1. Noah's Ark and the Flood A Key to Understanding Creation Mike Riddle
Institute for Creation Research

2. Topics Biblical account of the Genesis Flood
Geologic evidence and the Flood
Formation of canyons and time
Sedimentation and time
Formation of fossil fuels and time
Carbon-14 and time

3. Standard Belief
Geological time scale (geologic column) – millions of years
Fossil record – gradual progression over billions of years
Formation of large canyons – millions of years
Fossil fuels – millions of years

4. Importance of the Flood
If the Flood was NOT a worldwide flood then:
The fossil record is a record of billions of dead things laid down before sin
If the Flood WAS a worldwide flood then:
Evolution and all forms of theistic evolution are FALSE

5. Views on the Genesis Flood
Evolution
Myth or local flood
Day-age theory
Progressive creationism
Gap theory
Local flood
Worldwide flood
Biblical – young earth
Why the difference?

6. Local Versus Global Flood
Hugh Ross, Ph.D. Astronomy
(Popular progressive creationist)
“Genesis 8 gives us the most significant evidence for a universal (with respect to man and his animals and lands), but not global, flood…
continued

7. What does the geological data tell us about massive floods in the earth’s history? The evidence shows that the only place in the world where massive flooding has occurred since the advent of modern man is the region of Mesopotamia….
We are not saddled with a contradiction between the established facts of science and the words of the Bible”

8. Local Flood Region

9. Biblical Description
of the Flood

10. Note: not just man but all land animals and birds
Who Was Destroyed?
And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; ...
Genesis 6:7
Note: not just man but all land animals and birds

11. God’s Warning to Noah
And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
Genesis 6:17

12. Biblical Account of the Flood
The fountains of the deep broke open (7:11)
And the rain was upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights (7-12)
The waters prevailed and increased greatly (7:18)
The waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth (7:19)
The waters lifted the Ark (450 feet long)
The waters covered the mountains by 15 cubits (7:20)

13. Biblical Account of the Flood
All flesh died that moved upon the earth (7:21)
All in whose nostrils was the breath of life died (7:22)
Only Noah and his family survived
The waters prevailed upon the earth 150 days (7:24)
The flood lasted 1 year and 11 days (7:11, 8:14)
And the waters receded from off the earth continually (8:3)
5 months after the start of the flood, the Ark came to a rest upon Ararat (8:4)

14. New Testament Matthew 24:38-39 Luke 17:26-27 2 Peter 2:5
Jesus stated the Flood was a real event
And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

15. Word Usage
There are over 10 words in the Bible used to designate a flood
Mabbuwl (Hebrew) ………….. a deluge
Kataklusmos (Greek) ……….. an inundation

16. Critical Thinking Question
The purpose was to destroy man from the face of the earth and all beasts and birds (Genesis 6:7)
Question
Could a local/regional flood destroy all people, beast and birds on the earth?

17. Geographical Area and the Flood
The Flood occurred about 1,600 years after creation
Israel in Egypt (430 years)
And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. (Exodus 12:37)
Population at time of flood = over 1-billion

18. Geographical Area and Population
1-billion people plus animals and birds

19. Size and Shape of the Ark
What did the Ark look like? A B

20. Critical Thinking Noah had over 100 years to build the Ark
God brought animals and birds to the Ark
Water and gravity

21. 15 cubits
22 feet

22. Summary of the Biblical Evidence
The Bible teaches the Flood was a worldwide flood
All flesh with the breath of life perished
All the high hills were covered
Word usage
Population statistics and geographical area
The need for an Ark
The plain reading of the text
What does this mean?

23. Geologic Evidence
What physical evidence should we look for to support evolution?
The geologic column should exist as a standard feature throughout the earth
The fossil record must demonstrate a gradual progression of ‘simple’ to complex organisms over long ages
Evidence that long ages are required for what we observe
Great claims require real evidence

24. Geologic Time Scale Cenozoic Mesozoic Long ages uniform processes Or
Era
Period
Time (mil)
Quarternary
1.8 – present
Teritary
6.5 – 1.8
Cretaceous
14.5 – 6.5
Jurassic
208 – 14.5
Triassic
245 – 208
Permian
290 – 245
Carboniferous
363 – 290
Devonian
410 – 363
Silurian
440 – 410
Ordovician
505 – 440
Cambrian
544 – 505
Precambrian
Geologic
Time
Scale
Cenozoic
Mesozoic
Long ages
uniform processes Or
Young earth
catastrophic event
Paleozoic

25. Geologic Column
Steven Austin (Ph.D. Geology), “Ten Misconceptions about the Geologic Column,” Impact 137, Nov
“The notion that the earth’s crust has an ‘onion skin’ structure with successive layers containing all strata systems distributed on a global scale is not according to the facts.
Data from continents and ocean basins show that the ten systems are poorly represented on a global scale:
Continued

26. approximately 77% of the earth’s surface area on land and under the sea has seven or more (70% or more) of the strata systems missing beneath;
94% of the earth’s surface has three or more systems missing beneath;
99.6% has at least one missing.
Only a few locations on earth (about 0.4% of its area) have been described with the succession of the ten systems beneath….
The entire geologic column,… exists only in the diagrams drawn by geologists.”

27. Geologic Column
James Perloff, Tornado in a Junkyard, 1999, p. 154.
“The public generally believes that the Earth’s layers look much like the textbook geologic column, with strata neatly stacked upon each other. This is not the case.”
The only place we find the full geologic column

28. Grand Canyon and Strata
Henry Morris and Gary Parker, What is Creation Science?, 1987, p. 163.
“The Grand Canyon, which offers the best view of strata, contains only five of the major systems.”
The counter argument: Erosion

29. Time Period Between Strata
Great Unconformity
Dox formation (darker sediments – bottom) dated at 1 billion years
Tapeats sandstone (lighter sediments – top) dated at ½ billion years

30. Evolution and Evidence
Yes No
Evidence 1: Geologic Column
Evidence 2: Fossil Record
Evidence 3: Long Ages

31. Fossil Record Cenozoic Mesozoic Paleozoic Cambrian 544 - 505
Era
Period
Time (mil)
Quarternary
1.8 – present
Teritary
6.5 – 1.8
Cretaceous
14.5 – 6.5
Jurassic
208 – 14.5
Triassic
245 – 208
Permian
290 – 245
Carboniferous
363 – 290
Devonian
410 – 363
Silurian
440 – 410
Ordovician
505 – 440
Cambrian
544 – 505
Precambrian
Fossil Record
Cenozoic
Mesozoic
Paleozoic
Cambrian
Precambrian

32. Cambrian Explosion
David Berlinski (evolutionist), A Tour of the Calculus, 1995
“There is no question that such gaps exist. A big gap appears at the beginning of the Cambrian explosion, over 500 million years ago, when great numbers of new species suddenly appeared in the fossil record.”

33. Where are the thousands of observable intermediates?
Cambrian Explosion
Ariel Roth (Ph.D. Zoology), Origins,1998, p. 184.
“The Cambrian explosion is not just a case of all the major animal phyla appearing at about the same place in the geologic column. It is also a situation of no ancestors to suggest how they might have evolved.”
Where are the thousands of observable intermediates?

34. Fossil Record
Ronald R. West (Assistant Professor of Paleobiology Kansas State U.), “Paleoecology and Uniformitarianism,” Compass 45, May 1968, p. 216
“Contrary to what most scientists write, the fossil record does not support the Darwinian theory of evolution … .”

35. Fossil Record
Ernst Mayr (Professor Emeritus in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, Hailed as the Darwin of the 20th century), What Evolution Is, 2001, p. 14.
“Given the fact of evolution, one would expect the fossils to document a gradual steady change from ancestral forms to the descendants.
But this is not what the paleontologists finds. Instead, he or she finds gaps in just about every phyletic series.”

36. An unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence.
Fossil Record
Ronald Ecker, The Dictionary of Science and Creationism, 1990, p. 94.
“It is certainly correct to say that the fossil record is imperfect and contains many gaps. However, this in no way discredits evolutionary theory.”
Definition of faith
An unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence.

37. Fossil Record Summary The fossil record does NOT support evolution
And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

38. Evolution and Evidence
Yes No
Evidence 1: Geologic Column
Evidence 2: Fossil Record
Evidence 3: Long Ages
Do geologic processes demand long ages?

39. Catastrophic Processes and Time
1,400 feet lower

40. Catastrophic Processes and Time

41. Canyon Formation and Time
The Little Grand Canyon of the Toutle River
Picture by Steven Austin, Ph.D. Geology

42. Canyon Formation and Time
Palouse Falls Gorge, WA

43. Sedimentation and Time
Rapidly formed strata on the North Fork of the Toutle River
3 distinct deposits

44. Sedimentation and Time
Liquefaction
Turbidities
John Morris (Ph.D. Geologic Engineering), The Geology Book, 2000, p. 34.
“They [geologists] now recognize that many, if not most of the rocks on land are actually turbidites,...”

45. Picture from The Geology Book by John Morris, Ph.D. Geology
Polystrate Fossils
Picture from The Geology Book by John Morris, Ph.D. Geology

46. Coal and Oil
James Perloff, Tornado in a Junkyard, 1999, p. 155.
“New scientific studies are showing that coal, oil, and natural gas do not require an eternity to form, as previously thought.
Science News has reported that Australian researchers have artificially produced a ‘wet natural gas,’ and that Exxon scientists have accelerated the generation of oil from shale.”

47. Fossils, Fuels and Time Coal Oil Petrified Wood
Research and Development, Feb. 1984
Chemical Technology, May 1972
Oil
Organic Geochemistry, 1986
Washington, D.C., United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, 1971
Organic Geochemistry, 1993
Petrified Wood
US Patent & Trademark Office, Patent No. 4,612,050

48. Evolution and Evidence
Yes No
Evidence 1: Geologic Column
Evidence 2: Fossil Record
Evidence 3: Long Ages
And one more thing

49. What does this indicate?
Carbon-14 and Time
Carbon-14 half life: 5,730 years
Organic material presumed to be over 60,000 years old should not contain C-14
Almost without exception fossils (including coal), when tested, show detectable amounts of C-14
Measurable C-14 was detected in fossil wood presumed to be over 100 million years old
What does this indicate?

50. Time Canyon formation Sedimentation Coal, oil, and petrified wood
Polystrate fossils
All indicate long ages are NOT required
What does this mean to evolution?
A valid theory should examine any contradictory evidence
Academic freedom requires that a theory should be critically examined

51. Summary The Bible teaches a worldwide flood
The geologic time scale (geologic column) does not support evolutionary history
The fossil record does not support evolution
Large canyons can and do form rapidly
Many layers of sedimentation can and do form rapidly
Fossil fuels can and do form rapidly

52. The True History of the World
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
2 Peter 3: 5-6