Noah's Flood
Fact or Fiction?
Just about every tribe and nation has a Flood legend. But is it no more than that˜ a myth or
legend? The Bible tells us that because of the great violence on earth, God decided to
destroy all except Noah and his family and start again. He gave 120 years' notice of this, and
commanded Noah to build a boat of modern car ferry size. When it was finished, God invited
Noah and his family and a representative menagerie of animals to come aboard; they did so.
Then the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and a great flood swept the Ark up to
the height of Mount Ararat, 17,000 ft. In Genesis we have the "ship's log" of the good ship
Ark up to the time that they were able to disembark and repopulate the earth. Is this romantic
fancy, or is there scientific evidence for it?
What caused the Flood?
The study of Palaeomagnetism shows that the earth's magnetic field was once aligned with
geographical north. The earth has a liquid core, possibly of molten iron or iron rich material
(it is magnetic), surrounded by a solid crust or mantle. Volcanoes occur when the liquid
matter erupts to the surface. The earth is revolving, and centrifugal force causes the seas to
be deepest near the equator, and shallowest at the poles. At the equator the rotational speed
of the earth is about 2,000 miles per hour; near the poles it is very slow. The seawater spins
with the earth at the same speed. Imagine a large asteroid hitting the earth at an angle. There
are very large craters in Siberia and elsewhere which show that it has happened. If the
impetus of such a collision were sufficient, it would knock the crust of the earth suddenly
askew from the more liquid core, and also speed up the rotation of the earth if the impact
were in the same direction as the spin. Look at a world map in Mercator's Projection. The
continents and islands and the main mountain ranges seem to lie at an angle of about 15° west
of geographical north. The magnetic poles also lie off-centre from the geographical poles by
a similar angle. Such a sudden knock askew would cause the poles and equator line to
change, and the vast masses of ocean water to slop violently over the land until settling at its
new level with respect to the new equator where the sea is deepest.
Evidence of a change of sea level:
Until about 6,000 BC Britain was a peninsula of northwest Eurasia. The Thames was a
tributary of the Rhine, which flowed into the North Sea north of the Dogger Bank. Then
suddenly the Dogger Bank flooded, and the English Channel opened up, making Britain into
the group of islands that it is today. More dramatically, Lake Titicaca between Bolivia and
Peru was once at sea level and had a tropical climate. Suddenly it was elevated to 12,000 ft
above sea level, and a fossil beach line extends southwards down the Andes, dipping slowly
until it regains sea level at Tierra del Fuego. Archaeological remains of a harbour and dry
dock for shipping, and terraces for cultivation of crops, have been found at Lake Titicaca.
No crops grow there today, because it is virtually on the snow line at that altitude. The plains
of Alabama in the USA used to lie under the sea. Suddenly the seawater retreated, leaving
the plains well above sea level several hundred miles inland. Mass graves of whale
skeletons have been found by the farmers in Alabama, who use the bones to make fences and
corrals for livestock. How did these whales get so far inland in such numbers? The Sahara
Desert was once lower lying than it is today. It was a lush forest full of game hunted by the
primitive inhabitants, who left paintings of them in their caves. Suddenly the sea level and
water table were lowered, and the Sahara became the arid desert it is now. The Nile river
was rejuvenated at the same time when the sea level lowered. In Siberia woolly mammoths
are preserved in the ice, with warm climate vegetation still in their mouths and stomachs.
Evidence of Calendrical Change:
Before the Flood there were 360 days in a year divided into 12 months of 30 days each. But
the catastrophe which caused the Flood not only tipped the axis of the earth giving greater
seasonal contrasts (Genesis 8:22): it also caused the solar year to lengthen by 5¼ days to
365¼ days, and the lunar month to shorten by half a solar day to 29½ days. How do we know
this? Genesis 7:11 and 8:3-4 show that Noah had 5 months equal to 150 days: 30 days each.
The Sumerians, an ancient civilisation going back to 4,000 BC, soon after the Flood, divided
the circle into 360 degrees. They further divided each degree into 60 minutes and 60 seconds
of arc. Likewise the hours into 60 minutes of 60 seconds. Why? because they reckoned 360
days to a year, and this number and its submultiples became the base of all their calculations.
The ancient Hindu calendar had 360 days in 12 months of 30 days. Only since 1000 BC did
the Hindu year have 5¼ days added by intercalating a leap month every 60 months. The
ancient Chinese had a 360-day year with 12 lunar months of 30 solar days. In the 14th
century BC they added 5¼ days as a separate period, and for a while even divided the circle
into 365¼ degrees. In the New World, the Incas of Peru and the Mayas of Yucatan both had a
calendar of 360 days. The ancient Persians added an extra 5 days called the Gatha to its
calendar. The ancient Greeks took 360 days to a year, according to Herodotus; so did the
ancient Romans, according to Plutarch. In Egypt when biblical Joseph was Grand Vizier
their calendar had 360 days. Later dynasties referred to "the year and five days". The extra
five days were taken as an annual holiday, according to Herodotus. Julius Caesar introduced
the Julian Calendar in 46 BC. Pope Gregory XIII brought in the Gregorian Calendar of 1582.
Protestant countries adopted it in 1752, and Orthodox countries by 1918.
The 'Yawning Gap':
Between circa 5000 and 4000 BC there is a sterile layer separating the earlier Neolithic and
Chalcolithic levels from the later Early Bronze Age levels. This is called 'The Hiatus', 'The
Gap', 'The Sterile Period', and 'The Yawning Millennium' by various authorities. None of
them have labelled this as the time of the Flood, but the conclusion is too obvious to resist,
unless one has preconceived doctrinaire reasons for rejecting the truth of the Bible narrative.
As for me, I believe in Noah and the Flood.