THE EFFECTS OF THE FLOOD: 1

A gigantic Flood once covered the earth. Here are scientific facts which both support the fact and clarify its effects. Evolutionary theory is a myth. This is science vs. evolution—a Creation-Evolution Encyclopedia, brought to you by Creation Science Facts.

CONTENTS: The Effects of the Flood: 1

The Greatest Physical Event: It left its mark everywhere
Fossils, Strata, and the Flood: A brief summary of some of the geologic evidences in the sedimentary strata
Records of the Flood: All over the world stories have been passed down from generation to generation about that awesome event
The Ark and Flood Chronology: Some interesting facts, as recorded in Genesis 6 to 9

Page numbers without book references refer to the book, THE EFFECTS OF THE FLOOD, from which these facts are summarized. An asterisk ( * ) by a name indicates that person is not known to be a creationist. Of over 4,000 quotations in the set of books this Encyclopedia is based on
, only 164 statements are by creationists.

Evolutionists want to explain away the fact that the Genesis Flood occurred. The Flood took place because the sins of men had become so great. That event reveals there is a God in heaven, and He will punish sin. Evolutionists do not wish to face that fact, so they deny that the Flood occurred. Yet we see evidences of that cataclysm all about us.

THE GREATEST PHYSICAL EVENT

The greatest physical event in the past history of our world was the Genesis Flood. It matters not where you live or where you go, you will see evidences all around you of that immense deluge. You may travel to the seashore, the mountains, or the rivers; there you will witness its results. That cataclysm produced the oceans, resulted in upheavals that made the mountains, and channeled the rivers.

It is impossible to properly understand past geologic history without learning about the worldwide Flood and its effects.

The oldest historical record which mankind has, is the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible. It provides us with a historical account from about 4000 B.C., on down to about 1900 B.C.

In the first two chapters of that book we learn about Creation Week, when our world and everything in it was made. In chapters 6 through 9 we are told about the worldwide Flood which occurred about 2348 B.C. (1656 A.M. [anno mundi], or about 1,656 years after Creation).

In this present article, we will consider not only the direct, but indirect, effects of the Flood. Some of those effects did not occur until the Flood waters were subsiding.—p. 13.

Uniformitarianism. This long word is the name for the evolutionary answer to the Flood. It is the dogma that the past has always been just like the present. No dramatic changes have ever occurred. But, in reality, there are many remarkable evidences that a worldwide Flood did occur.—pp. 13-14.

Catastrophism. This is the position, held by many thoughtful scientists, that a great water catastrophe occurred at some earlier time, which devastated the earth and produced our present geologic, geographic, and climatic conditions.—p. 14.

FOSSILS, STRATA, AND THE FLOOD

Sedimentary strata. Take a drive through the mountains, and you will see, beside the road, slanted, twisted rock strata where the road builders have cut into it.

Looking much like a layer cake, that strata was produced by sediments (gravel, sand, clay, etc.) laid down by the Flood. About three fourths of the land area of the earth (about 55 million square miles) consists of such sedimentary strata!—pp. 14-15.

Fossils. Within that strata is to be found billions of fossils. These are the remains (or the casts) of plants and animals which suddenly died, were rapidly buried, and then compacted under tons of additional sediments.

It is of interest that most of the carbon in our world is locked within the fossils in the sedimentary strata. Another interesting fact is that most species which have ever existed—are now extinct. Yet extinction is not evolution. Evolution is the process by which one species changes into another species. There is no evidence that such transformations have ever occurred; for there are no transitional forms, only separate, distinct species. (See Species Evolution for more information) —p. 15.

Placement. Because there are no transitional species, evolutionists declare that it is the location of the species—high or low in the strata—which tells which are the oldest.

Yet the truth is that the Flood, as it rose, first covered and buried the slowest moving species, later the slower mammals, and finally the quicker ones. It all happened within a fairly short time. It is noteworthy that some species, able to go to the highest mountains (birds and people, for example), are rarely found in the strata at all.—pp. 15, 17.

Lowest level. Yet even the smallest creatures in the lowest strata are extremely complex. This is a terrible blow to the evolutionists, who cannot explain it.

Another serious problem is, what is known as, the "Cambrian explosion." In the lowest strata, the Cambrian, there are over a thousand different species, and below that there are next to none. Yet, if evolutionary theory were true, the lowest level would have had a few simple creatures, not hundreds of complicated ones, numbered in the billions upon billions of specimens.—pp. 15, 17.

Fossil trees. "Polystrate" is the name given to these trees, which are upright (vertical) and frequently pierce through several strata. Yet such a fact would be impossible if evolutionary theory about strata were true.—p. 18.

The evolutionary strata theory. Plants and animals die, fall to the ground, and turn into fossils. Trees fall flat and turn to fossils. Gradually, over the centuries, dirt covers them and millions of years pass, followed by millions more! Then new strata are laid down on top of the old.

That is the theory. The truth is that fossils do not form when plants and animals die. Rapid burial and immense compaction pressures from above are necessary. The strata were all laid down rather quickly at the time of the Flood.—pp. 17-18.

More on polystrate trees. For example, consider the polystrate fossil trees. There is no possible way that these trees could have remained upright for millions of years while the strata formed around them.

When Mount St. Helens blew its top several years ago, large numbers of polystrate trees were afterward found floating upright in Spirit Lake. This was because the root stock was heavy and part of the trunk had been broken off. The Flood would have caused such polystrate trees, some of which were then buried while still in a vertical position.—p. 18.

Coal and Petroleum. Plants produced coal, and animals produced petroleum. Both were rapidly buried and compacted. Evolutionists cannot explain the fact that they are rarely found together. Thick, large seams of coal will be by themselves, and immense seams of petroleum will be by themselves. According to the theory, both should be evenly distributed everywhere in the strata.

What happened was that the flood waters would wash floating mats of vegetation into an area and bury it, and then wash in gravel, seashells, etc., over it. Elsewhere, dead animals would be washed into another place and quickly covered.

And that is exactly what we find in the strata. Rock strata is not even throughout the earth, as the theoretical "geologic column of strata" indicates. Instead, everything is in confusion. One strata runs a few or many miles, and then stops. In no place is there to be found, from top to bottom, all twelve of the major strata or all 21 of the minor ones. Immense coal seams are found here and there. Pools of oil are to be found elsewhere.—pp. 18-20.

Graded bedding. This is another problem for evolutionists. Instead of evenly distributed dirt from bottom to top, we find "graded bedding," obviously caused by a deluge: a layer of coarse pebbles and small stones, with smaller pebbles above them, grading off above to still finer materials such as sand. Below this will be another series of graded bedding.—p. 20.

Unity of the strata. All the strata are an integral unit, obviously all laid down at about the same time. There are several factors supporting this position, maintained by thoughtful geologists.—pp. 20-21.

Overthrusts. This is an immense problem to evolutionary geologists, but no problem to Flood geology.

In many locations throughout the world, "younger" strata is located well below "older" strata. Yet this could not possibly occur, if the evolutionary strata theory were true.

In order to explain it away, evolutionists declare that the immense, thick strata (often miles in length)—traveled sideways, often for hundreds of miles, and then placed itself into its present position over "younger" strata. Often it had to go uphill to do this!—p. 20.

Much, much more information on sedimentary strata will be found in Fossils and Strata.

RECORDS ABOUT THE FLOOD

We have 330 million cubic miles [531 million cubic km] of water on our planet. At the present time, there is 70 billion gallons [26,822 liters] of water for every person alive. If the earth's surface were absolutely level, everything would be covered by 8,800 feet of water.—p. 22.

Flood stories. The Genesis Flood was the most terrific physical event our planet has ever experienced. As a result, there are Flood stories among tribes and races all over the world. For example, one survey of 120 tribal groups in North, Central, and South America disclosed flood traditions among each of them.

Another survey of ancient Flood literature of 41 different tribal and national groups was made.

Here are the twelve points most often included in their stories:

Destruction by a flood. Some humans were saved. A boat saved them. The flood caused universal destruction. One family was protected. The flood was caused by man's transgressions. The flood came as a result of a divine decree. Birds were sent out first. Animals were saved in the boat. Survivors worshiped God after leaving the boat. The boat landed in a high mountainous area. After leaving the boat, God pronounced His favor on those who were saved.—pp. 22, 24.

Chinese characters. Because Chinese is picture writing, and extremely ancient, we can learn from it. The word for "boat" is composed of three signs: "vessel," "eight," and "mouth" [person]. According to Genesis 6-9, there were eight people in the Ark.

The word for "flood" is made up of three signs ("eight," "united," and "earth"), plus two ("total" and "water").—pp. 23, 24-25.

Noah's name. Not only was the story of the Flood and the Ark told and retold by later generations, but also the man who led out in building that giant boat was mentioned. —So much so, that his name is found in writings and stories all over the world. For example, in ancient Egypt, the god Nu was the god of waters and rain who sent a flood to destroy mankind. The Sumerians taught that Anu was the god of the atmosphere, and called the rainbow the "great bow of Anu."—p. 24.

THE ARK AND FLOOD CHRONOLOGY

The size of Noah's Ark. Evolutionists scoff at the possibility of the Ark being able to hold enough animals. Here are some facts about this:

Based on the Hebrew cubit, if that great boat was only one-half the size stated in Genesis 6:14-16, and omitting water creatures, it could still have held two or seven of each basic kind of animal and bird. The remainder of the ship could be used for food storage.

However, the earlier cubit in use at the time when Moses wrote down the story of the Flood was the Egyptian cubit (20.65 inches [629.12 cm]), which is longer than the Hebrew cubit (17.5 inches [533.4 cm]). Based on the Egyptian cubit, the Ark was the largest ship ever built until 1854, when a ship was built with a longer length (the Eturia, a Cunard liner built in England). However, the Ark was a barge, not a ship, and was very wide.

Most ancient ships were no greater than 200 feet in length. No ship surpassed the volume and cubic tonnage of the Ark until ocean-going supertankers were built in the latter part of the 20th century.—p. 25.

Flood chronology. According to conservative Biblical chronology, Creation occurred at approximately 4004 B.C. The Flood began 1,656 years later, which would be approximately 2348 B.C.

During the Flood, water burst out of underground channels and also fell from the skies. The rain from above fell for 40 days, and the water may have reached its greatest height in about 150 days. From the time that the rain first began falling until the Ark was vacated would be a total of 371 days.—p. 26.

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