Gordie replied:
>I am quite confident (but could be wrong, of course) that no homo sapien
existed 5.5 million years ago. Thus any boat building would have to be done
by some other primate.
I believe Glenn argues that there could have been preflood technologies
which were obliterated in the flood, and the population after the flood
was so small that an technological knowledge remembered by Noah and his
descendent would be of very limited practical use - and hence largely
forgotten in later generations. (Imagine what would happen if the totality of
all humans were reduced to a dozen or so people. Could they build cars,
planes etc.? Not likely - even if they were all engineers.)<<
Gordie scooped me here. See my post tonight for more details on technology.
I am going to raise one other point in support of a very ancient flood since
this seems to be a big bugaboo for some. If the YEC view is correct and the
flood occurred a few thousand years ago, wiping out the entire biosphere
except for those on the ark, then in the case of humans and animals like the
mouse there should be evidence of a genetic bottleneck in the form of a
limited number of alleles. This is not found. If there were only 8 people
alive whenever the flood occurred then due to the relationships of the people
involved there should be no more than 10 alleles at any given place in the
genetic code for humans. There was a recent SCientific American article on
the MHC (major histocompatibility complex) which has to do with our immune
system, in which they listed up to 59 known alleles Scientific American Dec.
1993, p. 78.
The Bible lists the mouse as an unclean animal and so would only have had two
representatives on the ark. They could not have more than 4 alleles at any
genetic position.Klein, in his book, _The Natural History of the Major
Histocompatibility Complex, (New York: 1986), p. 627 lists locations in the
mouse genome which have up to 92 known alleles. The longest ago I have heard
anyone suggest a flood is 100,000 years ago. So... The question which needs
to be addressed by those of you who don't like the concept of an ancient
flood, is HOW DID ALL THIS VARIABILITY IN GENOME ARISE IN LESS THAN 100,000
YEARS? What is really ironic is that if you believe that all this arose
within the past 100,000 years, you believe in rates of evolution far faster
than the evolutionists do!!!! So why don't you join me and become an
evolutionist? :-)
There are other biomolecular data which require that if there was a
flood it HAD to be much longer ago than 100,000 years. The difference in
animal chromosome numbers must have occurred within the past 100,000 years
(equidae chromosome number range from 65 -32; pigs 36- 38, mice 26-40 canidae
78-36). Since most global flood people believe that Noah only had one
horse-kind and one mouse kind, one pig-kind. The diversity is supposed to
have arisen since they got off the ark. Is this possible without believing in
more rapid evolution than the evolutionist? The invitation is still open to
become an evolutionist.
glenn