Fundamental Christians, which I am, believe in a literal view of the Bible. One of the things I believe is in the story of the flood in Genesis. Skeptics of course believe this is just a story and claim among other things that if water covered the earth, the amount of water would be so great that it would have no where to go after the flood was over. The polar ice caps do not account for the amount of water necessary to cover the whole earth.
Genesis 7:11 says"
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."
Notice it says" were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened."
Fundamentalists have long said the water returned to where it came from- meaning inside the earth itself. Now it seems this theory has been vindicated. There are other things that happened to the earth due to the flood, but this I find interesting…
The Earth’s mantle has far more water in it than all of the surface oceans combined.
Personally, I believe 2 floods of global proportions happened (though I don’t believe for a second that the entire landmasses were ever covered), and I believe the first one happened closer to 12,000 years ago (Methuselah’s Flood), with the second one happening closer to 5,000 years ago (Noah’s Flood).
That’s not the official title given to it in the Book of Enoch. It’s just how I differentiate two different catastrophes that, through the generational telephone game, became one giant divine event over time.
I realize that book is not “canonical,” but it is also a book in use by churches far older than the ones I was raised in.
I once read an interesting theory that the Black Sea was not originally connected to the Mediterranean Sea, and that it had a lower water level than the Mediterranean. And multiple cultures had settlements along its shore. But eventually the land wall between the two seas collapsed, and Mediterranean waters flooded in, submerging all those settlements. It’s an explanation for why multiple and disparate cultures all have flood narratives.
There are archaeological findings of those submerged settlements around the Sea.
And the salinity levels in the Black Sea have distinct readings at various levels – including the level where many of those submerged settlements are located.
To cultures inhabiting those settlements when a sudden flood submerged their towns, it would seem like the whole world flooded.
It’s an interesting theory. And that’s all I put into it. Theory. I don’t let it detract from the Biblical story or the Biblical history or the message of the story for me.
While Plato’s account of Atlantis was not a fictional parable, it was also certainly not a literal historical account either. One thing in his accounts that were definitely literal though, was when the Egyptian priests were sharing 10,000 years of historical accounts of climate altering flood events with his predecessor, Solon.
Our human history is so old, the books on them would turn to dust even if they laid undisturbed in a sealed room.
When something is so old that only clay and stone fragments survive (and even those only go so far back in a recognizable form), that’s where the real historical misconceptions begin (like “stupid cavemen” etc.).
I’ve heard similar theories. I take a lot of theories and some actual known things and have my own picture.
I believe the flood was more than just a flood. I believe the effects on the earth were catastrophic. It seems evident that at one time there was one large land mass that broke apart, you’ve probably heard of Pangaea. I’ve also heard the theory that at one time, the earth wasn’t tilted on its axis and had a much higher percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere, in effect earth was a giant barometric chamber. Perhaps this condition on earth allowed for the growth of the gigantic animals and insects that we know existed.
Then, something happened. Something so huge it literally broke apart Pangaea, released all the water from the depths of the earth and even caused the earth to tilt on its axis… I’ve heard the theories of a guy named Immanuel Velikovsky. Haven’t gotten too deeply into his theories yet, many, if not most consider him a quack, but he has some interesting theories that explain a lot of Biblical events.
He believed that the catastrophies that are recorded in the Bible, and other historical records were caused by the earth having close encounters with other planets, Mars and Venus in particular but even Jupiter and Saturn have played a role. His detractors say his theories violate too many scientific laws to have merit, and perhaps they do, however, God is not bound by scientific law.
Anyway, everytime I hear of some new discovery that surprises scientists and experts I get a little satisfaction. Too many people put as much faith in Science, or more, than Christians put in God and yet they are wrong so often…
The problem here, is that the genealogy of Methuselah is laid out in scripture. Doing the genealogy laid out in scripture has Methuselah dying the year of the flood recorded in Genesis.
I’ve heard of the book of Enoch, but not read any of it. How does it account for this huge discrepancy in the genealogy?
I’m personally not a fundamentalist, so I don’t even see these people as individuals. I don’t even take the years literally. They strike me as allegories for something more along the lines of eras in history.
I’ve seen good evidence for massive floods caused/triggered by celestial events though. Namely the Burckle (Indian Ocean, 5,000 years ago) and Hiawatha (Iceland, 12,000 years ago) craters.
Well as has been pointed out, stories of a massive flood exist in many cultures so it seems likely that great floods actually occurred. Or maybe just one🤔. One of the things I find interesting is that writing appeared near simultaneously in different cultures too, and as I understand writing only goes back about 5000 years. If this is true, then either this flood occured in the fairly recent history of the writers, or they had to have one heck of an ability to keep oral stories alive.
I think of American folklore. Most of us have probably Heard of Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyan, but these stories are not thousands of years old, yet how many of us can give much detail of these stories despite being written down and less than a couple hundred years old?
I believe that man was created perfect. In every way. Perfect physically, perfect mentally, perfect genetically. And why wouldn’t they be since they were created directly by God and were worthy of communing directly with him? Then sin entered the picture and their perfection began to deteriorate. Each successive generation resulted in slightly less perfection. Their memory and recall would have been equally perfect, and likewise suffered decline with each generation.
It is reasonable to assume that with perfect memory and recollection, writing wouldn’t be necessary, that is until the decline reached a point where man needed another way to accurately record things, say 1000 years or so after creation and many, many generations… Almost suddenly, writing begins appearing all over the place and many of these writings record a very similar story of a flood.
Not coincidental at all. Catastrophes are cyclical, and happen every so often with each passing age. They tend to leave behind geological evidence in abundance too.
A celestial impact in the India Ocean could have affected all the cultures that seem to have discovered writing right around the same time. Civilizations rise and fall all the time, and virtually everything you’ve ever set eyes on will be literal dust in the wind in 5,000 years.
Didn’t that all happen before ■■■■sapiens ever appeared on the planet?
Or are you just using this as an example that, yes, catastrophic stuff like this certainly happened, and could therefore have also happened in the time of Noah? (If the latter, than I don’t take issue with that.)
As a fundamentalist, I believe in a young earth. So, yes I’m talking about the time of Noah. God could well have used something like another planet to affect earth. He wouldn’t be necessarily bound by the normal effects of such a close encounter. He could use the effects to accomplish his purpose.
