My Blog on Global Warming issues http://themigrantmind.blogspot.com/
A Theory for Creationists
A suggestion for the Creation-Evolution Debate
Glenn R. Morton
This post Copyright 1996 G.R. Morton It can be freely distributed anywhere
if unaltered and no charge is made.
Preface: Below I present a view which is the only
way I know to make Genesis be historical and at the same time accept modern
science. The question often is asked could this be true? It could
be, but the important question is 'Is it true?' Honesty demands the
acknowledgement that the odds of this scenario being true are low, but
long-shots occasionally win. That being said, I present the following as a
possibility only. One can't advocate it as historical truth without further
verification.
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Related Pages,
Days of Proclamation
Why I beleive Genesis is Historically Accurate
Plain Reading of Genesis 1
The Bible's Way of Telling Us the Earth is Old
Evidence for One World Language
How God used Evolution
The Metaphysical Casino--Why I believe in Design
Early Church Fathers were not YECs--John Tobin's Essay
Genesis 1:11, Why the Bible teaches evolution
The debate over the veracity of the Bible, especially
the first part of Genesis has raged for over a century. During this century,
many scientifically trained people have left the faith they were raise
with because they could not see how to reconcile Genesis and Science. Many
have observed that if the Bible is not historically true, then there is
no reason to believe the claims that the Bible makes for our lives. I agree
with this point. Unfortunately, most of those people feel that there is
no way that the Bible can be compatible with modern scientific observation.
_Foundation, Fall and Flood_ presents a new harmonization which does not
violate any of the scientific observations but allows the events in Genesis
to be actual, not allegorical, events.
Genesis 1 Issues
Genesis 1 occurs at the beginning of the universe.
These are 6 proclamations God made in laying out the laws of the universe.
They are proclamations only -- not actualizations. Nothing was completed
on these days. Thus these can be events immediately at the beginning of
the universe or just prior to the existence of the universe. The days are
viewed as consecutive proclamations or "periods" of short duration.
The proclamations were in temporal order; the fulfillment of those proclamations
were NOT in the same temporal order. Diagrammatically it looks like,
time---->
proclamation 2 (expanse)---fulfillment
proclamation 3 (dry ground, plants)---fulfillment=>
proclamation 4 (sun,moon)--fulfillment
proclamation 5 (sea creatures)-fulfillment=>
proclamation 6 (land creatures,man)--fulfillment=>---fulfillment
Take Genesis 1:3,4, And God said, 'Let there be light,'
and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated
the light from the darkness."(NIV)
Moses reported what God said at the beginning of the
universe "Let there be light" The rest of this passage is Moses'
commentary. Moses reports that sometime after God said this, light existed.
This does not say that the light necessarily existed at the moment God
said it. There could have been a time lag. Later God separated the light
from the darkness.
Genesis 1:6 "And God said, 'Let there be an expanse
between the waters to separate water from water.' Genesis 7 "So God
made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water
above it and it was so." (NIV)
Verse 6 is the proclamation. Verses 7 and 8 are the
commentary by Moses that yes indeed this was accomplished. BUT THERE IS
NO REPORTED TIME FRAME IN WHICH THE ACTION WAS COMPLETED!
This last point is very important. There is no explicit
time relationship in any of the Genesis 1 verses between the proclamation
by God and the completion of the event. Today we, like Moses, can say that
it was accomplished. All the proclamations are completed. But this last
statement does not tell you the time frame in which those were finished.
While the proclamations were in temporal order, the fulfillments were not!
Several problems are avoided by this interpretation.
There is no problem raised by the Genesis account in relation to the time
of creation of the sun/plants or sun and moon/day- night, or insects after
the plants or anything at all. God merely proclaimed the future existence
of these animals and plants in the order He chose fit. He did not create
them necessarily in the order He proclaimed them. The Bible does not require
a belief in 24-hour accomplishment of the events of Genesis 1. By this
technique a whole host of nasty problems are avoided in the relation between
science and the Bible.
Some might object that God only works instantaneously.
When He speaks it is done. There are lots of prophecies in the Bible which
took time. God's promise to Abraham to have a son; God's promise to Abraham
that all nations would be blessed through him. Jesus' prophecy concerning
the fate of Jerusalem took some time to become fulfilled. So the Days of
Proclamation I am advocating here has other precedents in the Scripture.
Evolution
Does the Bible teach that evolution did not occur?
No, it does not teach this in spite of what many Christian apologetical
books say! A look at Genesis 1:11 shows that God did not create the plants
directly.
Genesis 1:11 "And God said, 'Let the land produce
vegetation....'"
The Bible states very clearly that God used a secondary
cause to produce the vegetation. God used the land. I firmly believe that
this implies God used evolution to create the plants. They were not created
as young-earth creationists often teach because the best translations of
the Hebrew state differently than they teach. God commanded the land to
produce the vegetation; He didn't do it directly!
To continue with verse 1:11, "The God said, 'Let
the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land
that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.' And
it was so." The second very important point here is that contrary
to almost all Christian exegesis this verse does not teach that the plants
were commanded to reproduce according to their various kinds. The land
was commanded to "produce plants and trees...that bear fruit...according
to their various kinds." This is merely saying that there were supposed
to be various kinds of fruit which is quite different from saying that
fruit could only reproduce fruit after their kind. There is a big difference
between the two. Young earth christians have clearly perverted what Genesis
says here. If I send you to the grocery store to "get fruits after
their kind", do you think I have told you something about the reproductive
potential of fruit trees? Of course I haven't. I have told you to get various
kinds of fruits from the store. This is the same thing that Genesis 1:11
is saying. God created various kinds of fruits.
Genesis 1:21 says "God created the great creatures
of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems,according
to their kinds." Look at the object of this sentence and the modifying
phrase, "Creatures... according to their kind." God created creatures
according to their kind. They were not commanded to reproduce according
to their kind. Once again, a very different situation. Why Christians misread
this I really don't know.
Genesis 1:24 "And God said, 'Let the land produce
living creatures according to their kind." Once again nothing about
reproduction was mentioned. The land produced creatures according to their
kind. This is not the same as saying animals reproduced according to their
kind. "Animals" is not the subject of the sentence, "land"
is. Thus this verse says nothing about reproduction. Assuming that the
translators have remained somewhat faithful to the Hebrew, the subject/verb
relationships here say nothing about the reproductive abilities of animals.
The three verses which are most often used to say
that the Bible rules out evolution, do not even say what young-earth creationists
say they do. Their entire view is based upon a gross misunderstanding of
what the Bible actually says!
Thus the Bible is perfectly in accord with the concept
of evolution, i.e. that animals do not have to reproduce according to their
kind. They are free to reproduce anyway they want. They were not free for
the land to produce them anyway they wanted. God placed a limit on the
production of plants and animals. They were to be produced according to
their kinds. Some translations say various kinds.
For those who might need more convincing, consider
Genesis 1:21 which says,
"And God created great whales and every living
creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, AFTER
THEIR KIND, and every winged fowl after his kind:..."
Then compare that to Genesis 6:19-20 which says
"And of every living thing of all flesh, two
of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee;
they shall be male and female. Of fowls AFTER THEIR KIND, and of cattle
AFTER THEIR KIND, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them
alive."
What is fascinating is that anti-evolutionary Christians say that the phrase "after their kind" in Genesis 1 implies something
about the reproductive capacities of animals and yet no one says that the
same phrase used in a parallel fashion in Genesis 6 means something about
the reproductive capacities. Thus internal Biblical evidence says that
the phrase "after their kind" does not mean what the creationists
say it does! The creationists have engaged in a tremendous misinterpretation
of the Bible.
What is the relationship between Genesis 1 and Genesis
2?
Normally, young-earth creationists view the events
of Genesis 2 as an expansion of Day 6 of Chapter 1. I do not believe this
is true. Genesis 2 is a separate event which occurred billions of years
after Genesis 1. By viewing Genesis 1 as a separate event from Genesis
2, there is no problem with trying to account for why are there two creation
accounts (which is often a criticism of the Biblical accounts) There are
not two creation accounts, there are two descriptions of two separate events.
Adam does not fit into the sixth day of Genesis 1. In Genesis 1 that was
the proclamation of man's existence; Genesis 2 was the actualization of
man's existence billions of years after Genesis 1.
Genesis 2 Issues
As I mentioned above, Genesis 2 is a totally separate
event which occurred billions of years after Genesis 1. This voids the
higher criticism objection to the scriptural validity that these two accounts
of creation are the two accounts of two different peoples who joined to
become the Hebrews. The JEDP theory is not satisfactory because it assumes
the existence of documents and traditions for which there is absolutely
no evidence. Assuming the existence of evidence is not the way to prove
the view.
The lay of the land
Genesis 2:5 "Now no shrub of the field was yet
in the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God
had not sent rain upon the earth; and there was no man to cultivate the
ground. But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface
of the ground." NAS
This verse is often said to support the idea that
there was no rain on earth before the flood. This can not be correct scientifically,
unless the laws of physics were different in the past (which is an impossibility).
As long as the earth is a sphere, the poles will receive less heat from
the sun than the equator. Because of this, air currents will be initiated
which attempt to equalize the distribution of heat. This will mean cold
and warm fronts and the rainfall associated with them would have occurred.
If one wants to believe that there was no rain anywhere on earth before
the flood, then it is incumbent upon them to postulate a viable hypothesis
which would explain the lack of rain. And the vapor canopy will not solve
this problem. The solution to this verse lies with the translation.
I am going to suggest that the Hebrew word "eretz"
which is often translated "earth" might more sensibly be translated
"land" through much of Genesis 2-11. If you do that, then the
above verse says there was no rain upon the land and that there was no
shrub of the field in the land. The lack of rain and plants of the field
could imply a desert. The modifier to plants, 'of the field', could imply
a lack of agricultural plants because of the statement that there was no
man to cultivate the ground --a condition which was removed a few verses
later. It is amazing the difference the choice of a translated word can
make. To extend the lack of rainfall to the entire earth until the advent
of the flood, as young earth creationists do, seems to be an excessive
extrapolation. "Eretz" can equally be translated "land"
or "country" and these choices for the translation are entirely
ignored by them.
There are two areas of the hydrology of Genesis 2
which are utterly bizarre when compared to present realities. The first
is the mists which used to rise up out of the ground. This implies artesian
type of activity which means that the "land" (mistranslated earth)
was in a topographically low area where rainfall on the highlands seeped
into the ground and emerged from the ground at a lower elevation. (in the
following diagram the ... are the equivalent of spaces)
rain -------- \
.....................\water oozing out of continental slope
......................\
.......................\
........................\
..........................----------------------
The second bizarre hydrological situation is the splitting
of the 4 rivers out of Eden. Rivers don't split into 4 except at two places
- a delta, and where a river flows from a steep gradient out onto a broad
plain at a lower level. At the place where the gradient lessens, the flow
is more easily split into numerous channels. Once again this implies a
topographically low area.
stream splits at change of slope
*
..*
....*
......*
........*
..........*
............* start of slope change
................*
......................*
...............................*
................................................*
...............................................................*************************************
I will make a suggestion that the place Genesis 2
is talking about is the Mediterranean basin when it was emptied 5.5 million
years ago. There are several reasons for this. 1. When it was dry, there
would be very little rainfall on that land. In all directions it would
be in the rain shadow of 15,000 foot tall mountains. 2. Subterranean water
in the rocks of the surrounding continental sediments (Africa, Asia, and
Europe) would ooze out of the ground along what we now call the continental
slope of the Mediterranean basin, thus explaining the "mist"
or "streams" spoken of in Genesis 2:6.
When the Mediterranean was dry, the Nile River flowing
out onto the basin would split into numerous channels much as the modern
rivers in the Kalahari desert do today. 3. All the minerals described in
Genesis 2:10-17 are found in the region I am describing. 4. This makes
an excellent place for the Flood to have occurred because it fits the Biblical
description of the Flood covering high mountains and provides a mechanism
for the massive rainfall described. As that basin filled with water, the
air would be forced upward. Air, containing any moisture which rises, cools
and condenses to form rain fall.
Was the Mediterranean dry?
This is the currently accepted view of the geologic
history of the Mediterranean region. (Hsu, 1972, 1974; Hsu et al, 1977;
Hsu, 1983). The evaporation of the Mediterranean region is such that if
you built a dam across the Strait of Gibraltar today, the entire sea would
evaporate in 1000-4000 years. The evidence Hsu cites are many. Caves are
eroded into the limestones which form Malta down to a depth of 2000 meters
and deep karsts are found in Yugoslavia (Hsu, et al, 1974, p. 140; Hsu,
1983, p. 175). Rivers cut canyons as deep as 3,000 meters below sea level
along the Rhone in southern France, the Nile, in Italy, Corsica, Sardinia,
and Libya.(Hsu, et al, 1973, p. 243) Desert deposited alluvial fans were
drilled into at the base of the Miocene (Hsu, 1983, p. 149). Desiccation
cracks filled with salt were found (Hsu et al, 1974, p. 139) The fauna
below the desert deposits were deep ocean sediments. These were overlain
by salt, anhydrite, limestone and other desert-like deposits with animals
indicating a hypersaline environment. (Hsu et al, 1977, p. 401). These
in turn are overlain once again by animals which could only have lived
in excess of 1000 m of water (Hsu et al, 1973, p. 240; see also Robertson
et al, 1995, p. 233). The European fauna from the time of the Mediterranean
desiccation changed from a forest to a savannah environment as the climate
dried up (Hsu, et al, 1974, p. 141). Hippopotami walked down the Nile and
up onto Cyprus during this time. (Hsu, 1983, p. 177). Since Hippopotami
do not live in the ocean, they could not have swum to Cyprus. Chicken-wire
dolomite is a type of rock which is only deposited if the temperature is
above 35 deg C. Chicken-wire dolomite is found on the bottom of the Mediterranean
where today the water temperature is near freezing. (Hsu, 1983, p. 14)
Finally, stromatolites, a type of algal precipitated rock is found on the
bottom of the Mediterranean, several thousand meters below the present
sea level. Stromatolites are only deposited when the water is less than
10 meters deep! (Hsu, 1983, p. 14-17)
Thus there is lots of geologic evidence that the Mediterranean
was once a desert. The most fascinating thing about this is that very shortly
after this time the earliest hominids are found in the fossil record!
The origin of man.
This is the tricky place. Everybody says that it is
impossible to account for the origin of Adam and Eve by means of evolution
and yet still have the Biblical account be true (Wells, 1961, p. 777; Whitcomb
and Morris, 1961, p. 473; Davidheiser, 1969, p. 168-169). An example is
Lane (1994, p. 20) who says: "Special creationists in contrast, point
out that the general theory of evolution is incompatible with Biblical
Christianity, a view shared by many atheistic and agnostic evolutionists."
This is false. Christians have not put enough effort
into solving this problem. Here is what the evidence says.
The apes have 48 chromosomes; we have 46 (Johanson
and Edey, p. 138, 275). If we arose from the apes,(as I believe we did)
there must have been a chromosomal fusion (there are also other differences
like inversions of certain segments etc). The data clearly shows that it
man's chromosome 2 is the combination of two ape chromosomes. The banding
in chromosome 2 are identical to the banding in 2 ape chromosomes. ( Yunis
and Prakash, 1982, p. 1526)
The biggest piece of evidence in my mind connecting
us to the apes is a) the extreme similarity in DNA (99%) and b) the existence
of pseudogene insertions at the same locations in man, chimp, gorilla and
orangutan. (Max, 1986, p.42; 1990, p. 48) A pseudogene is a BROKEN gene
which is found in a part of the genome far removed from its normal position.
The pseudogene has lost the control information which informs the cellular
machinery how to make the protein and thus it does nothing. Since the pseudogene
does not perform any useful function it can not be claimed to be the result
of design. Designers do not design broken parts! Thus the pseudogene is
an error in DNA copying. As noted above, this same error has been found
at the same location in the four species listed above. What are the odds
of this happening by chance? About the same as this: Let 4 different people
go to four different towns with the instructions to type a copy of Gibbon's
_Decline and Fall_. Sometime during the typing each of the 4 are to stop,
randomly select one paragraph from somewhere else in the book and insert
the paragraph where they stopped. They then continue typing the rest of
the book. Do you believe that the 4 people would not only choose the same
paragraph, but also choose the same spot to insert it into their copy?
If you believe this, then you can believe that the pseudogene was produced
by pure chance. To believe this is pure lunacy. Thus the pseudogene requires
that the humans, chimps, gorillas and orangutan be related. Any Biblical
interpretation which expects to survive the scrutiny of modern science
needs to handle this piece of data. Currently no conservative view of the
Bible addresses this problem.
Biblically, it states that God made man from the dust
of the ground, that He breathed the breath of life into the man, and that
the man was alone--no Eve. This would appear to contradict evolution. God
is also described as being actively and supernaturally involved in the
creation of man. And that man's spirit is somehow different from that of
the animals. Is there a way to put all this together? I believe there is.
Assume that God was ready to create a being who was
"made in His image". During this time, there was among the physical
ancestor of man a very rare mutation -- a chromosomal fusion. But this
error was almost always fatal. God took one of these creatures, a still
born, fixed him, and blew his breath into him. Why do I have God make Adam
in this fashion? Because of what God said when Adam sinned. If you remember
the verse Genesis 3:19 God said, "for dust you are and to dust you
shall return." A dead body is "dust." Adam came from dust
and to dust he now will return.
Those who will object that a dead body is not "dust"
should consider this. If you say that 'dust" must be DUST, then why
does God call the living Adam 'dust'? Genesis 3:19 states, "...for
dust you are and to dust you will return." (NIV) When that was spoken
Adam was a living being and so the dust does not mean dirt! And one can
not ignore the fact that when Adam died he would become a corpse(i.e. a
return to dust).
Thus Adam was created from the product of a chromosomal
fusion. This allows us to explain the existence of the pseudogene; something
no other Biblical interpretation which believes in a specially created
Adam can explain. But Adam was alone. He had not evolved in the normal
fashion and so there was no population of creatures like him with whom
he could mate. He also could not talk. Adam's physical parent could not
talk and so he could not learn from them. God taught Adam to speak. That
is what God was doing when he brought all the animals to Adam.
In this scenario, it is not necessary for Adam to
have been created as a full grown individual. The language lessons may
have lasted years before Adam finally realized that he needed a mate. At
that time, God created Eve in the fashion described.
This is the only way that I have found to be able
to retain a historical view of Genesis and still account for the biological
evidence which indicates genetic connection with the non-human primates.
While this view is very different, it does not violate anything that the
Bible states. For those who prefer some form of divine intervention in
the creation of man, this is the basis upon which this view should be judged.
But additionally, this does not violate any scientific data either; something
Christians ought to be interested in.
Adam's immortality
There has historically been an objection to evolution
because of the belief that death entered the world through Adam. Romans
5:12 states, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into
the world {cosmos}, and death through sin and so death spread to all men,
because all sinned." (NIV)
Notice that the verse says death spread to all men.
It does not say that death spread to the animals or plants. Death was man's
punishment for sin. Man was the only creature given the possibility of
immortality by God. The cows, goats and my cat never had that possibility.
To interpret this verse as implying that the death of animals prior to
the advent of sin is taking the verse further than it wants to go.
The very fact that God created reproduction argues
very strongly that death, at least for the animals was part of the creation.
Bacterial reproduction, if unchecked by death and stasis, would cover the
earth in less than a week's time. Cockroaches are well renown for their
reproductive success. Do we really think that God created a world in which
cockroaches would continue to multiply without end and never die? No, death
was part of nature at the creation of Adam, but Adam had the opportunity
to not participate in that death had He made the correct choice.
The second passage is the Romans 8:20-23: "For
the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because
of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be
set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of
the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers
the pains of childbirth together until now."(NAS)
The creation suffers from man's sin far beyond mere
death. Man's sin has upset the ecological balance, we are not being good
stewards of the earth (and I don't think we even know how to be). But the
above passage does not say that creation was subject to death, but to futility.
No matter what man does in the area of conservation and ecology, he faces
a Hobson's choice. Save one species but at the expense of another. By allowing
the saving the wolf, we run the risk of killing off other species because
of their predation. Suppose the wolf captures the last black-footed ferret?
The place of fossil man
There is often an issue raised concerning where the
fossil man fits into the Biblical record. This of course raises the question
of how do you define man. Can you do it on brain size? The Australopithecines
had brains in the 450 cc range much smaller than modern man (1350 cc).
Well, there are modern humans who had hydrocephaly as an infant, whose
brains are mere coatings to the inside of the skull (about one millimeter
thick) and yet have normal intelligence. A generous calculation of this
man's brain size places it in the range of 108 cc. Are we to deny people
like this the status of humanity? (Lewin, 1980, p. 1232). There was a report
of one child whose epileptic seizures required the removal of half his
brain. At college he received a higher grade in a class with half his brain
than his father, who took the same class, did with a full brain. Does his
approximately 600 cc brain deny him a place in humanity?
What other characteristics can we use to define man?
This gets really tricky here. Modern man has an amazing range of morphological
variation. Pygmies to the tall Watusi in height; straight hair of many
Chinese to the extremely kinky hair of Africans; very dark skin with lots
of pigmentation to the near absence of pigmentation in the Scandinavians.
Eyes with and without epicanthic folds are found. Is there one physical
trait that can be used to define man? No. If you say that the Australopithecines
could not be man because their brains were small and they were very short,
you would rule out by that definition, men alive today. While I know of
no examples the possibility of a normal intelligence, hydrocephalic pygmy
certainly exists. To deny such a person the title of human would be an
injustice of the highest degree.
Can we use intelligence? Hardly. First technology
and intelligence do not go hand in hand so there is no way to measure it
in the fossil record. Secondly such a definition of humanity would then
deny humanity to one such as my wife's Down's syndrome uncle or a good
friend's extremely unintelligent anencephalic child. Is he not human? I
would fight such a definition.
Humanity can not be defined by such terms. I would
contend that humanity is anyone made in the image of God, even if they
look different from me (e.g. pygmy, Chinese, Swede, Homo erectus). Before
we exclude some of the fossil men from humanity, we need to have a very,
very clear definition of what humanity is. There was a time, not too long
ago in this country, when Africans were not viewed as human since they
were so different in appearance from the Europeans. God judges what is
inside of us, not what we look like. Thus I would define man as any being
who engages in human activities.
When was mankind created? Morris and the ICR crowd
would want us to believe that man was created 6-10 thousand years ago.
Hugh Ross would want us to believe that mankind was created less than 60,000
years ago. (Ross, 1994, p. 141). If this is true, then there should be
no evidence for human-like activity in the fossil record prior to that
time. Do these views match up with the data found in the fossil record?
There are some behaviors which can currently be correlated
to man and man alone. These activities have been in the fossil record for
several million years.
Mankind is the only creature on earth today that fashions
stone tools. The oldest stone tools found in the fossil record come from
2.7 million years ago. (Chamberlain, 1983, p. 143).
Mankind is the only being that creates a tool with
the purpose of making another tool. (Schick and Toth, 1993, p.53-57). The
first evidence of tool use for a purpose other than gathering food or making
a nest is from Homo erectus 1.5 million years ago. Schick and Toth report
that microanalysis of the stone tools found evidence of wood-working on
the stone tools of Koobi Fora 1.5 million years ago (Schick and Toth, 1993,
p. 176).
Mankind is the only being who controls fire and the
first evidence of the controlled use of fire is from Europe with Homo erectus
700,000 years ago. (Barnouw, 1982, p. 143).
Only mankind fashions weapons with the future purpose
of killing. The first spear in the fossil record is from Clacton-on- Sea
from 300,000(this is really the making of a tool to make another tool for
a third purpose) (Schick and Toth, 1993, p. 271).
Mankind is the only being who has been known to scalp
his own kind and the first evidence of this is from Bodo, Ethiopia from
a skull dated at 300,000 years old. (Tattersall, 1995, p. 244).
Mankind is the only being who has two brain structures
related to speech, Broca's area and Wernicke's area. Both of these leave
impressions on the inside of skulls. These are first found in the skulls
of Homo habilis dated at 2 million years ago. (Shreeve, 1995, p. 274-275).
This indicates that some level of speech was probably developed in Homo
habilis. Since speech is a purely human trait, it would seem difficult
to exclude habilis from humanity!
Mankind is the only being who engages in art-especially
the art of making statues of naked females of his species. The earliest
possible example of this type of art is a presently controversial object
known as the Golan Venus. It is a rock modified to look like a female.
It was found in rocks dated at 330,000 years ago (Morris, 186-188; Feraud
et al, 1983, p 263-265.) While I have no details, apparently more ancient
art has been found in Africa from 240,000 years ago. (Bower, 1995, p. 378). Marshack
(Marshack, 1995, p. 495) reports that it is clear that human hands
modified this object. These behaviors have a lot of bearing on when it
can be reasonably asserted that a being engaging in those activities first
appeared on earth. For Christians to ignore this data and blithely state
that Adam was created less than 60,000 years ago is wrong. Modern humans
first appear at Klasies River Cave in deposits dated at 120,000 years
(Shreeve, 1995, p. 214-215). To claim that they were not spiritual, and
therefore not human, as Hugh Ross wants to do, raises all sorts of possibilities
that some of the modern peoples alive today are not human. That view opens
the door to racism.
The only way to fit the scriptural account with the
scientific observations is to have Adam and Eve be Homo habilis or Australopithecus.
Bones of Australopithecines are found as long ago as 5.5 million years
ago (Chamberlain, 1991, p. 139). The earliest habilis is from around 2.4
million years ago. A small population of habilis could have lived considerably
earlier than 2.4 million years ago. The recent discovery of Homo in China
at Longgupo from strata dated at 2 million years (Huang, 1995, p. 275-278)
argues for a fairly long prior existence for habilis or another species,
ergaster, since dispersal from Africa to Asia requires some time.
Genesis 3-5
Events here are basically as described. The genealogies,
are true, but very incomplete. Even Whitcomb and Morris believe that the
word translated as "begat" in the genealogies can mean, "is
ancestor of" (Whitcomb and Morris, 1961, p. 474-475) Whitcomb and
Morris try to limit the length of those gaps to only a few generations.
Hugh Ross also limits the gaps in the genealogies to no more than 60,000
years (Ross, 1996, p. 4). But I am not sure that they can do that in light
of the use of what must have been the same or similar term by Jesus. Jesus
was called the Son of Man. My Bible dictionary says that Adam means man!
Thus Jesus was using that term to skip over hundreds of generations. Thus,
I feel that it is within the realm of possibility that the genealogies,
while true in what they report are a minuscule portion of the true list
of humans in the line from Adam to Jesus.
Genesis 6-9
One thing is very clear to anyone who has studied
geology, the world-wide flood, as envisioned by Whitcomb and Morris, is
absolutely impossible. Animal burrows are found throughout the geologic
column. Since one can not catastrophically deposit a hole in the ground,
there must be a lot of time for the animals to dig and eat their way through
the rocks making the burrows. This is especially true of certain limestone
burrowing animals, the clionid sponges. Paleocaves, deep in the geologic
column, are found (occasionally filled with oil) and these also can not
be deposited catastrophically. Large holes in the rock are not the product
of deposition. Footprints on layer after rock layer, vertically, clearly
shows that the rock was NOT covered by deep water when it was deposited.
Animals do not have long enough legs to leave footprints on the botton
sediments during a worldwide flood which covered high mountains (Olsen,
1980, p. 18). I have a photo of an oil well core with 9-10 layers (years)
worth of plant roots. This was pulled up from 7,000 feet in southern Colorado
(Morton, 1995, p. 32). I can point you to 3 dimensional seismic data which
shows, river channels (Brown, 1993, p. 14-15), paleokarsts (sinkholes like
what happens in Florida) and other features buried deeply in the geologic
column. Since these features require much time to form, they could not
be formed in the Flood as envisioned by Whitcomb and Morris.
The flood as alluded to above occurred at the in filling
of the Mediterranean Sea, 5.5 million years ago. The Bible uses the word
"eretz" to describe what was flooded and as we saw above that
word can be translated as "earth", "land", or "country".
I suspect that the main reason that "earth" is chosen is that
it was always chosen. One certainly can not claim that the "context"
requires the entire earth be flooded, and thus we must translate 'eretz'
as 'earth. The context is precisely what is at issue! Is the flood local
or global. Your decision in relation to that question will determine how
you translate the verse. The word 'eretz' does not determine the extent
of the flood, your view of the extent of the flood determines the translation
choice.
What about Genesis 7:19 where it talks about the waters
of the flood covering the 'high mountains'? Does that not require a global
Flood? It does, unless you place the Flood where I do, in the Mediterranean
basin. Then, the high mountains were covered but by a local flood not a
global one. This issue of the high mountains has always been a difficulty
of the local flood view in that no one could point to a place where anything
which remotely qualified as 'high mountains' could be covered without also
covering the entire world. This left the local flood view as an explanation
of the Flood which had no location. Local flood advocates could merely
say "Yeah, we know it happened but don't know where, probably in the
Mideast somewhere." This led to a further problem that the local flood
advocates could not correlate the biblical events with their event in any
detail whatsoever. The suggestion was made that the Caspian Basin was the
locale. This failed because parts of that basin have no geological deposits
which could qualify as flood deposits and you can't cover 'high mountains'
in that basin without covering the earth to a depth of 3000 feet with water.
There is also the difficulty that no local flood in a river valley can
last one year, and deposit the ark on top of a mountain. How do you have
the Ark float down a river for a year and land on top of mountains? He
would float to the sea! The view presented in _Foundation, Fall and Flood_
can solve these difficulties.
There is a subtlety in Genesis 6:13 which young earth
creationists miss. The verse states: "Then God said to Noah, 'The
end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence
because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth."
(NAS) If you insist on translating 'eretz' as 'earth' then this verse if
read in a normal fashion would imply that the 'earth' is about to be destroyed.
But we live on the earth and so it was not destroyed. If on the other hand
you view this as the 'land' which is about to be destroyed, then even this
can be true. The 'land' at the base of the Mediterranean was destroyed,
and it has not been land since the catastrophic collapse of the Gibraltar
Dam 5.5 million years ago.
Conclusion
Can this scenario be proven? No, but it is consistent
with almost all of the data of science. That is an important step in developing
any viable view. It also makes certain predictions. First, it makes the
prediction that Homo habilis or Homo erectus should be found much further
back in time. It also would make the prediction that certain artifacts
or bones of hominids might be found at the Miocene/Pliocene boundary in
the Mediterranean region. Prediction is an integral part of science. Without
predictions, a theory can not receive confirmatory support.
Now, If H. erectus or habilis should be found further back, why haven't they
been found? The answer lies in the nature of the fossil record of the
earliest history of any species. There are large temporal gaps in which the
animal was on earth but too rare to leave fossils. For evidence of this, see
http://home.entouch.net/dmd/gaps.htm
To me it is quite sad to see Christians confidently
state that all observational science must be wrong in order for the Bible
to be correct.
A much more detailed account of this can be found
in the book, _Foundation, Fall and Flood_ (ISBN 0-9648227-1-7) available
from the address below.
$15 + $2 postage in U.S.
Canada U.S. funds, $15 +$3 postage
Overseas U.S. funds, $15 + $4 surface mail, or $10
Airmail.
Glenn Morton
16075 Longvista Dr.
Dallas Tx, 75248
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Cited on the internet at http://tccsa.freeservers.com/articles/morton.html