This world is truly a divided place: There are those who agree with me and those who are wrong.
Okay, I jest, but at least I caught you reading...
And speaking of world groupings, there are many dichotomies out there (Maurice, that would be two sharply contrasting divisions, often used in science in the form of binary classification). There are factions about this issue, divisions over that one, and mass polarization regarding everything under the sun—or so it seems.
One of the most obvious sets of “camps” involves that of the origin of the world. Many Bible-believing people feel that the earth is only a few thousand years old, while others buy into an old earth theory. Countless secular people see evolution—that is, life developing naturally over millions of years—as the obvious answer to origins. Interestingly enough, a growing number of pure scientists with earned doctorates debunk that position, and have wisely and accurately embraced a young earth paradigm.
And somewhere on the fence, oops, in the middle, are those who subscribe to what has become known as Intelligent Design. (I should be gentler here: I too believe in Intelligent Design, but only because I believe in an intelligent Designer—a position that leads me to a “creationism” conclusion.
This rambling preamble is because of two recent news tidbits written by secular scientists, scientists who have no truck whatsoever with a young earth position. One announcement had to do with the mountain range under the ice cap in the Antarctica; the other was a discovery of a massive dump of whale fossils in a desert in Central China. (No, that is not a typo: I did say “desert.”)
Both have been explained away with a timeline of millions of years, something I disagree with; and both were seen as the result of some sort of cataclysmic event, something I do agree with. In terms of the whales in China, the authorities are at a loss as to how they got so far inland.
I think I have an answer for them, but I'll tell you first. Part of the young earth theory includes a worldwide catastrophe, also known as the Great Flood, linked with an old man called Noah.
Let me wait, while you pick yourself up off the floor.
Are back up on the couch? Great. Let me proceed. I say Noah, and you think of someone with a goofy-looking boat, surrounded by a few pairs of animals hanging out on the deck. Perhaps you learned that at your local Sunday School, or at grandma's knee. Well, the “old” part is accurate, but that is probably the only part that is. Strangely enough, most myths about Noah have come from the church. A careful examination of legends from well over two hundred cultures (all secular, non-Christian, no less) across the globe speak of a worldwide flood that devastated humanity about 4500 years ago.
Re-stated, that would be cultures without a Biblical framework of reference, with no theological axe to grind.
What is accurate is that there was a very large three-storey barge, and that there were likely just infantile animals (ie., no adults)--thus, sleeping most of the time, eating very little, and taking up very little space. These animals became the predecessors of every cat, cow, and canary in the world today.
Some animals made it onto the ark (two of each, and seven of those those that were to be sacrificed). The rest, you might say, were history.
They died on the spot, forming, for instance, huge mammoth graveyards scattered throughout the polar regions—or did they hide that from you in school, too? They perished, big time, as in thousands of dinosaurs (who did live alongside mankind, by the way). Can you say F-O-S-S-I-L F-U-E-L? And many ended up getting beached somewhere—surprise, surprise-- in a desert in Central China.
The Great Flood explains the fossils of mammals scattered in petrified forests under the ice cap —get this—in Greenland. It explains how verdant valleys that once existed—get this, again—in the South Pole. It fits in with all the seashells discovered by the few, yet hidden from the masses, on the tops of the Himalayas.
So when I read of a mountain range in the Antarctica, or of a whale graveyard in Central China, I feel re-assured. Ironically, even though they are from legends from pagan cultures, or field work from anthropologists of all stripes, I am continually amazed at how it all fits in to a Biblical worldview.
Believing in an old earth or evolution is too much of a leap in the dark for me. You see, I don't have enough faith to believe otherwise.
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