The Great Flood: Myth or Fact? - TribPapers
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The Great Flood: Myth or Fact?

Noah's ark. Graphic submitted.

Faith – In my last article, I spoke of why Genesis is such an essential book for Christians. Much of what Christ spoke about in the New Testament he drew from the Book of Genesis. Jesus used at least eight significant references to Genesis 1–11 alone.

I also mentioned in the last article that Jesus used the flood event to talk about His second coming. In Matthew, Jesus said, “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.”

It would not make sense to reference the flood for His second coming if there had been no flood. So is there any proof of this worldwide flood? Archeological, geological, or otherwise? Let’s take a look.

Over 200 flood stories around the world

I told you that there were more than 200 flood stories worldwide last week. Let’s look at some of those stories. According to a web page by answersingenesis.org, the late “Dr. Duane Gish, an American biochemist] in Dinosaurs by Design, says there are more than 270 stories from different cultures around the world about a devastating flood. “Eight of these cultures believe the flood was brought on by human transgression; nine thought it was a divine destruction; 12 believe an ark was part of the flood story, with six more believing some part of the ark portion.” Eighteen believe the flood was universal (worldwide).

George Dodwell, a South Australian government astronomer, is known for his belief that the earth’s tilt was changed around 2345 BC, maybe by a comet’s impact, which led to Noah’s flood.

Dodwell was educated at Prince Alfred College and Adelaide University, graduating in mathematics. In 1909, Dodwell became a government astronomer. Dodwell’s work included a magnetic survey of South Australia, which led to his studying the latitude deviations and analyzing the obliquity of the tilt of the earth’s axis.

After obtaining an ancient manuscript of medieval Belgian astronomer Godefroid Wendelin in 1934 and seeing that his experiments with gnomons (the vertical markers on sundials) didn’t correspond with those used by ancients around the world to measure the earth’s tilt, Dodwell deduced there was consistent proof the tilt of the earth’s rotational axis was changed by a catastrophe about 2345 BC. The calamity, he believed, was the flood.

Archeological 

Archeologists have found the remains of mammoths that died suddenly, as if they were overtaken quickly and killed. One example is the Beresovka mammoth.

In the early part of the last century, a mammoth carcass was found in Siberia. Almost intact, the animal was discovered in gravel in an upright position. There were remains in its stomach of grasses and buttercups lodged in its teeth. 

How about soft tissue found in dinosaur bones? That’s what happened in 2005 when a team of North Carolina State University paleontologists issued their findings in a paper titled “Soft tissues are preserved within hindlimb elements of Tyrannosaurus rex.” Of course, what happens when you find something that defies science? Start looking at the possibility that the Bible is right, or change science? If you are lost in the religion of science, you change the science.

Geological

One looking to find out if geology supports a worldwide flood might give Dr. Tim Clarey’s book, Carved in Stone: Geologic Evidence of the Worldwide Flood, a read. Clarey earned a Master of Science in Geology in 1984 from the University of Wyoming and, in 1993, a Master of Science in Hydrogeology from Western Michigan University. His Ph.D. in Geology he earned in 1996 from Western Michigan University. 

It’s also common knowledge that seashells and fish fossils have been found on Mt. Everest. How they got there, scientists try to explain several different ways but ignore that the Bible said there was a worldwide flood. 

Or, take the Grand Canyon, for instance. Some would look at the canyon and say it took nature millions of years to create that, but Mount Saint Helens has taught us that such canyons can be created in weeks or months, not millions of years.

In an article by Eric Hovind, Hovind says, “In 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano blew lots of mud and debris into a valley and completely blocked the Toutle River. Twenty-two months later, the lake that had built up behind the mud dam got too full and flowed over the top. In less than nine hours, the roaring water cut three miniature “Grand Canyons.” One was 140 feet deep, 1,000 feet wide, and 2,000 feet long.”

Now take a worldwide flood, and as it lays down debris and sediment over the world and as the water drains into the oceans, it would cut this huge canyon into the land and create the Grand Canyon in less than a year, with thousands of more years for the canyon to look like it does today.

Remember, not one person can claim their theory is science unless they were there. No one was there when the Grand Canyon was formed, but we can see what water can do when enough of it is forced into a small space. I think there’s plenty of evidence for a worldwide flood if you only look. Unless you worship at the altar of science, and science is only science until it’s proven wrong. You know, like how science used to be, the earth was the center of the universe, and the sun revolved around the earth. That was science until it wasn’t.