First, observations today show that each small white layer is the result of
a springtime algal bloom with dark clay being deposited throughout the rest
of the year. This pattern has been observed during this century so we know
that it is a yearly pattern. Radiocarbon dates verify the pattern for the
past few thousand years a time over which even young-earth creationists
believe radiocarbon works effectively. Gish wrote:
[The] carbon-14 method, ... is useful for dating samples only a few
thousand years old.)."~Duane Gish, Evolution: The Challenge of the
Fossil Record, (El Cajon: Creation-Life Publishers, 1985), p. 51
As we go back into the past,if the flood occurred in 2300 BC or so, why
there is no break in the sedimentation. Young-earth creationists are fond
of pointing to the bristlecone pines which have no more than 5000 tree rings
as being evidence of the flood occurring
"Even without adjustment, the living Bristlecones do fit well
within the range of dates for the flood provided by numerous
Biblical scholars."~Frank Lorey, "Tree Rings and Biblical Chronology,"
Impact, 252, June 1994, p. iii.
But if the Bristlecone pines are evidence of the flood's timing, then why
are there 43,000 consecutive, yearly layers in a Japanese lake?
Obviously, if there were a gobal flood which had occurred during the past
43,000 years, there would NOT be 43,000 yearly layers! The existence of
these layers, proven to be yearly both by modern observation AND radiocarbon
over the past few thousand years, shows that Japan was NOT disrupted by a
global flood during this time frame.
This also rules out several suggestions by the young-earthers that the vapor
canopy or a stronger magnetic field shielded the earth from the solar wind
producing an atmosphere without C14 prior to the flood (Robert H. Brown,
"Radiometric Dating from the Perspective of Biblical Chronology,"
Proceedings of the First International Conference on Creationism,
Vol. 1, (Pittsburg: Creation Science Fellowship, 1986), p. 45).
These suggestions and others like them fail because there is a record of
yearly deposits which extends to 43,000 years, which is at the upper edge of
C14 dating anyway.
This leads to three possibilities.
1. The flood was local and occurred within the past few thousand years
somewhere else than in Japan. I reject this option because a local flood
under these circumstances could not match the Biblical description. A
Mesopotamian Flood simply doesn't fit the Biblical description with regard
to the duration of the Flood, nor the landing spot (since an ark would be
flushed out to the Indian Ocean in about a week). It also would be difficult
to have an anthropologically universal flood, which I believe the Scripture
requires.
2. The flood was global but prior to 43,000 years ago. I reject this because
no one can point to a set of geologic layers which can be identified as
Flood deposits which extend over the entire world.
With these two possibilities having problems, either the Scripture is wrong
about the flood, or, the third possibility is where one should look for a
solution to the "Flood" problem.
3. The flood was prior to 43,000 years and was local, occurring early in
human history when mankind was still localized and thus it could be
anthropologically universal. I would suggest that the infilling of the
Mediterranean basin, 5.5 million years ago when hominids first appeared on
earth, was a perfect place both to have the flood be anthropologically
universal, which could cover high mountains and last a year. There is no
other place or time that I have been able to find that so perfectly matches
the Biblical description.
glenn
Adam, Apes, and Anthropology: Finding the Soul of Fossil Man
and
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm