from a Water Engineering Perspective JUSTIN CRICK CIVIL ENGINEERING - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Genesis Flood: Discussing a Global Deluge from a Water Engineering Perspective JUSTIN CRICK – CIVIL ENGINEERING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY ASA 2017 ANNUAL MEETING COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES

About me  Graduate civil engineering student  Interested in Bible, geology, and hydrology  Search the Scriptures! What do they really say about creation?

Creation Science History  The Creationists – detailed account of American Creationism  ASA doesn’t take official position on controversial issues  Division in 1940s over flood geology  YEC scientists split from ASA and start their own societies

Old School Young Earth Creationists  Dr. Henry M. Morris (hydrology)  Dr. John Whitcomb (bible teacher)  Co-author The Genesis Flood

Old School #1: Water Canopy Theory  Theory that the pre-flood world was surrounded by an layer of invisible water vapor  Used to account for water during the Flood

Old School #1: Water Canopy Theory  Ended up being disproved by ICR’s own creation scientist  Under optimistic parameters, only a depth of 6.5 feet could be suspended in a vapor canopy

Old School #2: Fountains of the Deep  Cataclysmic geologic event  “At the same time, waters and probably magmas were bursting up through the fractured foundations of the great subterranean deep”  (The Genesis Flood, p265)

Old School #2: Fountains of the Deep  Parallel Passages  Judges 15:19 – Samson thirsty  Isaiah 48:21 – Water for Israelites, Moses  Bible gives no cataclysmic events to provide drinks of water

Modern Flood Geology  (Left to Right) Drs. Andrew Snelling, Steve Austin, Kurt Wise

New School #1: Pre-Flood Supercontinent  Envisioning pre-flood world based on modern geology methods  Arbitrary choice of supercontinent… Why not Nuna?

New School #1: Pre-Flood Supercontinent  Plenty of current research on this topic. Selective choice of evidences?

New School #1: Pre-Flood Supercontinent  Figure taken from AiG website.  Incredibly unlikely scenario to base revisions of earth history

New School #2: Computer Modelling  In my own research experiences, I studied creep deformation of 10-15 mm/yr  Practical and obeservable data sampling

New School #2: Computer Modelling  According to flood geologist computer models, lithospheric plates would have moved speeds minimum of 2 meters/second during the flood.  If true, heat generated alone would probably burn off much of the oceans

Concluding Remarks  Reinterpreting texts to fit a paradigm foreign to the context of biblical passages and historical interpretation

Concluding Remarks  Example interpration : John Calvin’s commentary emphasizes passage has to do with God’s relationship to humans; not the natural world. “For it ought always to be borne in mind, that the world stands through no other power than that of God's word, and that therefore inferior or secondary causes derive from him their power, and produce different effects as they are directed .”

Spiritual Take Away  The nature of the earth and its human inhabitants were the same before and after the Flood  Both worlds contain sinners in need of a savior.  Flood narrative was a picture of the salvific work of Christ, which has paid for our debts that we may saved from the condemnation of our sins, and made right with God.