water receded steadily from the earth."
And the water receded steadily from the earth.
Gen 8,1 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts
and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to
pass over the earth, and the water subsided. 8,2 Also the fountains of the
deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was
restrained; 8,3 and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the
end of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased. 8,4 In the seventh month,
on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of
Ararat. Gen 8, 1- 4;
One can assume that it was not only the wind that dried up the
water but that these quantities of water had nevertheless found a way to "recede"
from the earth. It is a physical law that water flows only to where there is
some open space. And as already explained above, a change in the earth’s
surface must therefore have occurred in these 150 days – and also still
afterwards – which greatly increased the space that was available before the
Flood.
And here we must still take note of another law of physics that certainly
occurred in connection with a global flood. These immense amounts of water,
which poured on the earth, had an immense weight. Since the earth’s surface is
quite thin in relation to the planet, the least stable places of this surface
must have broken open and the pressure of the water must have spread the magma
that gushed out, lifted whole continents and shifted tectonic plates, until the
earth had reached that form that we essentially know today. Moreover, this
formed enormous trenches that were continually made wider and deeper by the
receding water. These trenches are our current oceans, which are deeper at some
points than the height of the highest mountains on the surface of the earth.
Thus, the Vitiaz Deep in the Mariana trench (western Pacific) is the deepest
point of the earth, with a depth of 11.034 kilometers.
And these new trenches were that space, which was not there before the Flood, in
which the waters could "recede" after the Flood. According to this view, our
current oceans are nothing more than the waters of the Flood that tore open the
earth’s surface and thus formed its bed in magma.
As was already mentioned above, we have the promise of God in
Scripture that there will not be another Flood of this kind on earth that will
destroy all people.
Never again there shall be a flood to destroy the earth.
Gen 9,9 "Now behold, I Myself do establish My
covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; 9,10 and with every
living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the
earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth.
9,11 "I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again
be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to
destroy the earth." Gen 9, 9-11;
My bow in the cloud, it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.
Gen 9,12 God said, "This is the sign of the
covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is
with you, for all successive generations; 9,13 I set My bow in the cloud, and
it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. 9,14 "It
shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen
in the cloud,
9,15 and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every
living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to
destroy all flesh. 9,16 "When the bow is in the cloud, then I will
look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living
creature of all flesh that is on the earth."
9,17 And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I
have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth." Gen
9,12-17;
This "bow in the cloud" is, of course, the rainbow,
and also here an interesting connection arises with the view described above of
a water jacket in the atmosphere before the Flood.
It is perceptible from the text of Gen 9,12-14 that this "bow" was
something completely new for Noah and his family. They had never seen anything
like that before. But from that the conclusion can be drawn that there had not
been any rainbow either on the earth before the Flood.
If we now take a look at the physical conditions for this atmospheric-optical
phenomenon, we find out that a rainbow can be seen when the sun which is in the
back of the observer shines upon a rain cloud or rain wall which is in front of
him. Due to the refraction of the sunrays in the rain drops the white sunlight
is dispersed into the spectral colors, and the reflection directs the rays into
the eye of the observer.
So, the basic condition for the formation of a rainbow is the direct incidence
of sunrays. If we now proceed, as explained at the beginning, from the
assumption of a worldwide closed water/ice jacket before the Flood, there was
translucent light on the earth at that time all right, but no direct insolation.
And therefore a formation of a rainbow was not possible either.
Moreover, this "protective shield" round the planet before the Flood
could also give an answer to another question. The statements of natural science
about the age of mankind are in complete contradiction to those of the Bible.
While the Bible allows the conclusion that man (not the universe!) was created
about 5800 years ago, geologists calculate with 1 – 5 millions of years.
The natural scientist Professor Dr. Dr. Dr. A. E Wilder-Smith describes in his book "Herkunft und Zukunft des
Menschen" (Hännsler Publishers, Stuttgart) [Man’s Origin, Man’s Destiny,
Wheaton, Ill.: Shaw], page 119 and the following pages, the finding (with
photograph) of a clearly preserved footprint of a brontosaur in the riverbed of
the Paluxy River (Texas, USA) from the Cretaceous period (approximately 140
million years ago). At a distance of some meters from that there are human
footprints in the same formation, which therefore must have been produced at the
same time. But with that the 1 – 5 million years of the geologists are
obviously disproved. So, either man must have lived together with the saurians
already 140 million years ago or the saurians only 1 – 5 million years ago
together with man.
(See also Discourse 81: "Intelligent
Design or Evolution?" Wilder-Smith – The natural sciences know nothing of
evolution.)
If we now take a look at the measuring methods of natural
science, we find out that for instance the "dating method C14"
(Radiocarbon method) – a so-called "short-time meter" for measuring
the last ten to twelve thousand years -, which is used for the age determination
of the finds of human bones and which thus forms the basis for the scientific
theories about the age of the man of today, proceeds from the assumption that
all living creatures absorb with the air also radio active carbon (C14)
– that is to say take it up with their bodies – and are due to that in balance
with the C14 – content in the air as long as they live.
When a living being dies, the metabolic process between the dead body and the
air stops, and the radio active C14 which remains in the body starts its process
of decay. The advance of this disintegration is measured then. If there is still
a large amount of C14 left in the bones, the body has been dead only for a short
time. If the residual quantity is low, the process of decay has been going on
already for a long time, and therefore, the body has been dead for a long time.
That means, much C14 signifies young age, little C14 signifies old age. However,
one has to mention that C14 is produced high up in the stratosphere by a
bombardment of the air with cosmic rays. These rays react with atmospheric
nitrogen and form radioactive carbon – namely C14 – which, then – in the lower
layers of the atmosphere – is breathed in by all living beings with the air and
is absorbed by the plants. Proceeding from the assumption that the earth was
surrounded by a water/ice jacket up to the Flood, which, of course, had filtered
the cosmic irradiation considerably and might have even prevented it, the
reliability of the above-mentioned dating method has to be gravely doubted and
/or is not safe any more at all.
All finds of bones of living beings that died before or at the Flood – so for
instance also saurians – would not have taken up any radio active carbon
during their lifetimes because of the filter effect of the jacket, and would
have thus a content of C14 of almost zero and would therefore be assigned an age
of millions of years according to this method, although they died perhaps only
four or five thousand years ago. This should at least make us think. And
precisely this filter effect of the water/ice jacket as protection against the
radio active radiation could have also been the reason for the amazingly old age
– up to 969 years -, which those people lived who had been born before the
Flood.
(See also Table 01: "Chronological
table from Adam to Jacob.")
This familiar diagram illustrating plate tectonics shows
the circulation of the earth’s mantle, which is constantly sending up new
stone into the earth’s crust through the mid-oceanic ridges. According to
the most recent findings, water can be carried by a similar mechanism from
the mantle into the oceans of the world. | Copyright: Byrd Polar and Climate
Research Center
Columbus, USA – On the question where the life-giving water of the earth’s
oceans originates, US researchers have just come up with a new theory.
According to this, it was not just down to asteroids and comets, hitherto
regarded as primarily responsible for the earth’s water. As a result of
geological processes our planet, they think, has been able to generate water
of itself – and these processes remain effective to the present day.
As Professor Wendy Panero and Jeff Pigott of Ohio State University recently
reported at the annual conference of the American Geophysical Union (AGU),
it is possible that the same quantity of water which today fills our oceans
lies hidden deep in the interior of our planet.
We have to do here with a hitherto unknown geochemical process, whereby the
earth secretes water in its interior over billions of years, and continues
to release it, right up to the present day, in relatively small quantities.
These are supplied from the earth’s interior to the oceans as a result of
processes like plate tectonics.
By contrast with the widely held concept of the originally young earth as a
dry environment hostile to life, which only acquired its water through the
arrival of icy comets and asteroids, Panero and Pigott have pursued the
hypothesis that the earth as we know it, along with the water that fills all
the oceans, was created in the interior of the planet, and that this water
has continued since then to be released gradually to the surface.
In fact scientists have long known that the earth’s mantle itself contains
large quantities of water – but exactly how much remained a riddle.
Likewise the mechanism whereby this water arrived at the surface, or reached
the oceans, has been seen as puzzling. In addition, researchers
contemplating this scenario were confronted with the question whether this
source of water should not long since have been exhausted.
As there is no method for investigating the depths of the earth’s mantle
directly, scientists have approached the question with experiments based on
high pressure physics and computer calculations.
"When we ask about the origin of the water of our earth, the question
suggests itself what makes our earth so unique in comparison with the other
planets of the solar system," Professor Panero explains. "The earth is
exceptional in view of the fact that it is the only planet with liquid water
on its surface, and it is also the only planet with active plate tectonics.
So perhaps the water in the earth’s mantle is a key to the understanding
of plate tectonics, and a part of these processes is the very thing that
makes the earth hospitable to life."
The basis for the hypothesis of the researchers is the observation that
although stone may give the impression to the human eye of being altogether
desiccated, it can nonetheless contain water in the form of hydrogen atoms.
As the minerals have an abundant oxygen content, certain reactions can take
place in the heart of the rock which will result in the formation of water.
As the earth’s mantle represents more than 80 percent of the volume of our
planet, the water it holds could, in the last resort, add up to a massive
quantity.
As a result of carefully judged high pressure experiments with various
minerals that occur in the earth’s mantle, the researchers have now
discovered that even today around half as much water could be tied up in the
mantle layer as currently fills the oceans on the surface. This water, in
their view, continues to circulate as a result of the process of plate
tectonics.
"Our findings support the idea of a complex relationship between plate
tectonics and surface water," Professor Panero says. "It appears that
mantle convection regulates the quantity of water in the earth’s oceans."
At the same time, this results in an extension of the temporal axis of the
earth’s water cycle. "If the circulation of the water through the mantle
turns out to form part of the earth’s water system as a whole, so that the
latter no longer consists just of the circulation between the surface waters
and the atmosphere, it follows that this circulation of the earth’s water
would last for several billion years," said the researchers in conclusion.
(Grenzwissenschaft-aktuell [Borderline Science
Today]: "Does
the earth generate its waters from its own interior?")
"By contrast with the widely held concept of the
originally young earth as a dry environment hostile to life, which only acquired
its water through the arrival of icy comets and asteroids, Panero and Pigott
have pursued the hypothesis that the earth as we know it, along with the water
that fills all the oceans, was created in the interior of the planet, and that
this water has continued since then to be released gradually to the surface."
On the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open
Gen 7,11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s
life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all
the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the
sky were opened. Gen 7,11;
"The basis for the hypothesis of the researchers
is the observation that although stone may give the impression to the human eye
of being altogether desiccated, it can nonetheless contain water in the form of
hydrogen atoms. As the minerals have an abundant oxygen content, certain
reactions can take place in the heart of the rock which will result in the
formation of water."
The waters are hid as with a stone, and the surface of the deep is imprisoned.
Job 38,29 From whose womb has come the ice? And the
frost of heaven, who has given it birth? 38,30 The waters are hid as with
a stone, and the surface of the deep is imprisoned. Job 38,29-30
"As the earth’s mantle represents more than 80
percent of the volume of our planet, the water it holds could in the last resort
add up to a massive quantity. As a result of carefully judged high pressure
experiments with various minerals that occur in the earth’s mantle, the
researchers have now discovered that even today around half as much water could
be tied up in the mantle layer as currently fills the oceans on the surface.
This water, in their view, continues to circulate as a result of the process of
plate tectonics."
An expanse in the midst of the waters .
Gen 1,6 Then God said, "Let there be an
expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from
the waters." 1,7 God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were
below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.
1,8 God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning,
a second day. Gen 1, 6- 8;
Already in the past, any person with a realistic cast of mind
will have found the theory advocated by many scientists – that comets and
asteroids are the source of the abundant water of our planet – completely
absurd. Billions of asteroids and comets, surely, would have to collide with the
earth for their minute quantity of water to result in those water masses which
cover 70% of the earth’s surface in our oceans of today.
But the most interesting thing about the argument quoted above, when we
juxtapose it with the biblical texts, is the "diction" of the Bible with
reference to cosmological matters – which has rarely been seen in so clear a
form to date. Just because human beings at the time – and indeed up to the
present day – failed to understand this entire concatenation of circumstances,
here we find the essence of them described quite correctly by the Bible in
simple terms.
And in such simple terms, indeed, that scientists – again including scientists
of our own day – have tended to dismiss such statements as "nonsense",
thinking that they themselves were able to see the matter in a much more "scientific"
perspective. But now it has been recognized that water is in actual fact stored
in the "great deep" of the earth – the earth’s mantle. And what is more,
it "becomes hard like stone" – in the form of hydrogen atoms locked in the
mineral substratum.
Eureka!? If scientists had read the Bible, they would have realized this a whole
lot earlier. And they would also have been able to detect the Big Bang at a much
earlier stage – which resulted in a brightness, after just a few millionths of
a second, equivalent to the light of billions and trillions of suns. This was
the moment when God said:
(See also Excursus 12: "The creation")