Beliefs re The Flood
| ATHEISM | AGNOSTICISM | DEISM | THEISM | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evolutionary Creationism | Old Earth Creationism | Young Earth Creationism | ||||
| without "gap" | with "gap" | |||||
Creationism
For a quick overview of the Genesis text in its context, see Bro David Burke's short talk Genesis 1-11 & pagan parallels.
Young Earth Creationism (YEC)
See Rapid evolution after the Flood
Old Earth Creationism (OEC) with "Gap"
John Thomas:
Dr Thomas believed that the world was inhabited before Adam, and that the earth's geological features including "organic remains" come from that time, not from Noah's Flood. Thus, he believed, "a host of difficulties" between geology and the Bible were removed:
. . . light, . . . the sun, moon, and stars . . . [were] absolutely pre-existent for million of ages before the Adamic Era. . . . There are indeed hints, casually dropped in the Scriptures, which would seem to indicate, that our planet was inhabited by a race of beings anterior to the formation of man. . . . catastrophe befell them . . . This probably consisted in the total wreck of their abode, and their entire submergence, with all the mammoths of their estate, under the waters of an overwhelming flood. . . . the earth became "without form and empty; and darkness overspread the deep waters" (Gen 1:1). Its mountains, hills, valleys, plains, seas, rivers, and fountains of waters, which gave diversity of "form" to the surface of our globe, all disappeared; and it became "void," or empty, no living creatures, angels, quadrupeds, birds, or fishes, being found any more upon it. Fragments, however, of the wreck of this pre-Adameral world have been brought to light by geological research, to the records of which we refer the reader, for a detailed account of its discoveries, with this remark, that its organic remains, coal fields, and strata, belong to the ages before the formation of man, rather than to the era of the creation, or the Noachic flood. This view of the matter will remove a host of difficulties, which have hitherto disturbed the harmony between the conclusions of geologists and the Mosaic account of the physical constitution of our globe.
Robert Roberts argued for a local flood:
... the flood was co-extensive only with the Adamically inhabited portion of the globe. There are facts that compel such a conclusion; and as all facts are of God, they must be in agreement. The animals of New Zealand are different from those of Australia. The animals of Australia, again, are different from those of Asia and Europe. These again differ entirely from those of the American continent: all differ from one another: and the fossil remains on all the continents show that this difference has always prevailed. . . . if the animals all over the earth were drowned, and the devastated countries were afterwards replenished from a Noachic centre, the animals of all countries would now show some similarity, instead of consisting of totally different species. . . . the language of the narrative is intended only to represent things as they appeared to the Noachic survivors . . .
Old Earth Creationism (OEC)
Evolutionary Creationism (EC)
Christadelphians who accept evolution believe in a local flood for many reasons:
- the geographical distribution of living things does not match migration of survivors outward from Mount Ararat — Robert Roberts' reason, above. (E.g. how did the koalas get back to Australia from Mount Ararat?)
- the geological evidence (agreeing with Dr Thomas)
- genetic evidence that Thomas and Roberts could never have known, which:-
- exactly mirrors the geographical distribution
- makes a population bottleneck of eight people impossible
- makes eight people an impossibly small population to ensure the survival of all obligate human pathogens — for more details see an explanation by bro Ken Gilmore here
These three reasons depend on scientific facts. As bro Roberts wrote, above, There are facts that compel such a conclusion; and as all facts are of God, they must be in agreement.
Doubtless there are other, non-scientific, reasons. For example, at The flood was geographically and anthropologically local bro Ken Gilmore points out that Numbers 13:32-33 explains the unusual phrase "and afterwards" in Genesis 6:4 — provided the Nephilim survived the Flood.
Deism, Agnosticism and Atheism
Deists, agnostics and atheists do not regard the Bible as authoritative. If they are interested in whether it is in harmony or otherwise with the physical world, it is not because they expect it to give information about geology. Bruce (talk) 06:14, 4 April 2018 (UTC)
