Glenn and group:
I have several responses in the discussion of the pre-and post-
flood world, and the preservation of technology and standard of
living through the flood.
First of all, how do the 8 survivors eat until they grow new
crops? Their grain supply could have been packed on the ark in
"pitched" containers, to seal out moisture so it wouldn't mold. I
believe they carried enough to last them at least through the
first post-flood growing season. Using dates/ages literally in
the OT (give or take 5 or 10 years, Stephen) the Flood occured in
about 2400 BC, so this is not inconsistent with the evidence you
cited regarding agriculture. (I know it is inconsistent with what
you believe that the geological evidence is telling you, Glenn,
but I'll touch on that later) Meat? God told them to take 7
breeding pairs of each "clean" animal for sacrifices and food.
"Clean" in OT law is determined by chewing the cud plus cloven
hooves. There are a number of animal species that fit this
specification and assuming they know how to preserve meat by
salting it, it could keep for a while after they had killed one.
Iron ore and clay deposits: enough raw materials could have been
brought in the ark to last a few years, possibly a decade or two.
After all, how quickly could 8 people be expected to wear out
their tools and kitchenware anyway? To find the buried deposits
in the post flood world, go back to the creation account. Why did
God put the stars in the heavens? For "signs" and "times"!!! What
does that mean? the most sensible thing to me is - Signs tell you
where you're at, and times, well, what time IS it anyway? the
stars were put there so people could navigate and know what time
it was (at least within a few days anyway). So in the 120 years
prior to the flood, deposits of useful minerals were located and
charted by means of celestial navigation, then re-located and dug
up in the decades, perhaps centuries after the flood. As has
already been mentioned, Noah lived 359 years after leaving the
ark.
Health: Since I haven't seen a whole lot of YEC explanation for
certain things here on the reflector I'll just open myself up for
all sorts of scorn and ridicule by mentioning some YEC dogma.
According to some YEC literature I have read, the atmospheric
pressure and oxygen content was considerably higher pre-flood
than it is today. many of the large dinosaurs have been found to
have lung capacity inadequate for survival in today's 14.7 psia,
21% O2 atmosphere. The YEC literature speculates that pressure
was at least double what it is today and O2 somewhere between 30%
and 40%. Furthermore, they speculate that the Waters Above the
Firmament was actual liquid water, held up there by frozen
Hydrogen. This arrangement explains a number of things regarding
health as well as the flood itself. First, the water barrier
keeps out harmful UV from the sun and the hi O2 makes is hard for
alot of harmful bacteria to survive. this is why lifetimes were
so long in the pre-flood world. it also accounts for the large
amounts of water that came down in the flood and didn't go back
up; the atmospheric water (clouds, etc.) we have now would only
cover the earth's present land to a depth of 2". The dry land
appeared after the flood when continental plates shifted,
overthrusted, underthrusted, etc. I suspect we wound up with a
lot less dry land area post-flood than there was pre-flood.
Anyhow looking at the ages for the post-flood patriarchs in
Genesis, one can almost see a logarithmic decline from Noah to
David (i think) if you plot year of birth against age at death.
Shem is the only one mentioned who may not fit this as he was
still alive at the time that Abraham paid tithes to Melchizadek
following the slaughter of the Canaanite kings. Some believe that
Shem WAS Melchizadek. My point is that alot of the health effects
were not felt immediately since the atmosphere had not yet
reached the equilibrium O2 concentrations that we have today.
Glenn, it's quite possible you've heard all of this stuff before
and had to blow it all away because of what you've seen in your
geological data. I have learned alot of what's out there from
being on this reflector and am not as dogmatic about the YEC
Viewpoint as i have been in the past because of what i have
learned about some of the dating methods and YOUR geologic
column. However I still know that everyone's theories include
unproved assumptions, however rational and consistent with what
we call modern science that they might be. All we know for sure
about the fossil record is that all those critters were alive at
some time and now they're dead. How they got there and when is
still subject to alot of interpretation and theory although some
of it looks quite logical and rational. I am educated and work as
a mechanical engineer in the chemical industry so I am not an
enemy of real science. However, I have enough practical
experience as well as the practical experience of others to know
that what works (or seems to work) on a chalkboard, textbook, or
laboratory when purported by individuals with alot more education
than I have, does not always work out in real life. It is quite
possible that modern science a hundred years from now will
explain things quite differently than what we think now just like
Copernicus and Galileo explained things differently from Ptolemy
and Aristotle. All I know for sure is that time will prove the
scriptures right; it always has and always will; we just don't
agree on what is to be taken literally and what can be taken
allegorically or otherwise.
I think I'll quit for now
JOE REIMERS