Or rather The Atlantic catching up. Historians have long noted that most cultures around the globe have accounts similar to Noah’s Flood. Most scientists, like Mr. Montgomery above, treat these accounts as merely evidence of localized floods. I wonder why such localized floods would be remembered. We have no world wide accounts of ancient great forest fires or ancient great earthquakes for instance. Regrettably we live in a time where too many scientists are wedded to a fairly fundamentalist belief in scientism and forget the humility contained in these words of Shakespeare:
‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy’
Science is a useful tool in acquiring knowledge about the natural world. However the great temptation about science is to assume that only it has truth about our existence, a truly unscientific assertion that most scientists in other, and better, times would have rejected out of hand.
Speaking as the retired science teacher:
1. There is no evidence of a flood that covered the tops of mountains. The Catholic Encyclopedia (@1910) noted that there wasn’t enough water on the planet to accomplish that and there still isn’t.
2. There is evidence for tsunamis (possibly caused by asteroid impacts), but these would be local and coastal.
3. There were certainly great changes in sea levels as the ice sheets waxed and waned in the last million years but, except in the case of an ice dam collapsing (as possibly in the Columbia River), these would have occurred over the course of decades or centuries, certainly not overnight, although human memories might contract the time lines.
4. There was debate over a flood of the Mediterranean into what is now the Black Sea some thousands of years ago as the inspiration for the Flood of Noah, but I have no read the results in a while.
We have a tendency to universalize our experiences. A memorable local catastrophe could well be transmuted into a tale of universal disaster, and different occurrences on neighboring places at different times merged into one giant event. But no, the ocean never covered Mt. Ararat, much less Mt. Everest.
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Tom Byrne is correct.
David Montgomery:Noah’s Flood and the Development of Geology Radcliffe Institute
https://youtu.be/YMaUzNlDnSY
Speaking as the retired science teacher:
1. There is no evidence of a flood that covered the tops of mountains. The Catholic Encyclopedia (@1910) noted that there wasn’t enough water on the planet to accomplish that and there still isn’t.”
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sigh A God who created our universe is not limited by the amount of water that is “now” on the Earth. And He never has been.
By the way, I am a current science teacher.
I’ve learned not to argue about young earth creationism, global flood, etc. To each his own opinion. There are more important things to worry about.
Inability to believe the book of Genesis where the Creation occurred, mankind was created male & female, the Fall occurred, the promises to Abraham re: his descended are made, & woman’s seed crushing the head of Satan is made—a real problem.