Flood Geology
September 28, 2014
“Flood Geology”
presentation by Ray Lakeman
Ray addressed a Reasonable Faith Adelaide (South Australia) meeting on the 14th of June 2014 with a Young Earth Creation view of the Biblical Deluge. A “Flood Geology” video of the talk is on YouTube: The talk is 1 hour, and the group discussion is 50 minutes. Some people have posted comments on YouTube. See the video here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeiCthuDOQw
or check all videos from “ReasonableFaithSA” here:
www.youtube.com/user/ReasonableFaithSA
Reasonable Faith Adelaide neither supports nor opposes a Young Earth Creation view, and encourages healthy and respectful argument. You can receive the RFA email by signing up on our website.
Here is Ray’s summary of his talk:
Prior to 1830 the paradigm for geology was Diluvialism, the belief that “the origin of this planet was not more remote than a few thousand years; and that since the creation the deluge was the only great catastrophe by which considerable change had been wrought on the earth’s surface”. Lyell, “Principles of Geology” (1830), page 24.
Lyell’s uniformitarianism (“being an attempt to explain the former changes of the Earth’s surface, by reference to causes now in operation“) became the paradigm for geology from 1830 until the catastophists reclaimed some attention in the later twentieth century. Since 1960, a new type of Diluvialism has experienced a resurgence: “Flood Geology”. It has less dogma and more science than did Diluvialism, and is being vigorously promoted in the public arena by creationist societies around the world.
Why should “Flood Geology” be considered?
Many Christians will want this question answered. For Christians, a saving faith is available to everyone who, under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, calls upon Jesus to be their Lord and Saviour. Most Christians agree that the inner witness of the Holy Spirit is the only necessary warrant of Christian faith. I believe this. Therefore, belief in a Young Earth and in Food Geology is not necessary for Christian faith. I believe this as well. But it is not true that a Young Earth view is of no benefit or is detrimental for Christian faith. Many rash people would claim a YEC view is detrimental to a person’s Christian faith, but solid evidence and logical reasoning are not found to support that claim. Rather, if the Young Earth view is accepted by a Christian, then they will have an additional warrant for Christian faith. A Christian Young Earther has reasons to believe that the Bible is trustworthy from its beginning in Genesis chapter one. Having a Young Earth view in addition to the inner witness of the Holy Spirit, increases a believer’s confidence in the truth of Christianity’s claims, and inspires them to share their faith more boldly, and more readily sustains their faith through times of trial. Therefore, possession of a Young Earth view has many benefits for Christian faith. For an unbeliever there is also a benefit in understanding the Young Earth view – A Young Earth perspective provides a reasonable context for considering the claims of Christianity, and a reasonable context for questioning the alternate story given by Biological Evolution. Therefore I encourage all people to be aware of Flood Geology. It can be a benefit to your faith.
Scientists who profess no interest in Christian faith would also benefit from a respectful consideration of Flood Geology, because Flood Geology is a simple and consistent description of the real world. Flood Geology is a fine example of the often-quoted Occam’s Razor. The term Occam’s Razor refers to the philosophical idea (or some would call it a “scientific principle”) that of any given set of explanations for a phenomenon, it is most likely that the simplest explanation is the correct one. Flood Geology is a simple explanation of the complex patterns found in the Earth’s crustal rocks. (I am not saying Flood Geology makes all geology simple. It is still very hard to answer detailed questions about rocks, minerals, ore bodies, oil reserves, fossil finds, etc. However, if Flood Geology is a correct explanation, it is more likely to lead to the correct explanations for the details as well – even when the details are complex.)
A Massive Shower of Asteroids
In the “Journal of Creation” from 2005 through 2014 and beyond, Michael Oard and others have published several papers proposing a massive shower of asteroids as the physical cause of Noah’s Flood. In my presentation I introduce this idea and show that the Biblical Deluge can be reasonably understood as a massive catastrophe and very capable of producing most of the geological record. 350 km. wide craters filled with sediments 35 km. thick! Lava bodies of massive proportions, and huge regions of almost flat layers of rocks deposited layer upon layer in a watery environment, and mountainous regions of chaotic complexity. The Flood catastrophe could do all this.
Throughout our Solar System we find evidence of very many Asteroid impacts and many bodies with much ice. On small rocks, asteroids, comets, and planetary moons, and on Earth, Mars, Earth’s Moon (Luna), and Mercury we find lots of impact craters and a lot of water/ice. This was not expected in a system that’s billions of years old. A massive watery Asteroid shower in relatively recent times is a good explanation of the evidence.
A Flood on Mars as well
If you find it hard to believe the size and extent of the Biblical Flood, does it help to know that Mars reveals a Flood occurred there as well? This theory says the same Asteroid Shower caused a watery flood on Mars as well! Today Mars has much ice hidden beneath its surface, and no volcanic activity. Mars is too cold for water lakes or oceans. In fact, ice sublimes directly to vapour – because Mars has very little atmospheric pressure. So there’s no liquid water on Mars. The water vapour escapes from Mars – it leaks off into space! During the Asteroid Shower, Mars briefly had a large atmosphere, volcanic activity, water oceans and much warmer conditions! A Flood like the Biblical Deluge was experienced on Mars as well! The Flood evidence on Earth has been considerably disturbed by chemical weathering, and water and wind erosion, and active volcanism and crustal plate tectonics. Not so on Mars! The Flood evidence is obvious all over Mars and it looks like it happened only yesterday. Mars has no water now, no volcanism, and no crustal tectonics, and has extremely little atmosphere. Therefore, if you find the Flood hard to believe on Earth, I recommend you look closely at Mars.
If you find this information is interesting, please watch the video presentation yourself.
Kind Regards, Ray Lakeman
