- PART 2 -
Flood Geology
When Could It Have
Happened, and DID It Happen?
By Sharon Cornet
If you have not read PART 1: "Young Earth and Evolution / Geologic Column Models, Proof of Why the Earth is Old" you can do so by clicking here.
In the last article we covered the age of the earth and evolutionary/creation based on the fossil record and how it is evidenced in the geologic column. In this article we're going to cover more on what is often called "the Genesis Flood" or "Noah's Flood," and ponder the question DID IT HAPPEN, AND IF SO, WHEN?
As a recap, below is a chart showing the geologic column and the major fossils within each section of strata. Notice the oldest strata at the bottom have no or very little fossils in simplistic form, and that these forms change and show up in successive and graduate into increasing complexity as you near more recent times, with humans coming in as the most recent species. Remember that fossils are only the preserved (previous) life within these layers.
Fossils are like "snapshots" in
time, analogous to taking a picture of a sperm entering an egg in a human being, then
getting another snapshot of it as the first cells divide, then another snapshot as an
embryo, then another as a a fetus, then another as a breathing baby, then another as a 2
yr old, then another as a 5 yr old, then more snapshots as a 7, 12, 16, 21, 32, 54, 68,
and 82 yrs old. We may be missing all of the details about the life of that person
in between these snapshots, but we can conclude, by having all of the snapshots in their
perfect and successive order that they belong to the same person who started out as a
fertilized egg, and ended up as an old man. In this case the earth is the person,
and we can see just how these "snapshot" earth-related fossils changed over time
(as the earth changed), in the order they lived and died. More and more transitional
fossils are being discovered all the time, much to the dismay of young-earth
creationists. The earth itself holds within it a perfect replica of mineral-replaced
molds and casts of things that were once living. The original item is now gone, but
we gain knowledge by being able to know the sizes, shapes, and even the texture of skin,
footprint impressions, bone sizes and types, shell shapes, feather impressions, fossilized
leaf and other plant materials, spores and pollens (palynology), etc. that is far superior
to just a picture/snapshot because these are items which can be held in your hands,
measured, examined under a microscope, and are the proofs of what was here long before we
came along.
Although the geologic time scale above shows the sequence of events, based on actual fossils in the earth's layers, in their successive order, it does not give as neat a picture (other than by numbers depicting billions/millions years in time) of the actual amount of time that has occurred since earth's earliest origins. The chart below gives a little better idea of just how long the Precambrian Eon (bottom section of very oldest strata) really was. The Phanerozoic has been a much smaller section of time in comparison, indicating that as time progresses, life diversifies more, and things become easier and easier to move along at seemingly faster rates. It was much harder for early life to take hold in an archaic world than it is now that things are as advanced as they are. Once life found equilibrium, the right circumstances and developmental level, and enough initial diversification, it took off (like in the Cambrian explosion of life).
Most of earth's life as we know it today didn't start showing up until after the Precambrian. There were fish, and finally amphibians by the middle of the Paleozoic, and finally reptiles after that in the Carboniferous (Mississippian), then mammal-like reptiles finally appearing in the Permian. Then an extinction occurred at the Permo-Triassic boundary. It was, in fact, the largest mass-extinction ever to occur on the planet. If one is inclined to a belief in God, and that His hand was ordering and pointing the way to how things should go each and every step of the way, then we must realize that it was after this that mammals came into being. Perhaps things would look much different today had this extinction event not occurred.
By the time you get to the Mesozoic (the age of dinosaurs) the world did indeed look very different, and dinosaurs were very prevalent on the face of the earth. Then, at the end of the Cretaceous, called the K-T boundary there was another mass extinction. Both an iridium layer (known to come from meteors and/or volcanism) and evidence for the Yucatan area Chicxulub crater (within the Gulf of Mexico) and the Deccan Traps of flood basalts (massive volcanism) in India occurred around this time. Again, had the dinosaurs not been wiped out, the earth today might look very different in terms of life on this planet. Is it possible that the upright walking dinosaurs may have eventually become fully erect bipedal creatures, and developed into walking, talking "reptilians" or "dinosaurians" instead of the primate-originated humans we have today? This could not ever be though, as the dinosaurs were wiped out. Are natural devastations also the handiwork of a benevolent God? Gen 19:24, Isa 45:7 If God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, then we must also think that nothing, NOTHING, is out of His control or direction. That there are no accidents, no coincidences. That even chaos is a tool He uses to form greater order in the big picture.
Back to the facts instead of the beliefs... All the way
up to the Cenozoic, where the whales and smallest hominids (proto-humans) began
populating, we still realize that a LOT of time has passed to get to this point! In
fact, if the earth's entire history were wrapped up into a nice calendar-type picture then
we'd see just how long the Precambrian Eon really was. Thanks to the University of
KY there are some excellent calendar images to present below on this. This shows the
earth's history as if you compacted it into a 1 yr time, separated into months and days.
Source: http://www.uky.edu/KGS/education/calendar_timeImg.htm
Now, if you take all of the Phanerozoic (Paleozoic, Mesozoic, & Cenozoic) and combine them into a 1 MONTH calendar (let's say for the month of December) then you have a picture that looks like this:
Modern human beings live in the Quaternary Period at the very end of this calendar. As you can see, humans have only been here a VERY SHORT TIME (mere minutes) compared to the rest of the animals, and especially the earliest forms of life; and modern man has been here seconds! If this is indicative of the 6th day of creation, then there's some mighty strong explaining to do concerning the 'days' in Genesis.
The "Days" of creation can mean a number of things. In Gen 1:5 we have the "first day." Looking up the word "first" we find PROTOS:
Source: www.crosswalk.com
The KJV New Testament Greek
Lexicon
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And in looking up the word "day" here we find
YOWM:
The KJV Old Testament Hebrew
Lexicon
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Please note on the word day YOWM above, that the people
writing this added in "the evening and the morning in Genesis 1" to promote
their own belief in a literal 24 hr day, when IN FACT my hard copy of the Strong's
Exhaustive Condordance does not imply that at all! And look further, it has
GENERALIZED meaning as well, a working "day" or a "lifetime," a period
in time (how much it does not say), even a "year" or referenced as "today,
yesterday, or tomorrow" which spans across the past, present, and future
tenses. Because of these generalized sub-meanings as an all-inclusive meaning, it
ethically cannot be taken as ONLY a 24 hr day. To choose that is a choice on the
part of the believer, but to ignore the rest is to ignore the facts -- there are
many possible meanings to YOWM as a "day." The word YOWM simply means a
generalized period of time, nonspecific except by mere examples within that
generalization. The Precambrian is indeed a period of time. Your lifetime is a
period of time. The primitive root meanings for "evening" and
"morning" too have a completely different meaning than just night and day, or
sunset and sunrise. In fact, evening
means an "exchange" or a "covering" while morning means to
"seek, enquire, or consider." If God was the one doing the
exchanging/covering, and the seeking/considering, then how long did He do this?
Again, we move to the word day [YOWM], or rather "first day" because it defines,
in completely generalized terms, that this is an indefinite period of time, marked by a
nonspecific beginning, and a nonspecific ending, being cyclic in nature, and beginning the
succession of things to come.... life on earth, that would later be revealed within
the fossil record. YOWM, the first day, could easily have been referring to the
proto-earth, or proto-universe, or proto-existence of all things within the heavens,
including earth. This could easily be the earliest part (Hadean) of the Precambrian
Eon. Since Genesis is the "book of origins" or "beginnings" then
we know that this period of time of early earth and its history was likely the
Precambrian, then we already know that this "day" (nonspecific time period) was
a very long one.
Look at the bottom of this chart on the "days" (generalized time periods, which overlap, but are still distinguishable) when compared to the geologic time chart:
If we were to try to reconcile the "days" of Genesis, with the day-ages of the actual age of the earth we find some interesting correlations. If the Big Bang (currently the most widely accepted theory of the formation of the universe due to the huge amount of evidence -- thanks to astronomers over decades compiling thousands of files of data -- on the red shifting and blue shifting of stars, showing that the universe is indeed expanding) occurred then the formation of galaxies and stars would follow, once the initial mass of the stars formed the planetesimals would follow, the origin of planets. This is the "heaven" mentioned in Genesis 1:1. But included in that verse is the "earth," so MUCH had to have happened prior to the formation of the earth. In fact, scientists now know that the universe is about 13.7 billion years old, and that the earth is only 4.6 billion years old. The universe had to expand enough, and all the right elements to cluster in the right places for our galaxy, and indeed, our solar system to form properly. Remember, this creation of the "heaven and earth" is all before the official proclamation of "Day 1" according to the Genesis account. No one knows how long the earth existed, or what happened here, before the "Day 1" event occurred. We might conclude, however, that it was a planetesimal (proto-planet), accreted due to the sun's formation (harmonics from the sun is how we know where planets form in the solar system), because of what was here when "Day 1" finally occurred. If we are to take the Genesis account as any kind of a true account (as a logical guess by the authors, or by the inspiration of God through those authors) we know that water was already present at this stage. In Gen 1:2 the verse states "and the earth was without form, and void (empty); and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Water was what was present. In fact, scientists do know that water was present early on in earth's history due to the evidence found in zircons. Zircons in Precambrian show a melting at high temperature (above 800 degrees F) out of water, and lower temperatures (450 degrees F) in the presence of water. These zircons have been dated at 4.2 billion years ago, when the earth was still hot, but water was obviously present. Remember, this is still before, but included in "Day 1" of the Genesis account. It continues, "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light...." (was the source of the light the sun... was it in fission stage only, and not yet in fusion?) so after this happened it was finally declared to be the first official "Day" of the beginnings of our solar system.
Notice that Day 4 is missing on the chart above. This is (based on science) because the sun, moon, and stars were NOT originally created on the "4th day" at all, but "in the beginning" when the "heaven" was made (the universe). There are, of course other aspects of "heaven" which include the sky, where people thought the sun, moon, and stars were like objects imbedded into a canopy or blanket that surrounded the earth. We all know now, though, because of scientific knowledge that these things are definitely not imbedded in a "blanket" around the earth, but are far out in space. The once anthropocentrism-ridden, or ethnocentrism-related perspective then was much different than it is now. So as for the issue with Day 4, there are a few possibilities (and probably more than I am covering here) for theories on this and I will include some of those below (whether I agree with them or not).
DAY 4
1. An
ATHEIST or (non-religious) SCIENTIST or HUMANIST etc., might say: The
entire Biblical text is bogus as an authentic or reliable history book, since no one was
around at the time the earth began. It is merely someone's best guess, or copycat
text, many billions of years after the earth first formed, using a logical sequence of
events for how they thought it might have happened. In reality the sun, moon,
planets, and stars all formed after the Big Bang, the universe is expanding, and life
continues to slowly evolve.
2. A HUMANIST or CHRISTIAN/NONCHRISTIAN or REALIST
etc., might say: The writer(s) of the Biblical text were inspired, but not
necessarily inerrant in their inspiration (due to their specific cultural beliefs of their
time), so that the information was misplaced or misrepresented within the text due to the
fallibility of man -- even the Patriarchs... the most "perfect" of men such as
Moses (who was a murderer, and yet wrote Genesis) borrowed some of the Tabernacle concepts
from the Egyptian temples (such as the "outer court," "inner court,"
and "holy of holies"), etc.
3. A SEMI-BELIEVER or SKEPTIC, etc. might say:
The texts we have today were changed from the original (of which none exist any longer,
only copies of copies of the original, and no one is absolutely sure on what the original
said), which is why Day 4 is messed up and doesn't fit the pattern.
4. A GAP-THEORIST CHRISTIAN, etc. might say:
A version of the Gap Theory is correct, and the earth is old, and the 6-day
creation of Genesis was merely a re-creation, with Day 4 having the sun, moon, and stars
becoming visible (appearing to be "created") after a (literal) 3-day time
in darkness, shrouded in an atmospheric veil due to a sudden destruction of some
kind. The Gap Theory, however, does not account for a single land mass occurring
overnight (Day 3), nor why animals and man were suddenly "created" at that time
after the calamity (at least not without outside intervention), unless the
"days" were ages rather than 24 hr days.
5. A FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN or BIBLICAL
LITERALIST, etc. might say: The young-earth creationists literal 6-day version of
earth's life history is correct and absolutely inerrant. Day 4 is in the perfect
place. The heavens and the earth (and water) were made PRIOR to Day 1 (indicating a
Day 0, or a pre-creation that had no time specification). The light was made on Day
1, separating it from the darkness, although no one knows the source of this mysterious
light. On Day 2 the air/atmosphere (firmament) was made. On Day 3 a single
land-mass formed, and on it plants were magically created, as well as fruit-bearing trees
(which would be flowering trees). All of these full-grown plants and trees thrived
without the need for any sunlight whatsoever. On Day 4 the sun, moon, and stars were
created, even though light was already here [where did it go, and where did it come from
before the sun took over?], and the light from the stars were instantaneously
"brought" to earth instead of taking many light years to get here [therefore
defying all of the laws of physics that God also put in the universe]. On Day 5 the
whales, birds, and other creatures were made, and they came from out of the water
("the waters brought forth"), although no one knows how God really did that, or
why. On Day 6 the cattle, other creatures, and mankind were all made. All the
creatures in the entire world were made male and female, but the single man Adam was made
with both male/female traits so that the female part (Eve) could be separated out of his
rib and made into a separate being later on. Either that or all the creatures were
split into male and female on the day that God made Eve, even though the Bible doesn't say
that. Day 7 was the "day of rest" although it was not apparent if Adam and
Eve lived in the Garden of Eden on the 7th day, or afterwards, or if they lived for
thousands of years, or only a single day while in the garden, then got kicked out for
sinning, but only were subject to death after they left Eden. Satan was a literal
snake/serpent and still crawls around on his belly today somewhere on or in the earth,
because remember, the entire creation, including Adam & Eve, the Eden scene, etc. were
all LITERAL occurences. Satan is still a serpent (snake) living somewhere on or in
the earth, perhaps in hell, which is inside the earth [hollow earth?]. Adam and Eve
were not to die right away, but only after living a hard life trying to grow plants in the
ground for food (agriculture) and growing old, to the age of 900+ years. When they
sinned and left the garden and had the curse of death upon them, all of the animals in the
world must also have gotten the same curse (even though they did not sin) since they die
too [Somehow the animals were cursed for not sinning? Or may be they died (without
sinning) prior to Adam and Eve getting kicked out of the garden?] No explanation is
given on who the angels are, where they came from, where they live, how they come and go,
why they appear as men, etc., but one of them has a fiery sword and guards the gate of
Eden to this day, even though no one can find it anywhere on the earth, especially not in
the Iraq/Israel area of the planet. Regardless of this, it is all still a literal
thing and must be believed as such. Spiritual or symbolic principles [such as that
Jesus spoke of through parables to teach higher principles within] have nothing to do with
it. If it isn't literal, then it certainly can't be spiritual.
6. A NEW AGER or "other" type of BELIEVER, etc. might say: Evolution may or may not be a natural process, but somehow the earth formed and then ET (extra-terrestrials/aliens) came and genetically "tweaked" the natural world on occasion to suit their needs, were the ones who took proto-humans (ape-man) and genetically altered them to "create" modern human beings. Bigfoot is one of these experiments the ET did when they were trying different "genetic recipes" to make humans. Humans are the ET's "children" and they are the Elohim (gods - with the little "g") of the Biblical text, which they mentally projected into the Patriarchs and authors of the Biblical texts. Jesus was the son of Elohim, was created in an ET laboratory and implanted it into Mary for the "virgin" birth, possibly using Joseph's sperm, and Mary's egg, but definitely altered to also be the perfected DNA of the advanced Elohim, and have a higher ET spirit contained within the vessel called "Jesus" once he was born. This is called the Intervention theory, although it does not explain who made ET, where they came from originally, nor the origins of the earth itself, the galaxies and stars, or the rest of the universe. If ET is the true author of the Biblical text then they are claiming to have "made" the earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars, which would include the universe, and highly seems unlikely since they claim to be from places like the Pleiades, and other star systems that are already there, and made AFTER the origins of the universe. This theory does show a hierarchy above humans, but lower than a true Spirit (called God with the big "G") it could indicate evidence for the "messengers" (angels) of the Bible, quantum physics, wormhole travel, time travel, parallel worlds and parallel universes, ET manipulation of human lives (including abduction by the more dangerous or dark-hearted ETs), other paranormal phenomena, apparent spiritual abilities explainable by a higher form of energy and/or science, etc. Any sudden or revelatory advancements on the earth (such as reverse-engineering of ET craft from the Roswell crash, etc.) have been directly, or indirectly given by ET. ET are considered inter-dimensional beings, having bodies, UFO craft, but also being able to defy apparent scientific laws, abduct people OOB (out of body), deal with peoples' spirits with or without their knowledge, etc. This Intervention theory explains some things, but certainly not all, especially concerning the origin of the earth itself, and the rest of the universe. Even if true, it would be an intermediate step (not the final one) in the big picture.
7. A SYMBOLIST or PREDESTINATIONIST or "other" type of BELIEVER, etc. might say: The God, by Himself, or through one/some of his angels, purposefully put the Day 4 part in the Biblical text as a "red flag," a hook, a little piece of "something that doesn't quite seem right" to test His children to see if they can catch it, figure it out, and realize that things are not always as they seem. It is the one alteration from the status quo that opens us to something new, and helps us evolve to the next level. For every rule, there is always that one to break it. For every natural law He put in place, which are unchangeable, He brought the one thing, Jesus, to defy those laws and walk on water, turn water into wine, raise the dead, heal the sick, calm the raging seas, etc. For every long period of stasis (gradualism), there is the occasional chaotic eruption of defiance which temporarily brings a new order (punctuated equilibrium) and explosion of life. For every species that seemingly goes on forever unchanged, there is that one mutation which finally brings it to speciation (separation of species), and is the key to furthering life on this planet. For those who can catch the ONE THING in every rule/law of life (such as the laws of physics being blown away by the discovery of quantum physics)... which may be another version of the "first Adam" (old man of death), there is a renewing, rebirth (born again by the spirit, a higher vibration and being and understanding) which may be another version of the "last Adam" (new man of life). For those who see the facts of stasis, and rules, and constancy, and no change, and then realize the pattern of occasional disruption to that stasis, begins to question it, wonder about it, ponder on it, pray about it, ask about it, seek answers to it, and then find those answers... it is he who grows and evolves to the higher level of understanding. Perhaps Day 4 is the one thing that "doesn't fit" because it's not meant to fit, because we are supposed to move beyond the prior version, the lowly carnal and natural state, and into the life that negentropy brings us into because of it. Perhaps the number 4 (which in Gematria, Biblical numerology, means PERFECTION, also the number of angels), is a secret code of meaning for those who find it. It is the number beyond completion (beyond 3) that brings us to the next level. This is true evolution. If the spiritual is a level of hierarchy above the natural, then we must seek to attain it, seek to understand it, to get out of the veil of darkness and exchange places to come into the light of it. Day 4: The sun rules the day (the greater life-giving light - symbolic of the masculine), the moon rules the night (the lesser light, that is only a reflector of the greater light - symbolic of the feminine), and the stars in the heavens (symbolic of advanced people and angels - the host of heaven) sing and shout for joy when we finally arrive. If we are to truly become Christ-like (symbolic for a "higher" human) then we MUST evolve, we MUST change, we MUST grow in a brand new way and become new creatures (from the inside out). All life on earth started as stardust, mixed with chemicals that God put on the early earth, evolved slowly and then diversified more quickly, and is the reason why all life is related. We are all made of the same stuff. Our bodies are limited by our biology, but when our biology keeps changing, over time, and perhaps due to that ONE THING, then we jump to the next level. Perhaps the entire Biblical text is correct and inerrant (or rather, purposefully errant) for a reason. To show the process of evolution through symbolism, which indeed is the higher thinking of an evolved species.
There are certainly many other possible alternative views, and whether any of these is the correct one or not, or whether parts of some of them may be true (in some kind of combined sense), or not, is still out for debate (at least for some people). Since not a single person in the entire world was physically present during the origin of the universe, our galaxy, and our earth, then not a single person (including myself) has the absolute confirmation on how any of it actually happened on a day to day level. All we have is snapshots, and pieces of time encased in/as rock, as guidelines to help us see and understand earth's history. The fossil record clearly shows that the earth is not only old, but that live evolved (remember that evolution is the PROCESS of creation by utilizing negentropy via reproduction) on this planet, specifically for living on this planet, and because of the physical conditions (physics) on this planet. All life has one origin, one source for that life. Some view this as natural, and others as supernatural, and like myself, some view it as both.
THE FLOOD
Now, to the question of the Flood. Since we've covered the days of Genesis and how it compares to the geologic column, we must realize that the flood, according to the Biblical text, happened AFTER mankind was already on this earth. This would put the flood (if it happened at all) into the Recent/Holocene epoch of time, within the last number of thousands of years, NOT at a time when dinosaurs walked the earth! Now the earliest known recorded civilization was in Mesopotamia, the seat, or cradle of civilization, in Sumer about 6,000 yrs ago. The Sumerians had cuneiform (writing on round clay cylinders), mathematics, architecture, astronomy, science, medicine, and other signs of an advanced culture, and were based in industry. Realize that although it seems like these things popped up all at once, it takes time for these things to be developed and revealed through and in a people. 10,000 years ago is when signs of agriculture became most evident. It is also when the Ice Age began subsiding enough to allow such agriculture. There is one theory out there that claims that agriculture was a triggering cause for global warming, which caused the end of the Ice Age. Whether or not it happened this way is not the point. The point is that modern man has been on this planet and lived through the long enduring Ice Age. The ice melted and the seas rose (globally) during this time (although it took a lot of time to happen). But the "world" was a smaller place then. If there was a civilization who was developing the precursors to what we have evidence for in Sumeria, then an unusually long & heavy rain came (due to cyclic or other reasons, hence the "windows of heaven were opened" - we all know there are certainly not literal windows in the skies and that these terms are symbolic of a downpouring of rain from the clouds), coupled with a flood breaking forth from ice dams melting (and a lake or sea whose water (some of which) may come from underground could pass for the "fountains of the deep" breaking up, especially if there were any earthquakes associated with it (Gen 7:11), causing localized flooding in a big way, etc. then the "world" at that point would have been affected. If this was the entire world, or a localized "world" of a specific peoples, then it is still out for debate, since even the evidences of "Noah's ark" at different locations (in Turkey, etc.) have come and gone and still have yet to be proven. Some of them have even been completely disproven, or still go unverified, since the 1970's when this subject was a hot topic. There is also no evidence for a worldwide flood in the geologic record, despite what some people claim. Additionally, there is one verse, Gen 7:20, where it says outright how high "did the waters prevail", which was 15 cubits. A cubit is about 18 inches, which would put it at 270 inches, or 22.5 feet! This is hardly a depth for a worldwide flood, although it is enough to drown all the animals and people who could not escape it when it occurred. The word "prevail" here comes from the primitive root GABAR, to be strong, by implication to prevail, act insolently (confirm, be great, be mighty, strengthen, be stronger, be valiant, etc.), meaning that this is the height of the water that acted insolently, water that stayed there for an extended period of time, longer than most river-type floods do. The Genesis flood also dealt with the sea, and the nearest sea, which also happens to border Turkey, is the Mediterranean Sea.
Now Genesis was claimed to have been written by Moses, and Moses was raised in the house of Pharaoh in Egypt. He learned and was schooled there, and was privy to what the Egyptians had knowledge of. Interestingly enough, (based on what my dad saw when they took a trip to Egypt) if you go to see the tombs and pyramids today you'll find rooms fashioned in the same order to the Tabernacle that Moses built in the wilderness after he took the children of Israel with him. Rooms called things like (literally) the "Holy of Holies." The same things Moses learned in Egypt he took with him and passed on to the 12 tribes of Israel. Moses was not a stupid man, but there is evidence that the scrolls and texts and higher (even sacred) knowledge he was subjected to, and learned about, were included in what he wrote concerning Genesis, even if "inspired by God" to do so. Whether God gave this information to Moses through natural means (by purposefully placing him in Pharaoh's household) or by "downloading" of information by the Spirit directly into Moses' psyche, is not known. The standing evidence for a more natural method, though, is quite heavy.
One good comparison of ancient texts similar to what Moses wrote is the the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian epic of the "Creation" account (written about 12th century B.C.). Babylonian civilization (urban) was prevalent from 18th to 6th century B.C. But even better, there's the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is the same information, written differently, but still point by point, and in the same order as the Genesis 1 & 2 story of creation. Gilgamesh was written by the Sumerians, with tablets as old as 2000 BCE, and the oldest flood record dated at 1900 BCE. The Genesis account was not written until about 600 BCE, with the oldest recorded copies surviving today being even younger than that. It his highly doubtful that the Genesis story was not plagiarized by Moses since the older stories existed first, and are nearly identical, with only a few details changed (some names, a single God instead of gods, etc.), and the rest of the story remaining basically intact regarding a man and a boat with many animals being saved from a flood. The evidence of there being a single global flood is simply NOT in the rock record, and there is widely accepted evidence that this was a localized flood at best. Since we're talking about a flood that occurred (IF it occurred) during the Holocene epoch we also must realize that this had to be pre-Sumerian since the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh version includes this same story, and is now 6,000 yrs old. When people try to date the flood via the Biblical text of Genesis then it is estimated to have happened a little over 4,000 yrs ago.... 2,000 years AFTER the same flood story in Gilgamesh! Hhhhhmmmm.... major discrepancy!
In order for there to have been any kind of flood at all, even locally with local animals in their small ethnocentric "world" (since I doubt Noah went to Antarctica to get penguins, and to Australia to get Kangaroos, and to Africa to get mountain gorillas, etc. and then place them all back into their natural habitats after the flood was over -- and remember that only monotremes (egg-laying mammals) and marsupials (pouched-mammals) evolved in Australia due to land separation, and placental mammals evolved over the rest of the earth (able to cross land or ice bridges such as the Bering Strait)) it would have been an impossible task to have placed all the animals in the world into such a small ark, and then feed them, maintain them, etc. The San Diego Zoo alone has hundreds (not nearly ALL in the world) of species of animals and certainly take up a lot of acreage in land space. And there is no way, even if you reduce each species down to two each, and minimize their cage space to stand-or-sit room only, that only 8 people could take care of them all for the year that they were supposedly afloat on the ark before landing on dry ground. It is an impossible feat, even with technological advances that we have today with automatic feeders, etc., not including the piles and piles of animal waste needed to be evacuated out of a closed-up ark! The stench alone would be horrific. If it were a localized flood, in a smaller area, and the story were true (although the story has been altered through time, obviously) on some literal scale then it was no doubt pre-Sumerian in origin, but post hunter-gatherer period. Very likely it could have been around the Neolithic period, at or post Ice Age (about 10,000 yrs ago) give or take, when mankind was becoming skilled in animal husbandry, when major agricultural and other developments were taking place. Also, if a flood were in a localized region then it would be logical that animals of "every kind" (for that area) could be placed upon such a boat, since the types of animals were limited compared to the rest of the earth. Consider also, that animals were obviously very important to Noah and his family, another striking detail of importance since people, by this time, were dependent on animals (via animal husbandry, after the hunter-gatherer times were basically over). Caring for animals, raising them, feeding them, etc. were a way of life, and fit the role of a very basic need, to feed their families. That kind of care was not the same in a hunter-gatherer groups of people, where they would just take what they needed from the land and move on, killing and taking what they needed as they went.
When examining the Biblical text and trying to take it literally, rather than figuratively (or both), then some interesting patterns show up that follow the history of mankind, as well as the fossil record and life on earth. The fact of the "Adam" (seen as a people, rather than a single person) as a tribe (term used loosely) within a certain time period tells us a lot, for they dealt with animal husbandry in "Eden" and agriculture after leaving that "place," and they had the art of metallurgy and such by the mere 4th chapter of Genesis (mentioned casually, since it was already in place by that time). These kinds of developments were obtaining their place (like the Bronze Age) prior to Sumer, so that by the time Sumerians had developed their culture and civilization they were well established in the more specialized fields of expertise. These could be generalizations for how humankind has progressed through time, just as the "days" of Genesis show a relative succession of events for how the world came to be as it is now, regarding life on this planet. The longer "days" (as in "Noah's day" shown through the long ages people lived) prior to the "flood" time, and the shorter "days" (time periods in shorter ages people lived) since then. Things do seem to be "speeding up" in terms of advancements.
AN EXPERIMENT IN NUMBERS
REVEALS PATTERNS OF KEY "MOMENTS" IN TIME
An experiment I discovered shows that there may be something to this, and evidently the
ratio for this is sevenfold (7 is an important number in the Bible, e.g. the "7
days" of creation, etc.). The ratio appears to hold secrets to particular
events throughout geologic history that deal specifically with the coming of mankind - at
least from a subjective Biblical numerology view. The geologic column, by this
experiment in numbers, shows a perpetuating 7:1 ratio breakdown of history that end in the
present-day, and include the event that is most likely when the "worldwide
flood" occurred. The 7:1 coding is derived straight from the Biblical text and
is hidden within the ages of mankind (the oldest recorded age, and the age "set by
God" regarding the flood event).
If the ages of people before and after the Genesis flood account are imposed into a ratio then the numbers from approx 969 yrs (the age of Methuselah, the oldest Biblically-claimed living man in the Bible) to 120 yrs (as the dedicated age for post-flood people (see Gen 6:3)), then it ends at the ratio of 7:1.
Example of the 7:1 ratio... take 969-120=849. Then 849 divided by 120 = 7.025 = 7. This is 969 split into two sections... a first section of seven (7) parts valued at 120 each, and a single (1) section of 120, for a total of 8 parts in all that added together equal 969.
The way to check this is to divide 969 by all 8 (8.075 to be exact) equal parts. The final ratio is 7 parts to 1 part, or 7:1. Now this is a template, to move forward in the 7:1 ratio, although the 8.075 is best if adjusted by adding exactly 0.325, with the proper number being 8.440, or simply 8.44. This tiny fraction still rounds down to a total of 8 parts (not up to 9), and still falls under the exact same 7:1 ratio, but helps the formula stay cleaner. I didn't make the numbers fall this way because I wanted to, it just worked out this way according to the calculator. The whole numbers stay exactly the same, with a 7:1 ratio equaling 8 parts in all.
Now, if you take the original year-long calendar for the geologic time scale (Precambrian, and Paleozoic-Cenozoic) and break it down you get this... the Paleozoic-Cenozoic=43 "days" to the present and the Precambrian at 365 "days" to the present (remember these are approximate from the calendar above), you wind up with a ratio of 7:1, again. A quick way to check the numbers is to divide 365 by 43 = 8.48. Rounded out it is again an 8, and 8 total parts equals a ratio of 7 to 1 (7:1), even with these generalized "days" from the calendar method.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you do the same thing in actual years instead of calendar "days" then you get 4.6 bya (billion years ago) to the present for all geologic history, divided by 8.44, then you get 545 million years from the Paleozoic to the present (A MAJOR BOUNDARY MARK - just ending the Precambrian, and about to enter the Cambrian explosion of life), equaling the same ratio of 7:1.
Additionally, if you go a further step and take the younger Phanerozoic (all except the Precambrian) eon only, and break it down into a Paleozoic-Mesozoic, and Cenozoic combination you get this: 545 million years total for Phanerozoic to the present, and Cenozoic at 65 million years to the present, you wind up with a ratio of approximately 7:1 yet again (545MY divided by 8.44). These ratios keep landing on significant geological and life-historic events.
Please note that there have been EXTINCTIONS throughout geologic history at these times:
Small extinctions at the late Ordovician, and late Devonian, and late Triassic. More importantly, the largest extinction of all was at the end of the Permian (allowing reptiles to diversify, which produced mammal-like reptiles, from which the first mammals came), and the second largest extinction, which killed off the dinosaurs, was at the end of the Cretaceous (one of the 7:1 landings) just before the 65 MY mark. There were other small ones as well, in the Cenozoic/Tertiary, although the one that's often mentioned was at 11 kya (thousand years ago) at the end of the Pleistocene. This was still during the Ice Age, when modern man was alive, just before the Ice Age came to a close.
Now, if you turn this ratio phenomenon around, and take the next step to make predictions on the 7:1 ratios then we find the next piece of information very interesting. When we take the Cenozoic period at 65 million BP (Before Present) and use the same ratio of approx 7:1 (the greater number divided by 8.44) and break it down into the time that hominids (the human line) diverged from apes, the time of our common ancestor, you wind up in the late Miocene, at approximately 8 million BP, more specifically at 7.651, or 7.7 million BP. Best estimates right now, based on fossil evidence for "possible hominids" (very early forms) are Sahelanthropus dating 7-6 million BP, Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba dated at 7-5 million BP, Orrorin at around 6 million BP, and Ardipithecus dated to 5.8-4.4 million BP. The earliest Australopithecines are thought to have first evolved around 5 million BP, with their already-evolved fossils being dated at 4.4 mya. If Sahelanthropus or kadabba is the common ancestor, or a later version from a common ancestor (somewhat likely since it takes time for the differences due to divergence to be expressed phenotypically), then we find a very close tie to the 7.7 million or 8 million BP mark discovered by this ratio formula for evolutionary advancements and geologic indicators in fossil evidences. These numbers, in fact, coincide with the 8 million to 6 million BP estimate for a common ancestor divergence (See #4 Miocene: http://www.wsu.edu/~tako/Week2.html). This marks a very significant event in pre-human history, where the common ancestor of chimps (who share over 99% DNA with us) and what would later become humans split apart from each other. This does not mean man came from chimps or they would be our common ancestor. No, instead chimps and humans shared a common ancestor that divided genetically into separate species... one line evolved into chimps, and the other into humans (there may have been others, which have since gone extinct). Gorillas (great apes) also split off around this time. Humans, though, are the only ones to walk upright. We know that upright (fully erect bipedal) walking occurred before the brains of proto-humans evolved. It is thought that the ability to walk upright freed the hands and allowed for more development of the brain (tool making, etc.), Broca's area of the brain (which deals with speech), etc. that show up in the hominid line as time continued. The PERFECT circumstances had to be in place in order for humans to evolve as they did, into what we are now. If the common ancestor did not split off as they did about 7.7 mya in the Miocene then we would not be here today.
Should we continue to make predictions using this same ratio and move on down closer to the present? Let's see what the numbers show. We start next at the 7.7 million BP mark, where the common ancestors of chimps and humans diverged into separate species. With the same 8.44 division number we wind up at 906,542 BP, or 907,000 rounded out. In fact, my book Physical Anthropology The Core, by Stein and Rowe, p.286 says this, "We do not know whether the origin of Homo was a response to the change in climate or whether the lineage leading to Homo had already evolved and the climatic changes merely shaped its continuing evolution. Members of the genus Homo coexisted with the australopithecines until the latter became extinct 900,000 years ago." This is the point where our progenitors ended (the "day" of the australopithecines was finally over). Homo had diverged, evolved, and proliferated. Another very important period in our pre-history! Similar to the first 7:1 mark at the end of the Precambrian, where Cambrian life in general just took off like lightning, the second 7:1 ratio marking the extinction at the K-T boundary (Cretaceous-Tertiary) where the dinosaurs died out allowing mammals to begin a more uninhibited diversification (leading up to apes, and hominids, and finally humans), the australopithecines died out allowing Homo to take over where they left off. The end of one thing, is merely the beginning of the next.
Interestingly enough, the Gematria (Biblical numerology) meanings of 7 and 1, respectively, are "completion" (3 is also completion, but 7 is a more complete completion) and "unity," with their total combined number 8 meaning "new beginnings." Concerning the 8.44, we then have "new beginnings" and 4 as "perfection" doubled (perfect perfection?), and 4 also sometimes refers to angels, or angelic intervention. If you break the 8 into two equal parts, then you have 44.44, which is a number often seen synchronistically by some people who tend to have angelic encounters. Seen another way, you can add the 4's together and have 8.8, which is new beginnings, doubled. Or even 8+8 = 16, then 1+6 = 7, and we're back to complete completion... but this proves nothing; it is merely numerical "semantics."
One note about the 7:1 ratio and numerological meanings. The number 7, Biblically, is the number of completion, with 1 being unity. The 7th day of creation was the "day of rest"... rest typically signifies a time where no work is done, a time where stasis occurs. Stasis often precedes punctuated equilibrium (fast change). Change is associated with chaos, and new beginnings. The 7th day, moving into the next (1) day... or the 8th day, is indeed a time of new beginnings after the "day of rest" (stasis). These are further "clues" into the symbolic meanings behind the purpose of the "day of rest" and why work must begin anew on the next (8th) day, the new week (time period).
Now then, we move on and take the 907,000 BP mark, install the 7:1 ratio (8.44) and we wind up with the time frame of 107,410 BP or 107,000. Now realize that Neandertal appearance was about 130,000+ YA and remained fairly stable until about 28,000 BP, and that they co-existed alongside modern Homo sapiens (Cro-Magnon man). It is now known the Neandertals, with larger robust skeletons, large flat foreheads, larger sinus cavities, and protruding faces, probably also walked slightly different from us due to their overall skeletal shape; additionally, they were a different species than us, and they eventually died out. They did not wind up being in our family branch/line in the end. In Asia there were two early modern hominids who were discovered in Israel (Jebel Qafzeh and the other one from Tabun) who lived when Neandertal lived. These have been dated using electron spin resonance to 115,000 and 96,000 BP. Paleoanthropologists have concluded that these are about 100,000 years old. Younger reliable dates have been confirmed for other modern humans from Borneo, at about 41,500 BP, but since we are dealing with the Biblical text, of which Mesopotamia (the region near Israel, the Middle East, and should also include Africa as part of the "center of the world") is included regarding this section, we are needing to narrow things down to areas where these hominid fossils are found, since the human line is the focus of the genealogy of the Bible, from "Eden," to the flood story, to today's modern Jews, etc.
In Africa the oldest fossils (sub-Saharan) that have modern features are fragments from the Klasies River in S. Africa, dated at about 120,000 years old. Also in S. Africa, at Border Cave, some hominid fossils with modern characteristics are dated between 115,000 and 100,000 YA. although there is some question on features and actual date ages. Ethiopian finds (Omo I) are dated at 130 kya and are quite modern looking. The consensus, based on fossil evidence, is that modern-looking peoples in Africa were present 130,000 years ago, and migrated to Asia and Siberia after that, and were in Europe at 38,000 years ago. The presence of stone tools were found in Australia (to show how far these people were migrating) dated at 116,000 years ago. All of these sites support the evidence of modern H. sapiens migrating from their previous homelands into new territories around the 107,000 ratio mark (7:1 or 8.44), and evidently succeeded the Neandertals. The migrations of modern humans across the land is also a significant event in human history, and supports the "Out of Africa" hypothesis of a single people (race of humans) surviving into modern day.
Taking the 107 kya mark, and again installing the 8.44/7:1 ratio, we wind up with a number right at 12,726 or 12.7 kya. This is the point that marked the beginning of the end of the Ice Age (although some estimate the initial, slower melting starting as far back as 14K-16K YA). Within a thousand years we would find that the ice sheets had begun melting very quickly, and climate changes were occurring rather abruptly. Then around 11 kya the North American Pleistocene extinction occurred (with S. American following within 500 years), mostly to animals over 44 kg (100 lbs). Whether this was due to the climate changes, hyperdisease, or to mankind moving in and hunting the larger species to obliteration is not yet confirmed, but it may have been due to a combination of things. Africa, Asia, and Europe also experienced a much lighter effect of an extinction around the end of the Pleistocene.
Ending of the Ice Age: 18-11.5 kya
Pictures & Info Source: http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/larson/LP_extinction.html
| Quote: Just after 14,000 years ago human migrants from Asia entered the New World. They may have been the first people to set foot in North America. They are known as the Clovis people. Their sites and artifacts, including distinctive projectile points, are found over much of North America. |
Modern Human Migrations and Hunting Patterns
MILANKOVITCH CYCLES
There were reasons that the Ice Age was here, and why it left. One of the geological evidences for this includes the Milankovitch Theory, named after the astronomer Milutin Milankovitch, who lived in Yugoslavia in the 1920's. To explain this via a quote would be easiest. This comes from my geology book titled The Changing Earth, Exploring Geology and Evolution, Third Edition, by James S. Monroe and Reed Wicander, Ch. 14 Glaciers and Glaciation, p 422-424:
"Milankovitch attributed the onset of the Pleistocene Ice Age to variations in three parameters of Earth's orbit (Figure 14.25). The first of these is orbital eccentricity, which is the degree to whic the orbit departs from a perfect circle. Calculations indicate a roughly 100,000-year cycle between times of maximum eccentricity. This corresponds closely to 20 warm-cold climatic cycles that occurred during the Pleistocene. The second parameter is the angle between the Earth's axis and a line perpendicular to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. This angle shifts about 1.5 degrees from its current value of 23.5 degrees during a 41,000-year cycle. The third parameter is the precession of the equinoxes, which causes the position of the equinoxes and solstices to shift slowly around Earth's elliptical orbit in a 23,000-year cycle. Continuous changes in these three parameters cause the amount of solar heat received at any latitude to vary slightly over time. The total heat received by the planet, however, remains little changed. Milankovitch proposed, and now many scientists agree, that the interaction of these three parameters provides the triggering mechanism for the glacial-interglacial episodes of the Pleistocene."
Figure 14.25
By 10 kya the main portions of ice were melted, and mankind had evolved to the point where agriculture (Neolithic period) and animal husbandry were gaining providence (in place for the so-called "Noah" clan, so any flood had to have occurred around (at or after) the time of this development). Again, this whole several thousand year period was a very significant period in the development of humans in pre-history. People, by this time, had spread throughout Asia, Europe, and elsewhere, and had crossed the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska on a land (ice) bridge. Today only about 11% of the world's land areas are covered by glaciers (mostly in the Antarctic), which contains about 3/4 of all the fresh water on earth. If the rest of it were to melt sea level would rise about 300+ feet from where it is today, which would cover Florida and parts of the rest of the continent, plus a lot of other areas around the world in a permanent "flood." Permanent, that is, until the next glacial period, when water that is evaporated from the oceans snows down into the coldest areas where it builds up again and again as ice (with increased global warming this will not happen any time soon though). During the Pleistocene up to 30% (almost three times as much water tied up in ice as we have today) of the land was covered with glaciers, and at periods of glacial maxima the sea levels were 400 feet lower than they are today (evidence of a worldwide FLOOD since then, for sure, especially since most human settlements were coastal). The 12,700 year mark (7:1) is when warming continued to melt hoards of icy glaciers back into water. Natural ice dams in these areas (such as what occurred in the Minnesota area) broke and dumped huge bodies of water, many, many times the size of the Mississippi river, to flood down into the land. Warm rains, besides temperature rises, continued to melt the glaciers until they reduced to the size they are today. By 12-10 kya a lot of land areas were flooded, which were dry before.
Here is a quote from: http://jesse.usra.edu/articles/iceagemodule/iceagemodule-paper.html (this site has some really good Quicktime moving graphics for showing the melting of the glaciers -- a few of them so scroll down to find them all!)
Another major effect on drainage patterns was the sometimes catastrophic draining of large glacial lakes. As the ice sheets first began to melt and recede, they released a tremendous amount of water. In some areas, this water was trapped by a line of hills or by the glaciers themselves. When this occurred, the melt waters formed large glacial lakes. Lake Agassiz was a huge glacial lake that straddled the current US-Canada border. Lake Superior rose almost 150 meters above its present level, because ice blocked its drainage to the east. Eventually these lakes filled to a spill point or the ice dams melted. The subsequent drainage of these lakes could be spectacular. In the Midwest area, the Minnesota and St. Croix River valleys were carved out within a relatively short time by the drainage of Lake Agassiz and Glacial Lake Superior respectively. Further west, a lobe of glacial ice blocked the ancestral Clark Fork River roughly 13,000 years ago to form Glacial Lake Missoula. Collapse of this ice dam and the subsequent catastrophic draining of Lake Missoula formed the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington.
Quote from USGS: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/Glaciers/IceSheets/description_ice_sheets.html
Glacial Lake Missoula
From: U.S. National Park Service Website, Ice Age Floods, 2002
Another quick article, thanks to J.D. Adams, on this
subject titled "Oregon 15,000 Years B.C." (opens a new window) can be found here.
If you want yet more information, pictures of the Lake Missoula/Cordilleran Ice Sheet, etc., then click this link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/megaflood/fantastic.html (this is an EXCELLENT resource from NOVA -- Read the section called Megafloods around the world for other locations of megafloods) |
Now imagine this kind of thing occurring around 12,000 years ago, or so, in an area where peoples were dispersing from, prior to leaving the Asia, Europe, and Africa areas into the New World. An interesting note about a piece of history from Greece, and around the Mediterranean Sea, which includes Israel and Mesopotamia... The famous philosopher Plato once spoke about the lost island of Atlantis being submerged under water, and that it was "in front of the Pillars of Hercules." With much of this story having fallen into mythology, there is actually some interesting factual information about this, including the Straits of Gibraltar, which lies at, and separates the Atlantic from the Mediterranean sea, and are considered to be Plato's "Pillars of Hercules." Plato also said, "'There occurred violent earthquakes and floods. And in a single day and night of misfortune... the island of Atlantis disappeared in the depths of the sea." This account, written by Plato more than 2,300 years ago, set scientists on the trail of the lost city of Atlantis." -- Nature - July 22, 2005. Source: http://www.crystalinks.com/atlantisnews.html The estimates for the legendary "Atlantis" disappearing are at approximately 11-13 kya, depending on which version you read.
What is interesting about this is that, if based on some cultural memory passed down orally, it is just another clue of some civilizations that once were alive and thriving, but are now under water. If you look at the actual physical evidence, and listen to the many documentaries on the Discovery channel of ocean archaeologists continually finding lost cities (not too far off the coastlines), which many people refer to as their own version of "Atlantis" (probably in hopes that it is the one Plato spoke of), then you start to see a pattern. The real key here is not in finding a single city/island of Atlantis (which interestingly enough is claimed to be in the same Mediterranean region where the Biblical flood was supposed to have occurred, and around the same time!), but that there are multiple cities that have been covered over by the sea, due to the coastal areas (where people still today tend to flock to live at) being immersed under water, and most likely due to the glacial melting and subsequent sea level raising during the late Pleistocene Ice Age. So if some of the people from all of these areas managed to escape their own versions of a "flood" then we'd also have a reason why so many flood stories are pronounced in oral and written traditions worldwide. Since underwater cities are prevalent around the globe, and the slowly rising sea levels were also a worldwide phenomenon, then it stands to reason that this explanation for flood stories is the one that makes sense. Unless it was a rare occasion where something drastic happened (like an ice dam breaking), then people probably just moved up higher on the land and rebuilt their houses, abandoning their former homes that were slowly being covered over with sea water and transgressing beach sands. Other than the archaeological evidence available to us, the geologic evidence DOES show this kind of a "flooding" for local areas, coastal areas, etc. but NOT a worldwide, catastrophic, one-time event like is described in the "Noah's flood" story of Genesis where the entire (planet) earth is swallowed up and immersed under water (perhaps small portions of earth (land) at different times). And certainly dinosaurs and extinct species were NOT part of that story, as we now know via paleontology and geology. The only possibility for a "global flood" of any kind would likely be due to the sea levels gaining ground due to glacier melt. Between that and ice dam breakages, rains, earthquakes, etc. we could see a global flooding issue, but only over time (thousands of years) rather than a single 40-day event.
Going back to the N. American continent and the evidence there we find that Native Americans have their own versions of flood stories as well (riding on a turtle's back to escape the flood, etc.), so the origin of these stories must have come from where they lived (once upon a time). Perhaps like the Pleistocene ice dam flooding from the Pacific NW area of the Americas, or from a previous place of origin. We do know that the people who would become Native American Indians had originally crossed the icy land bridge into the Americas from Asia originally, and that these people didn't start migrating further down into N. America until around 15,000-10,000 years ago (note that the oldest known paleolithic peoples (although the fossils are RARE) in N. America have been age-dated at about 35,000 years old). So if there was a "flood" of sorts, then it had to have happened either prior to the influx of Bering Strait travelers here, or while they were here, in order to trickle down into today's oral myths and traditions (his-story telling), prior if worldwide traditions are taken into account. Anthropologists know that human beings (Asian "Mongoloids" - aboriginal/Native Americans) migrated to the New World (via the Bering Strait land bridge) based on blood types, language studies, physiological evidences (facial features such as eyelids, cheekbones, skeletal similarities, etc.), artifacts, as well as the Diego blood antigen, etc.
The original migrations and the "Out of Africa" view, in my opinion, still stands as the strongest and most reliable one, but mostly because all human beings on the earth today are but one race, one species, able to breed without speciation issues. It is also interesting that so many "races" have their own (very different in some cases) versions of a flood story. This could either be due to many localized floods, or a single event in human history in a local area where many people lived and later dispersed from, most likely the former, since by 13 kya people were spread out all over the place. If the flood story in Genesis is literal, at least in some form, that has for thousands of years been twisted and redepicted in new ways, altered over time much like gossip and language changes over time (even the Babylonian, Gilgamesh, and Genesis accounts do not have the exact same details (variations within the same story), and stories passed down through oral tradition vary even greater than that), then we are hard pressed to ever truly find a real "Noah's ark" out there in some archaeological dig, especially if it was only 15 cubits (22.5 feet) above the current sea level at that time (it would be long gone by now). If the story of Noah and the ark is a figurative meaning, then it could be pointing to the direction of a single human line surviving and the rest of the human-like species dying out, which has indeed happened again and again through time, as species diverge and one takes over while another fades away into fossilized (if they are lucky) oblivion. It could also point to earth being the "ark" with the ability to keep species alive in a sea of uninhabitable space. Earth is, after all, like an oasis in the desert, so to speak. Perhaps what was here before (modern times) was "saved" and has since repopulated. Perhaps Gematria (Biblical numerology) much like the 7:1 ratio -- which I discovered while writing this -- may show something more regarding the "secrets" the Biblical texts keeps within its words by pointing out trends, patterns, and symbolic meaning to these times and occurrences.
What is amazing is how very specific the numbers actually fall, over and over again, dividing at exactly 8.44 (the 7:1 ratios) as we scale down in time, marking the points at already-existing major boundaries in the geologic (and hominid/human) record, including the all-important events at about 12-13 kya. We started with the Genesis flood story and the ages of Methuselah (prior to the flood at 969 yrs) and people after the flood (set at 120 yrs), and found the 7:1 ratio, which applied to major points throughout geologic time, and took us down the path back to where we started... with the possibilities of flooding around the globe. All of this is something to think about, and if someone wanted to do a similar numerical formula as to what the dates and ages of the people in Genesis from Adam to Noah, Noah's 600 yr. age at the time of the flood, etc. might mean I would be very interested in what is discovered.
As for the flood, there is a bigger story to tell in time, I'm sure, but so far, neither the later versioned Genesis account, the earlier Epic of Gilgamesh, the Babylonian version, nor the geologic record in the Mesopotamian area are shedding enough light on the story (yet) to determine its authenticity as an actual historical event, except to point to a possible glacial-meltdown in certain local areas due to climatic changes, warmer rains (and a uniquely heavy rain as a local event in the area of Mesopotamia that was considered "the world" in Biblical times?), and rising sea levels, perhaps happening "all at once," in an area that was once dry land, but since then, was flooded and to this day remains under water.
(c) Sunstar Solutions 2006
(c) updated 2007