Re: Is there a Plan B? (was: So we're all related!)

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004, Vernon Jenkins wrote:

> But on what basis do you presume Postdiluvian geography to be identical with
> that which obtained before the Flood? Why should you assume that the
> _Euphrates river_, as it now is, is the same watercourse as that mentioned
> in Genesis 2? If that were true, then tracing it back towards its source
> today should ultimately reveal "...(the) river that went out of Eden...and
> (its parting)...into four heads...Pison...Gihon...Hiddekel...(and) Euphrates
> (Gen.2:10-14)." Are you able to cite a region where these combined features
> (together with the others mentioned in Genesis 2) may now be found? I
> suspect not; in which case - contrary to your assertion - the physical
> geography of the Middle East has manifestly changed from what it was in
> Antediluvian times.
>
I would refer you for details to an article by Carol Hill in the March
2000 issue of PSCF (the ASA journal) available on the ASA website.

I can't imagine that any reader in Biblical times would assume that the
Euphrates River in Genesis would be anything other than what it is the
other 20 times it is mentioned by name in the Bible. I also can't imagine
that the same reader would believe that the Tigris River mentioned in
Genesis is not the same river as Daniel was standing beside when he had
one of his visions (Daniel 10:4). These rivers flow on top of sediments
six miles thick. In your scenario the rivers of Genesis 2 should be long
gone, and a guide to locating Eden would be an exercise in futility. The
ludicrous interpretation that you proposed is a desperate attempt to
reconcile this passage with the flood geology of George McCready Price,
which was inspired not by Scripture but by the writings of Seventh Day
Adventist founder Ellen White, which Adventists revere as much as they do
the Bible.

> You further said:
>
> > In the Red Sea crossing the wind blew for several hours to accomplish
> God's purpose. > Computer simulations have been done that show that what is
> described in Exodus can > really happen naturally.
>
> I would be interested to know the details of such simulations,

You can find them in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society,
Vol. 73, No. 3, March 1992, pp. 305-314, which is available on the
internet. Showing that this can happen naturally actually carries weight
with skeptics in causing them to consider that it really might have
happened.

Gordon Brown
Department of Mathematics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0395
Received on Sat Oct 23 19:06:28 2004