ohmessylife

My mother is a devout christian and anti-science (or anti-science when it comes in dispute with Biblical claims).

So she likes to inundate the house with religious texts, including (quite cleverly), ones in the bathroom. I don't know what she is trying to accomplish as my brother and I merely read the books for amusement.

Some time ago my grandfather gave me The Answers Book to try and answer my budding questions regarding the divine creation of the universe.

So my mother ends up getting the updated The Answers Book which amusingly, has 20 questions where the original only had 12. Also, one of the theories that was put forth in the previous edition (the idea that animals native to a continent like Australia floated on rafts made of earthen debris back to their homelands after exiting the ark) that had me in stitches was mysteriously removed and they now claim that the earth was landlocked during Noah's time.

And the point I actually had was:

1) They said that the flood waters came from within the earth. I have a Bible and have read through it and I don't see mention of that anywhere. It specifically says God caused it to rain for 40 days and 40 nights.

a) If we were to go by the estimates that the flood covered the highest mountain, then are we to believe that the entire Earth was covered in 5.5 miles of water? Would there be fluctuations? My question regarding that is if it's even possible for that amount of water to exist inside the Earth?

b) If it happened to be rain, wouldn't there have to be a large water field in the atmosphere? I would imagine that physics would deny that possibility.


Sorry, I'm only 23 and don't have a degree in any field, so I feel a bit awkward.

take care,
benny

beausoleil

There could actually be a fair bit of water in the mantle (the rocky bit of the Earth's interior)

<a href="http://www.nature.com/nsu/020304/020304-10.html" target="_blank">http://www.nature.com/nsu/020304/020304-10.html</a>

It's not available for flood water, however.

Blinn

<a href="http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-noahs-ark.html" target="_blank">Problems with a global flood</a>

Albion

Well, the usual story (which solves a few problems but of course brings up a whole page of others) is that the mountains weren't very high before the flood but were raised during that time (tectonic plates whizzing about at Mach 2 or something) and so the waters didn't need to be all that high. Course, that means those poor kangaroos would need that raft to get to Australia after all, although how they'd know where it was is anybody's guess.

Oh, don't worry, you're doing fine! The ones who should feel awkward but who never do are the ones who come roaring in here yelling about how evolution is the big lie and that people would understand if they would only think about it a bit.

[ August 21, 2002: Message edited by: Albion ]</p>

Coragyps

Hi, Benny of the messy life, and welcome to II!

Re flood "theories," I keep <a href="http://www.creationscience.com/" target="_blank">Walt Brown's page</a> bookmarked for times that I'm bored, or need cheering up. He "explains" how all that Flood water came from the "fountains of the deep" in such a clear fashion that anyone who has read three paragraphs of actual geology is unable to keep from laughing out loud.

I once used his own "hypothesis" of a mile-thick layer of water ten miles below the earth's surface to calculate just how warm the "fountains" would be: about 800 degrees Fahrenheit, without allowing for frictional heat that would likely make it really warm. And he has the fountains launching the entire asteroid belt (5000 years ago, mind you) by squirting things like 500-mile-across Ceres into their present orbits. Wonderful bathroom reading - if I only had a terminal in front of the pot!

Don't feel awkward around here - there are plenty of folks who really like explaining complicated things to anyone who hasn't already got a monopoly on The Truth (TM).

Dank

I don't understand why some theists try to make these things appear physically possible...if you assume gawd exists, she could make the water appear/disappear etc. "Goddidit," ya' know. So IMHO the existence of gawd is the real target

Camaban

The best reason I can think of is because they're trying to get it accepted as a science.

Albion

Right. This society has degenerated so far that "Goddidit" is banned from science class.

Ergaster

It does, actually: Genesis 7:11 says (NIV) "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the seventh month--on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights."

I think the KJV calls them "the fountains of the deep".