Noah--Looking back . . . (Part II)

Resuming exploration of the Biblical Flood in terms of present-day facts and beliefs:

• Subterranean water
• Trapped water - Potentially three times more water in the mineral ringwoodite, 400 miles below Earth's surface, than in surface oceans.
• Aquifers - Supplying ~70% (or more) of fresh water for irrigation and drinking.
• Genesis 7:11, 7:19, 8:3, 8:14, "In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened . . . The water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered . . . and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased . . . In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry."

• Geysers, showing the reality of forceful expulsion of water from subterranean regions
• Hardly requires a specific source. Here is a Wikipedia list, where most are located in the United States or New Zealand.
• Genesis 7:11, "In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened."

• Worldwide, water-deposited sedimentary rocks
• Limestone: Formed by precipitation of calcite from water or by deposition of marine organisms.
• Limestone: Composes ~15% of sedimentary rock in the Earth's crust.
• Oil & Gas Shale (a.k.a. "mudstone"): Found in 46 countries, including vast landlocked regions, as shown in the linked EIA map.
• Genesis 7:17-19, "Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth. The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. The water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered."

• Un-ending summer, winter, planting, and harvest
• The regularity of seasons is confirmed by the global success of agriculture (talking in general here, not denying localized floods and hurricanes).
• Abnormal seasons are still newsworthy/noteworthy, not commonplace. One example was "The Year Without a Summer", which was still marked by rain rather than snow.
• Genesis 8:20-22, "Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, 'I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. While the earth remains,
              Seedtime and harvest,
              And cold and heat,
              And summer and winter,
              And day and night
              Shall not cease.'"

• Mankind filling the earth
• This requires no specific source.
• Genesis 9:1, "And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.'"

• Animals' fear of man
• Seen by anyone who tries to walk up to a deer or a bird in the wild. An animal has to be domesticated to subdue this fear.
• Genesis 9:2, "'The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given.'"

• Distastefulness of eating live meat (of animals with blood circulation systems)--(Edited 3/14/2016)
• Generally accepted, with exceptions mainly just dishes prepared for sensational effect.
• Genesis 9:3-4, "'Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.'"

• Retribution of death to murderers
• This may require a specific source today, although not in the past. About 55 countries, according to Death Penalty Worldwide, still consider murder to be punishable by death.
• Genesis 9:6-7, "'Whoever sheds man’s blood,
              By man his blood shall be shed,
              For in the image of God
              He made man.
        As for you, be fruitful and multiply;
              Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.'"
  

Noah--Looking back from today (Part I).

This subject is difficult. Talking about a worldwide flood sounds very strange. Many people can accept the idea of mankind descending from two earlier human ancestors--although there's disagreement where those ancestors came from. But when you raise the idea of a global flood you find yourself patted on the shoulder as a believer in myths:

While some scholars have offered possible explanations for the origins of the flood myth including a legendary retelling of a possible Black Sea deluge, the general mythological exaggeration and implausibility of the story are widely recognized by relevant academic fields. The acknowledgement of this follows closely the development of understanding of the natural history and especially the geology and paleontology of the planet ("Genesis flood narrative." Wikipedia.).

 I will grant that a global flood is not something anyone living has seen.


"The Flood?" Answers in Genesis. 2016. Web. March 5, 2016.


With no one living to tell the tale, I'll turn again to present-day facts and widespread beliefs:

• No worldwide flood in modern, accepted history
• This requires no specific sources.
• Genesis 9:11, "'I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.'"

• The rainbow, broadly visible to both man and beast following rainstorms
•  This requires no specific sources.
• Genesis 9:12-15, "God said, 'This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.'"

• Giants (i.e. very tall people, often of great strength, some with more than the normal number of toes/fingers)
• Robert Wadlow, native of Illinois, reached 8 ft 11.1 in.
• Anna Swan, Canadian, reached 7 ft 6 in.
• Pranamya Menaria and Devendra Harne, Indian, having 25 total fingers & toes.
• Andre the Giant (a.k.a. the giant "Fezzik" in The Princess Bride movie), French, was a wrestler and reached 7 ft 4 in.
• Jorge Gonzales, Argentinian, was the tallest World Wrestling Federation member, reaching 7 ft 7in.
• Genesis 6:4, "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown."
• Numbers 13:32-33, "So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, 'The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.'"
• II Samuel 21:20-21, "There was war at Gath again, where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also had been born to the giant. When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, struck him down."

• Multicultural accounts of a great flood similar to Noah's
• Escape in an ark/chest:
• Masai (East Africa)
• Altaic (Asia)
• Flood covering the mountains:
• Altaic (Asia)
• Tuvinian (Asia) 
• Salish (North America)
• Survival of only a few people and pairs of animals:
• Altaic (Asia)
• Tuvinian (Asia) 
• Eskimo
• Salish (North America)
• Sending out a bird/animal to discover if the waters had subsided:
• Masai (East Africa)
• Genesis 7:13-20, "On the very same day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark, they and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, all sorts of birds. So they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which was the breath of life. Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the LORD closed it behind him. Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth. The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. The water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered. The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered."

• Ability of ancients to build large boats

"How large was Noah's Ark?" Answers in Genesis. 2016. Web. March 5, 2016.

• The Leontifera and a 420 ft long later model
• Chinese junks over 400 ft long
• Egyptian ship made of cedar around 450 ft long
• Genesis 6:14-16, "'Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.'"

Conservatively, if 1 cubit = ~1.5 ft (from fingertip to elbow of a man's arm):

• Length = 300 cubits = ~450 ft
• Breadth = 50 cubits = ~75 ft
• Height = 30 cubits = ~45 ft

• Worldwide fossil beds
• Essentially no need for a specific source. Here is one general reference.
• Genesis 6:17, "'Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish.'"

• Rapid Fossilization
• Fossilization largely occurs when animal/creature/plant is buried in mud, quickly enough to avoid complete decay.
• Rapid petrifaction of wood with volcanic eruption.
• Fossilization of soft tissue: "The Medusa Effect"

But specimens where no phosphate could be seen still yielded small pieces of phosphatized soft tissue.Tissue types so far recovered include muscle fibres with banding present (Fig.6). Some muscle fibres display ultrastructure and show fibrils and even cell nuclei arranged in neat rows (Fig.7). Underneath the scales small pieces of dermis (skin) are preserved and show thin sheets of muscle and connective tissue. A female Notelops had ovaries with developing eggs inside, and one egg even had phosphatized yolk.

Martill, David M. "The Medusa effect: instantaneous fossilization." Geology Today (1989): 203. Web. Feb. 5, 2016. 

• 80-day mineralization of plants: "Understanding fossilization: Experimental pyritization of plants"
• Genesis 7:11-8:5, "In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights . . . Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth . . . In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. The water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible."

 

"Science Talk" on Origins - Why/How a wet planet?

Moon vs. Earth NASA photo (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter)

National Geographic Article


Scientific Method: Observation, Hypothesis, Prediction, Experiment, Conclusion
 

Some problems with the "science" in the National Geographic article:

1. Non-observational "science" - The researchers did not observe the appearance of water on the Earth.
2. Non-experimental "science" - The researchers cannot repeat their ideas with attempts to generate oceans on other planets.
3. Calling research "science", even though it breaks the chain of scientific reasoning.
4. Calling originators of this research "scientists", even though they don't follow the scientific method.
5. Reporting "thought"s, "suspect"s, "may"s, and "suggest"s as good quality science.

Some problems with original Science article: Adam R. Sarafian, Sune G. Nielsen, Horst R. Marschall, Francis M. McCubbin, Brian D. Monteleone, "Early accretion of water in the inner solar system from a carbonaceous chondrite–like source." Science 31 Oct 2014: Vol. 346, Issue 6209, pp. 623-626.

1. "Astronomers know that interstellar water is abundantly available to young planetary systems—our blue planet collected (or accreted) plenty of it." - Logical fallacy here: Hasty Generalization (what other "young planets" besides the solitary example of Earth?)
2.  "Sarafian et al. measured water isotopes in meteorite samples from the asteroid Vesta for clues to the timing of water accretion. Their samples have the same isotopic fingerprint of volatiles as both Earth and carbonaceous chondrites, some of the most primitive meteorites. The findings suggest that Earth received most of its water relatively early from chondrite-like bodies." - Logical fallacy here: False Dilemma (what if the meteorites were generated by the Earth?)
3. "The H, C, and N isotopic similarities between eucrites, Earth, and potentially the Moon allow us to place important limits [emphasis added] on the timing of water delivery to the inner solar system. Earth cannot provide timing [emphasis added] of water delivery because it is currently geologically active. The Moon likely accreted its water at or before ~200 million years after CAIs, or around 4367 Ma (3, 23), but such a constraint is not very rigorous, given that all the planets in the inner solar system are thought to have fully accreted by this time. Eucrites provide a substantially earlier data point, which suggests that the source of Earth’s water was present in the inner solar system very early, ~8 to 20 million years after CAIs (15, 16). This evidence moves back the time at which the terrestrial water reservoir is thought to exist and have been available for accretion. Additionally, this reservoir was present between 1 and 2.4 AU and perhaps throughout the inner solar system. Late-stage addition of water to planets from outer parts of the solar system is therefore unlikely to have affected the water budgets of inner solar system bodies. Thus, the bulk of the highly volatile elements H, C, and N now present in Earth and the asteroid belt most likely arrived from a local source (i.e., carbonaceous chondrite–like material) very early in solar system history. The limited variation in δD over a large range of heliocentric distances (1 to 2.4 AU) supports the notion of a uniform source of water in the inner solar system." - Logical fallacy here: Arguing from Ignorance (there is way too much uncertainty to write a scientific research paper)

Contradictory Creation account? (Gen. 2:8-14)

Gen. 2:8-9, "The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

• "Eden": Hebrew bə·‘ê·ḏen (Strong's 5731) - First of 2 occurrences of the exact word in Scripture. The word appears again in Ezekiel 28:12-13, "'Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, "Thus says the Lord GOD, 'You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering . . .'"'"

• "ground": Hebrew hā-’ă-ḏā-māh (Strong's 127) - Exact word first occurs in Gen. 1:25. This word is used to name: the same ground of "everything that creeps on the ground" (Gen. 1:25); the ground man cultivates (Gen. 2:5); the ground watered by the pre-rain mist (Gen. 2:6); the ground from which man was formed (Gen. 2:7); the ground cursed with toil, thorns, and thistles (Gen. 3:17-18)--whenever the word is associated with plants, it refers to the agriculturally tilled or cultivated ground surface.

Gen. 2:10-14, "Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates."

• "Eden": Hebrew mê-‘ê-ḏen (Strong's 5731) - Only occurrence of exact word in Scripture.

• "Pishon": Hebrew pî-šō-wn (Strong's 6376) - Only occurrence of exact word in Scripture.

• "Havilah": Hebrew ha-ḥă-wî-lāh (Strong's 2341) - Only occurrence of exact word in Scripture. Variations on the root word reappear as the name of a son of Cush (Gen. 10:7 & I Chron. 1:9), a son of Joktan (Gen. 10:29 & I Chron. 1:23), and a boundary of the territory occupied by Ishmael's sons east of Egypt ("from Havilah to Shur"--Gen. 25:18) and the later territory of the Amalekites ("from Havilah as you go to Shur"--I Samuel 15:7).

• "Gihon": Hebrew gî-ḥō-wn (Strong's 1521) - Root word means, "a bursting forth". First occurrence of exact word in Genesis. The word later appears to name a spring near Jerusalem at the annointing of Solomon (I Kings 1:33), and during the reign of King Hezekiah (II Chron. 32:30)

• "Cush": Hebrew kūš (Strong's 3568) - First occurrence of this exact word. The word reappears as the name of the son of Ham (Noah's grandson), the king of Cush, and predominently as the land of Cush or Ethiopia (a real land in Esther 1:1 and 8:9).

• "Tigris": Hebrew ḥid-de-qel (Strong's 2313) - Only occurrence of exact word in Scripture. A variation on the root word reappears in Daniel 10:4 to name a large river in Persia.

• "Assyria": Hebrew ’aš-šūr (Strong's 804) - First occurrence of exact word. The word reappears to name the land of the city of Ninevah (Gen. 10:11), and later the country of Assyria which carried Northern Israel away into captivity and afflicted Judah.

•  "Euphrates": Hebrew p̄ə-rāṯ (Strong's 6578) - Only occurrence of exact word in Scripture. Variations on the root word later refer to: the river lying along the promised Eastern boundary of Israel (Joshua 1:4); and the river running by Carchemish, where King Josiah was wounded to death as he went out to engage Pharaoh Neco of Egypt who was coming up against the king of Assyria (II Kings 23:29 & II Chron. 35:20-23).

Whoah (slow down) . . . double-check the Hebrew.

Yes, that may have seemed a pretty quick write-up (it actually took hours). But I do need to check whether some of those thoughts on Gen. 1:1-30 were stretching the Hebrew meaning.

English to Hebrew to Genesis:

"Earth" - hā-’ā-reṣ, wə-hā-’ā-reṣ, ’e-reṣ, bā-’ā-reṣ, hā-’ă-ḏā-māh

• hā-’ā-reṣ (Strong's 776) - in order of priority, it can mean whole earth, land/territory, or ground surface

  Gen. 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

  Gen. 1:11, "Then God said, 'Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind' . . . "

  Gen. 1:15, "'and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth' . . ."

  Gen. 1:20, ". . . 'and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.'"

  Gen. 1:24, "'Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind' . . ."

  Gen. 1:26, "'Let Us make man in Our image . . . let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'"

  Gen. 1:28, "God blessed them; and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it . . .'"

  Gen. 1:29, "'Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed . . .'"

  Gen. 1:30, "'and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant . . .'"

• wə-hā-’ā-reṣ (Strong's 776) - same root word as "hā-’ā-reṣ"
  

  Gen. 1:2, "The earth was formless and void . . ."

• ’e-reṣ (Strong's 776) - same root word as "hā-’ā-reṣ"

  Gen. 1:10, "God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas . . ."

  Gen. 1:24, "'Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind' . . ."

• bā-’ā-reṣ (Strong's 776) - same root word as "hā-’ā-reṣ"

  Gen. 1:22, ". . . 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.'"

  [(12/24/2015)
  
  Gen. 6:17, "'Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish.'"
  
  
  Exodus 20:4, "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth."

]

• hā-’ă-ḏā-māh (Strong's 127) - has the same origin as "adam"; in order of priority, it can mean tilled ground, property, earthen material, or ground surface
  

  Gen. 1:25, "God made . . . everything that creeps on the ground after its kind . . ."

Has the Genesis account of creation endured?

Gen. 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

• Yes, we still see the starry heavens above.
• Yes, we live on the Earth.

Gen. 1:2, "The earth was formless and void . . ."

• Yes, there are many accounts of creation with the Creator fashioning a relatively "void" world

Gen. 1:3, "Then God said, 'Let there be light . . .'"

• Yes, we definitely still see visible light today.

Gen. 1:4, ". . . and God separated the light from the darkness."

• Yes, we don't see light everywhere.
• We still "see" darkness.

Gen. 1:5, "God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and morning, one day."

• Yes, we still have a name for lighted time (not talking about the exact word here)--"day" in English.
• Yes, we still name the darkened time--"night" in English.
• Yes, we still combine one lighted time and one darkened time into a single unit--"a day" in English. We talk about six days until Christmas, not six days and six nights.

Gen. 1:6, "Then God said, 'Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.'"

• Sounds like this is talking about an empty space of air, or sky, surrounding the Earth (see Gen. 7:11), but some uncertainty, as the opening of the "floodgates", or "windows", of heaven in the account of Noah's Flood may have changed the nature of this "expanse".
• We do have water on or in the earth separated from water above our heads (which we see fall as rain today).

Gen. 1:9, "Then God said, 'Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear . . .'"

• Yes, we still have much dry land separated from surrounding water.

Gen. 1:10, "God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas . . ."

• Yes, we still name the dry land--"earth", "ground", or "land" in English.
• Yes, we still name large bodies of water visible from the Earth's surface--"seas", or "oceans" in English.

 . . . (to be continued) . . . (unless everyone is bored to death)