by Hugh Owen
In his second Epistle, St. Peter predicted a future revolution in the Church predicated on a denial of two pillars of Truth—the fiat creation of all things in the beginning of time and the Global Flood in the days of Noah which destroyed the first-created world. It can be demonstrated that all hypotheses concerning cosmic evolution as well as biological evolution ultimately rest on a denial of the Global Flood and an explanation of Earth’s history in terms of long ages of geological time. [1] In this article we will demonstrate that the theological and natural science arguments for a Global Flood in the time of Noah are sufficient to establish its truth for all Catholics beyond a reasonable doubt and that recognition of this fact can help Catholics to correctly interpret “the signs of the times.”
Establishing a Framework for Understanding Creation and the Flood
St. Thomas Aquinas summed up the framework within which all of the Fathers, Doctors, Popes and Council Fathers of the Church understood the relationship between the natural order and the order of creation when he wrote in the Summa Theologiae of the “first perfection of the universe” which he defined as its “completeness at its first founding.” By this he meant that all of the different kinds of creatures were created for man, and they existed together with him in the beginning of creation, in perfect harmony. Thus, he defined the relationship between creation and the natural order as follows:
The completion of the universe as to the completeness of its parts belongs to the sixth day, but its completion as regards their operation, to the seventh (ST I, Q. 73, Reply to Obj. 2).
In other words, the origin of the different kinds of creatures—stars, plants, animals and men—cannot be explained in terms of the activity of created things—that is, in terms of the same material processes that are going on now. Thus, according to all of the Fathers, Doctors, Popes and Council Fathers, in their authoritative teaching, it is impossible to extrapolate from the present order of nature and from the material processes that are going on now to explain how these things came to be in the past.
This assumption was not based on human reasoning or experience. It was based on God’s revelation to Moses in which He clearly stated that the work of creation was a fiat creation and that it was finished on the sixth day with the creation of Adam and Eve. Therefore, ALL the Fathers, Doctors, Popes and Council Fathers drew the boundary between theology and natural science AFTER the creation of Adam and Eve. From this starting point, they recognized that the work of creation was the proper realm of the theologian. The natural order—which began AFTER creation was finished—was the proper realm of the natural scientist. Therefore, they recognized that it is impossible to extrapolate from the material processes that are going on now, like supernova explosions and genetic mutations, to explain how everything came to be in the beginning.
Those who defend atheistic or theistic evolution do not accept this premise from Divine Revelation. They believe that the same material processes that are going on now have been operating in the same way since the BEGINNING of creation—in contradiction to all of the Fathers, Doctors, Popes and Council Fathers in their authoritative teaching. What is truly remarkable is that St. Peter the first Pope actually predicted this revolution in men’s ideas when he wrote that scoffers would come in the latter days, asserting that “things have always been the same since the BEGINNING of creation.”
Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.”
St. Peter went on to predict that these scoffers would have to deliberately ignore the FACT—not the pious belief—that it was the Word of God that brought the heavens and the Earth and all they contain into existence, NOT a material process like what we observe in the world today. And this is, indeed, the fundamental error of all evolutionists, theistic or atheistic, including Descartes, Kant, Hutton, Lyell, Darwin, Teilhard de Chardin and all of their modern disciples.
Rene’ Descartes (1596-1650) was the first Catholic thinker of note—i.e., the first Baptized Catholic “scoffer”—to propose that it would be “more reasonable” to explain the origin of stars, galaxies and other kinds of creatures in terms of the same material processes going on now than by fiat creation. In his Discourse on Method (of Rightly Conducting the Reason), Part V, Descartes wrote:
But it is certain, and it is an opinion commonly received by the theologians, that the action by which He now preserves is just the same as that by which He at first created it. In this way....we may well believe...that by this means alone all things which are purely material might in course of time have become such as we observe them to be at present; and their nature is much easier to understand when we see them coming to pass little by little in this manner, than were we to consider them as all complete to begin with (emphasis added). [2]
In reality, Descartes wittingly or unwittingly distorted the “common opinion” of theologians which identified the creative action of God in creating the universe with His action in maintaining it. Rightly understood, this common opinion held that God created and sustained the universe by His divine omnipotent power, but it distinguished between the exercise of that power to create the corporeal and spiritual creatures ex nihilo and the maintenance of the universe after it was finished and complete.
Blaise Pascal was as great a genius as Descartes but, unlike Descartes, he had true piety and he saw the terrible consequences of Descartes’ arrogant denial of the traditional teaching on fiat creation in favor of a naturalistic account of origins. Pascal wrote in Pensees:
I cannot forgive Descartes; in all his philosophy he did his best to dispense with God. But he could not avoid making Him set the world in motion with a flip of His thumb; after that he had no more use for God. [3]
St Thomas followed Aristotle in teaching that a small error in the beginning becomes a huge error later on. But in the case of Descartes, a huge error in the beginning became an unimaginably monstrous error in the end. And this explains why highly intelligent and virtuous people can be completely wrong in their conclusions about origins—because in regard to the origins of man and the universe they have accepted the false premise of Descartes and unwittingly rejected the premise that was held by ALL of the Fathers, Doctors, Popes and Council Fathers in their authoritative teaching. Indeed, a man could be the smartest person in the world—and virtuous and well-intentioned to boot—yet if he starts from a false premise, he will always reason (perhaps even sincerely and brilliantly) to a false conclusion—as all evolutionists do.
The currently-accepted geological column was determined in almost its present form more than 120 years ago, before the invention of radiometric dating. In his influential work on geology, Charles Lyell speculated that great oceans periodically washed over the land, sediments settled out gradually; the waters withdrew; the sediments hardened into rocks; and this process was supposedly repeated over and over again for aeons of time.
James Hutton, Charles Lyell, and their disciples then speculated that if Lyell’s mechanism for sedimentary deposition was correct, the fossils in the rocks seemed to tell the story of life developing from the simpler to the more complex—from fish to reptile, to amphibian, to bird and mammal and finally to man. This provided the basis for Charles Darwin’s hypothesis of biological evolution which held that all of the different kinds of living things had evolved through a process of natural selection from one or a few one-celled ancestors over long ages of time.
And so he proposed the “Tree of Life” with human evolution at the top of its branches. It is important to understand that the whole hypothesis of biological evolution was firmly based upon Lyell’s speculations in geology, which were, in turn, firmly based upon Descartes’ uniformitarian principle which he received from the “angel of truth”—alias Lucifer. Moreover, Lyell in his private correspondence admitted that his primary purpose in promoting his new geology was to destroy the credibility of the Holy Bible—most especially the Mosaic account of the Global Flood. It is extremely important, therefore, for all Catholics to recognize that the evidence from theology and natural science actually contradicts the false premise of Descartes, as well as the speculations of Lyell and Darwin and their disciples down to the present day.
Theological Arguments for the Historical Reality of the Global Flood
At this point we will briefly consider five theological arguments for the historical truth of the Mosaic account of the Flood before spending most of the rest of the article examining six powerful bodies of physical evidence for a global cataclysm about 4500 years ago.
- Our Lord Jesus Christ testified to the global Flood.Our Lord compares the global Flood in the days of Noah to His Second Coming. Just as the Second Coming will affect every creature on Earth when it occurs, so did the Flood in the days of Noah (Luke 17:26).
- All the Church Fathers testified to the global Flood.The Council of Trent and Vatican Council I both defined that when all of the Fathers of the Church agree on any interpretation of Scripture that pertains to a doctrine of faith or morals, it is definitive. All of the Fathers agreed that the Flood was a real historical event that covered the whole Earth. They also held that the Ark of Noah was a type of the Catholic Church outside of which there is no salvation. Just as the Church is a real entity, so the Ark was a real entity.
- Cataclysmos = unique eventThe New Testament and the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament use the unique word “cataclysmos” to describe the Flood. “Cataclysmos” signifies a violent upheaval, on a much bigger scale than any local Flood. [4]
- Why spend a hundred years building an Ark to escape a local flood? Why take animals on the Ark to escape a local flood?God commanded Noah to work on the Ark more than 100 years before the Flood occurred (Genesis 6:1, Genesis 7:4). This would be absurd if the Flood were to be a local flood, since God could just have told Noah to move from one country to another as He did with Abraham hundreds of years after the Flood. It would be equally absurd for God to direct Noah to take every kind of animal on the Ark if the Flood were a local flood, since the animals could simply have moved away from the flooded area.
- A local Flood would make God a liar.God promised Noah never to send another Flood upon the Earth (Genesis 9:11). If the Flood was a local flood, then God lied to Noah, as there have been countless local floods during the four and a half millennia since the Flood of Noah.
Physical Evidence for a Global Flood
This brings us to the physical evidence for a Global Flood. We will examine six bodies of evidence:
- Eyewitness testimony from all over the world.
- Marine fossils on top of Earth’s high mountains.
- Billions of well-preserved fossils all over the Earth.
- Sediment layers cover vast areas.
- No slow and gradual erosion. Rapid deposition.
- Over-sized valleys, water gaps, and vast planation surfaces.
1 - Eyewitness Testimony from all over the world
Hundreds of people groups all over the world have preserved an historical memory of a global Flood. It is significant that the histories handed down by people groups who settled close to the location of the Tower of Babel, resemble most closely the true history related by Moses in the sacred history of Genesis.
Credit: Answers in Genesis
Dr. Monty White "Flood Legends - The Significance of a World of Stories Based on Truth"
This chart compares Flood accounts from all over the world and shows the remarkable similarities that exist among them. Not only do these accounts recall the Flood as a global event and a judgment upon mankind from which only one family and some animals were spared on an Ark; many of them include details contained in the Mosaic account of the Flood, such as the release of a bird to determine if the flood waters had receded at the end of the Flood.
2 - Marine fossils on top of Earth’s high mountains
The illustration below displays an ammonite fossil, the fossil of a marine creature, discovered high in the Himalayan Mountains. Such fossils are found on all of the Earth’s highest mountains, indicating that the mountains were once under water before being uplifted towards the end, or after, the Flood.
Credit: Answers in Genesis
Dr. Andrew A. Snelling, "High & Dry Sea Creatures"
3 - Billions of Well-Preserved Fossils All Over the Earth
The existence of billions of fossils like this one all over the Earth points to a unique, global, watery catastrophe, because fossilization is a rare occurrence and we do not find anything forming today that compares with the fossil graveyards of the past where thousands of marine and land-dwelling creatures were drowned and buried together.
All over the Earth, we find billions of marine creatures buried together. For example, according to Dr. Andrew A. Snelling:
billions of straight-shelled, chambered nautiloids are found fossilized with other marine creatures in a 7 foot (2 m) thick layer within the Redwall Limestone of Grand Canyon. This fossil graveyard stretches for 180 miles (290 km) across northern Arizona and into southern Nevada, covering an area of at least 10,500 square miles (30,000 km2). [5]
No geological event in the recorded history of the last four thousand years could even begin to explain how these kinds of animal graveyards were made.
Credit: Answers in Genesis
Dr. Andrew A. Snelling, "What Are Some of the Best Flood Evidences?"
This illustration shows the beautifully preserved remains of a female fish the act of giving birth to a baby. It is apparent that these fish were rapidly buried. Had they died under normal conditions, they would have been scavenged and decomposed by microorganisms until nothing remained of them. Thus, the fact that we find billions and billions of beautifully preserved remains of marine creatures mixed with the remains of land creatures tells us that some unique event was responsible for the preservation of fossils on this scale.
Credit: Answers in Genesis
Dr. Andrew A. Snelling, "The World’s a Graveyard"
4 - Sediment Layers Cover Vast Areas
The sedimentary rock layers exposed in the walls of Grand Canyon belong to six megasequences that can be traced across North America. At the base of these layers are huge boulders and sand beds that are evidences of sediments being laid down rapidly across the entire USA.
Credit: Answers in Genesis
Dr. Andrew A. Snelling, "Transcontinental Rock Layers"
The chalk beds of southern England (shown below) can be traced across France, Germany, and Poland, all the way to the Middle East.[6] What kind of geological phenomenon observed in recent times could lay down water-borne sediments over three continents!
Coal beds offer another example of massive deposition of sediments over multiple continents. Dr. Andrew A. Snelling explains:
In the northern hemisphere, the Upper Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) coal beds of the eastern and Midwest USA are the same coal beds, with the same plant fossils, as those in Britain and Europe. They stretch halfway around the globe, from Texas to the Donetz Basin north of the Caspian Sea in the former USSR. [7]
5 - No slow and gradual erosion. Rapid deposition. Polystrate Fossils and Planation Surfaces.
It is important to note that, according to Dr. Andrew A. Snelling,
at the boundaries between some sedimentary layers we find evidence of only rapid erosion. [8]
This strongly indicates that the sediments that hardened into these layers must have been laid down rapidly and almost simultaneously.
Photos courtesy Dr. Andrew Snelling
Credit: Answers in Genesis
Dr. Andrew A. Snelling, "No Slow and Gradual Erosion"
All over the world one can find polystrate fossils which cut through multiple layers of sedimentary rock, layers which, according to the conventional evolutionary time-scale, were deposited over tens or hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years. The existence of polystrate fossils, like the tree trunk shown below, testifies to the rapid and catastrophic deposition of sediments and contradicts the Lyellian understanding of sedimentary deposition.
Polystrate fossil trunk
Ian Juby [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
In recent decades sedimentologists who study the way that sediments are laid down in nature to form sedimentary rocks have built huge laboratories where they can do empirical research in their field. This research has revealed that Lyell and his disciples failed to take adequate account of the role played by moving currents of water in the deposition of sediments.
In sedimentological laboratories, scientists have discovered that sediments are deposited by moving currents of water very differently from the way that Lyell and his disciples imagined. Instead of slow and gradual vertical deposition of sediment, moving currents of water deposit water-borne sediments laterally and vertically at the same time, according to their physical characteristics.
In recent years, geologists have reinterpreted several huge sedimentary rock formations in light of empirical research in sedimentology, including the Tonto Group, a large section of the Grand Canyon depicted below. According to a peer-reviewed article published in the journal of the French Geological Society, careful analysis of the sediments that make up this formation indicate that the whole deposit was laid down rapidly—in a matter of days or weeks, not millions of years—by an enormous body of water moving from east to west across what is now the Southwestern United States.
Another common observation consistent with the historical reality of the Global Flood is the beautiful sharp folding of multiple sedimentary layers within uplifted and folded mountain ranges which can be witnessed all over the Earth. If these layers had been laid down over millions of years, there ought to be some evidence of cracking and fracturing of the more ancient layers during the folding and uplifting of the mountains. Instead, all over the Earth, one observes multiple layers of sedimentary rock, folded in beautiful tight folds, without any fracturing—a clear indication that all of the sediments were laid down rapidly at more or less the same time, and that there were no long intervals of time between them.
6 - These features of the Earth go hand in hand with other features that characterize enormous areas of the Earth’s surface: Water gaps, over-sized valleys, and planation surfaces.
Water gaps and over-sized river valleys constitute two other world-wide geological phenomena that testify to a recent global Flood. Water gaps like the ones depicted below can be found all over the surface of the Earth.
Flood geologists interpret these gaps as relicts of channelized flow that occurred as waters receded from a worldwide inundation . . . Conventional geologists have proposed various solutions to the problem such as antecedent streams or headward erosion, but none of these processes are currently observed, and most geologists admit that water gaps are difficult to explain [in terms of presently observed natural processes]. [9]
Credit: Creation Ministries International
Michael Oard, "Do rivers erode through mountains? - Water gaps are strong evidence for the Genesis Flood"
A related feature of river valleys all over the world is their enormous size relative to the size of the rivers that flow through them. According to geologist Steve Austin,
Studies by G.H. Dury [10] on modern stream channels and river valleys prove that many are too large for the streams that they contain. He argues that most modern streams at some point on their channel are "underfit." Dury speaks of the "continent-wide distribution of underfit streams." [11] Using channel meander characteristics, Dury concludes that streams frequently had 20 to 60 times their present discharge. [12]
The same geological forces that produced enormous sedimentary deposits extending from one continent to another also left behind enormous planation surfaces as Flood waters receded from the continents and flowed into the ocean basins. For example, almost two-thirds of the entire land surface of the African continent is a planation surface, sheared off by the receding waters of the Flood as they flowed into the oceans. No geological event since the Flood has come close to producing the kinds of effects that can still be observed all over the Earth as a consequence of that unique global cataclysm.
Possible Mechanisms for a Global Flood
In the sacred history of Genesis Moses gives us enough information to be sure that a worldwide flood took place a few thousand years ago, but he does not give us enough information to be sure of the precise mechanism that produced the Deluge. The Catastrophic Plate Tectonics or CPT model is one framework that can be used to explain most of the geological evidence we see today in relation to a global flood a few thousand years ago. [13]
In 1859 Antonio Snyder proposed a geological model based on the sacred history of Genesis to explain the origin of the continental land-forms, one that has proven much more accurate than Charles Darwin’s hypothesis for the Origin of Species. Moses tells us that on the third day of Creation Week God “gathered the waters into one place and made the dry land appear” (Genesis 1: ). Snyder inferred from this that there was only one super-continent in the beginning and that subsequent geological activity must have broken up the initial super-continent, or Pangea, into the continental land-forms we see today.
Secular geologists eventually embraced Snyder’s Pangea hypothesis and today it is all but universally accepted that the continents rest on plates which are slowly moving away from each other. However, most geologists extrapolate from the current slow movement of the continents and conclude that the separation of the continents from the original Pangea must have taken place over hundreds of millions of years.
Geologists who take the sacred history of Genesis seriously have formulated a different hypothesis to explain the separation of the continents based on Catastrophic Plate Tectonics (CPT). Geologist Timothy Clarey explains [14]:
The Bible plainly states that the “fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened” during the initiation of the Flood (Genesis 7:11). In terms of CPT, the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep may be a description of the rifting that took place at the ocean ridges and even within continents. [15] Obviously, the rainfall described as the opening of the “windows of heaven” must have contributed to the Flood.
Because newly created oceanic lithosphere is hot, less dense, and more buoyant, the CPT model provides another source for water to completely flood the continents. After its formation at the ridges, the freshly formed, lower-density oceanic lithosphere simply pushed up the top of the seafloor from below, displacing ocean water and forcing it on land. Creation geologist Dr. Andrew Snelling calculated that this elevated seafloor could have raised the global sea level by as much as 1.6 km, greatly helping flood the continents. [16]
Rapid movement of the plates during runaway subduction further supplied tsunami-like waves to wash across the land, helping deposit blanket-type sediments across continents. Recent numerical modeling by Dr. Baumgardner has found that repetitive tsunami waves, caused by rapid plate movement, could result in water accumulation more than a kilometer (0.62 miles) deep on the continents, contributing to the flooding.12 The runaway subduction model also provides a mechanism to lower the continental crust about two miles in the proximity of the subduction zones, causing more extensive flooding of the land and creating room for thousands of feet of sediment. [17]
Subsequent cooling of the newly created ocean lithosphere later in the Flood year (after Day 150) offers an explanation for the lowering of the floodwaters. The 62-mile-thick ocean lithosphere cooled and sank, lowering the bottom of the oceans and drawing the water back off the continents and into the ocean basins.
A Global Flood Set the Stage for the Ice Age
Timothy Clarey explains that huge, cold, subdacted slabs of rock testify to runaway subduction only thousands of years ago. [18]. PST layers nearly a foot thick indicate extraordinary amounts of frictional heat during runaway subduction." [19] In "Embracing Catastrophic Plate Tectonics," [20] Dr. Clarey continues:
The distinctive magmas generated by the partial melt of subducted ocean lithosphere provide the perfect recipe for explosive, ash-rich eruptions.
CPT provides a mechanism for the Ice Age that occurred at the end of the Flood. A hot, newly formed ocean crust would have provided tremendous amounts of heat to the ocean waters above. This would have raised the overall temperature of the ocean and caused a greater amount of evaporation, resulting in staggering amounts of precipitation. [21] The increased volcanic activity from the subduction zone volcanoes within the Ring of Fire and elsewhere late in the Flood would have placed huge volumes of ash and aerosols into the atmosphere, cooling the climate most noticeably in the higher latitudes. [22]
The distinctive magmas generated by the partial melt of subducted ocean lithosphere provide the perfect recipe for explosive, ash-rich eruptions. These types of volcanoes (stratovolcanoes) are highest in silica, making them thicker and more explosive. [23] The net result of hotter oceans and tremendous silica-rich volcanic activity brought on from plate motion would be enough to start a widespread Ice Age. As commonly observed across the bulk of the ocean basins, basalt-rich magmatic volcanoes (shield volcanoes) do not produce the necessary ash-rich explosions to generate sun-blocking aerosols. [24] Only subduction provides these ash-rich magmas. Finally, as the ocean water slowly cooled and volcanic activity diminished over the centuries after Flood, the Ice Age would have ended as abruptly as it began. [25]
Scientific studies of the Ark as described by Moses in the sacred history of Genesis indicate that—like the Flood—the Ark was a real, historical structure perfectly designed to ride out the storm of storms. A group of South Korean engineers carefully studied the design of the Ark as given to Moses by God and concluded:
The Ark as a drifting ship, is thus believed to have had a reasonable-beam-draft ratio for the safety of the hull, crew and cargo in the high winds and waves imposed on it by the Genesis Flood. [26]
The voyage limit of the Ark, estimated from modern passenger ships’ criteria reveals that it could have navigated sea conditions with waves higher than 30 metres. [27]
Reasonable Extrapolation Confirms the Historical Reality of the Flood
Before moving on from physical evidence for Noah’s Flood, it may be helpful to give two or three examples of reasonable extrapolations from historical data that confirm the historicity of the Genesis account of the Flood.
According to John Haffner in “A Tale of Two Scientists and World Population”:
[T]here is reliable data on world population (wp) for only a few centuries back. During the ‘plague years’, the growth rate was only .318% globally, but the other centuries were around .7% to 1.8% globally. (Today the US growth due to births alone is about 1.7% and third world countries is about 4%). The AVERAGE annual growth rate (birth rate minus death rate) would come out slightly under one half of one percent throughout recorded history. The actual percent is ~ .456%. This is a scientific calculation from the data available from the approximately 400 years of recorded history on population. [If an evolutionist] plugs in his data into the formula for human world population: P = P0 ert (taken from Pre-Calculus by Karl J. Smith, 4th edition, p. 200). He puts into the formula a 2 for Po which is for one man + one woman (the original Homo Sapiens ‘couple’), 2.718 for e, the base of natural logarithms, and raise 2.718 to the product of “r” .456% (.00456 in the calculator) times “t” of 500,000 years. To his great amazement, he does not get the [then] current wp of 6.5 billion (6.5 X 109) people. We KNOW this is the correct population due to census figures. Something must be wrong. He checks and rechecks his data: One man / one woman, under one half of one percent growth rate, and a half a million years of Homo sapiens (Biology, by Raven and Johnson, p. 525). Still he gets the astronomical figure of 2.45 X 10990! Something is definitely drastically wrong. This is more people than all the electrons that could be packed into the universe. On the other hand, the [“sacred history of Genesis”] records a massive death-event about 4500 years ago (the Flood of Noah’s day) that reduced the human population to 8 people (Genesis 9:19). Starting with these 8 people for Po, .456% for the growth rate, r, and 4500 years for time [results in] a world population of 6.5 billion (6.5 X 109) in 2000. . .The only way 500,000 years can be made to ‘arrive’ at 6.5 billion people is to drastically reduce the growth rate to .00438% (.0000438 in the calculator). . .[28]
Brian Thomas in "New DNA Study Confirms Noah" [29] explains:
Mitochondrial DNA comes from mothers. Mother egg cells transmit their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) into the cellular mitochondria of every child born. This unique annex of DNA contains 16,569 bases—either adenine, guanine, cytosine, or thymine (A, G, C, T)—that encode vital cellular information, like an instruction manual.
Scientists have been comparing the genetic differences between every major people group around the globe. How did those differences arise?
Assuming that God placed the ideal mtDNA sequence into Eve, all those differences arose by mutations since the Genesis 3 curse, about 6,000 years ago. Other scientists measured the rate at which these copying errors occur. Though very slow—we acquire about one mutation every 6 generations—a few dozen mutations could appear after several millennia.
This sets the stage for researchers to compare competing models' predictions against measured mtDNA differences.
Bible-believing molecular biologist Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson downloaded publicly available human mitochondrial genome sequence data to do exactly that. Publishing in Answers Research Journal, his results show that the number of today's mtDNA differences exactly matches the number predicted by the Bible's 6,000 years of human history.1 Mitochondrial DNA from around the world shows no trace of the 200,000 or so years' worth of mutations that the evolution model predicts.
Geneticists construct tree diagrams using software that places the most similar genetic sequences near one another, and the most dissimilar sequences on the longest branches. Jeanson found at least two distinct patterns in the human mtDNA tree diagram that confirm Genesis.
The center of the diagram shows three main trunks. Each reflects a specific mtDNA sequence with only a handful of differences from the other two.
Could these three trunks represent the unique mtDNA from the wives of Shem, Ham, and Japheth?”
A second pattern emerges that also fits the three wives explanation. Assuming longer times between each generation, according to the biblical record of lifespans before the Flood, and using today's slow mutation rate, the 1,656 years between Adam and Noah would have produced the small number of differences that the short lines between each trunk represent.
Jeanson compared the small number of mtDNA differences between each trunk, or central node, with the relatively large number of differences in the branches. He wrote, "About 1,660 years passed from Creation to the Flood, whereas 4,365 years passed from the Flood to the present—a ~2.6:1 time ratio. Consistent with this, the branches connecting the nodes to one another were much shorter than the branches spraying out from the nodes—as if the short branches represented pre-Flood mutations, and the long branches represented post-Flood mutations." [30]
The Importance of Noah’s Flood for Our Times
What difference does it make whether we believe that a cataclysmic world-wide flood took place 4500 years ago or so in the time of Noah, or that the Earth that we see today is the result of billions of years of more gradual and localized geological processes?
There are several reasons why faith in the literal historical truth of the Genesis account of the Flood is especially important today.
In the first place, since all of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church believed and taught that the Flood was a global flood, abandonment of this interpretation is tantamount to saying that the Church was wrong in her interpretation of Genesis from the beginning, and that God used godless natural scientists who hated the Church to enlighten Her. This is a false, unjust, and ultimately suicidal position, as it leads young Catholics to the conclusion that God and His Church are unreliable and untrustworthy, and that the most reliable guides to truth in the modern age are godless scientists.
In addition, the Global Flood is a perennial reminder that God is the Creator, Lord, and Sovereign Judge of all His creatures. He respects the autonomy of His rational creatures; but He will intervene to halt the spread of evil when a society becomes so corrupt that the children of that society no longer have a chance to grow up without being corrupted. In private revelations approved by the Church, The Blessed Virgin has repeatedly warned us that we deserve a punishment “worse than the Deluge” and that we must repent or face a punishment worse than the Flood. The Blessed Mother warned Blessed Elena Aiello before her death in 1961 that mankind deserved a punishment worse than the Flood.
Moses tells us that before the Flood “all the meditations of men’s hearts were turned toward evil continually at all times,” indicating that some perverse way of thinking had entered into the very air men breathed, turning their hearts and minds away from God, just as evolutionism does today. In her Church-approved apparition at Akita, Japan, in the year of Roe vs. Wade, when the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand, Our Lady warned the world:
If man does not repent, the Heavenly Father will inflict a punishment worse than the Deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky, wiping out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priest nor faithful (Mother of God to Sister Agnes Sasagawa, October 13, 1973).
Those who believe that the Deluge was a “local flood” are unlikely to take the Blessed Virgin’s warnings as seriously as they should!
Finally, faith in the literal historical truth of the Mosaic account of the Flood fosters hope that just as God purified the world from evil through the Flood for the sake of His faithful remnant, so will He purify the world from evil for the sake of His faithful remnant in our days.
After the chastisement brought upon the world by our obstinate rejection of God’s grace, God will pour out His grace upon the survivors, who will then carry out the greatest evangelization the world has ever seen. Thus, faith in the literal historical truth of the Mosaic account of the Global Flood strengthens confidence that the promises made by Our Lady of Fatima more than 100 years ago will be fulfilled:
In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.
Our Lady of Fatima, Ark of the Covenant, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, pray for us! Amen.
References and notes
[1] Hugh Owen, "Ariadne’s Thread: Sedimentology and the Collapse of Evolutionary Theory"
[2] Great Books of the Western World, Robert Maynard Hutchins, Editor, Vol. 31, Descartes / Spinoza, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. Chicago, William Benton, Publisher, pp. 55-56.
[3] Blaise Pascal, Pensees (1669) Sect. 4, No. 162.
[4] cf. https://biblehub.com/greek/kataklysmos_2627.htm
[5] Dr. Andrew A. Snelling, "What Are Some of the Best Flood Evidences?" Answers in Genesis https://answersingenesis.org/the-flood/what-are-some-of-the-best-flood-evidences/
[6] Dr. Andrew A. Snelling, "Transcontinental Rock Layers - Flood Evidence Number Three" Answers in Genesis https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rock-layers/transcontinental-rock-layers/
[7] Ibid.
[8] Dr. Andrew A. Snelling, "No Slow and Gradual Erosion - Flood Evidence Number Five" Answers in Genesis https://answersingenesis.org/geology/grand-canyon-facts/no-slow-and-gradual-erosion/
[9] https://kolbecenter.org/question-of-time/
[10] Dury, G. H., "Theoretical Implications of Underfit Streams." U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 452-C, 1965, pp. C1-C43.
[11] (Dury, G. H. Streams - Underfit," in Fairbridge, R.W., ed., The Encyclopedia of Geomorphology: NY: Reinhold 1968 pp.1070-1071).
[12] Steve Austin, “Did Landscapes Evolve?” Institute for Creation Research https://www.icr.org/article/211
[13] For an animated presentation on the CPT model for the Flood, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd5-dHxOQhg&t=76s
[14] Tim Clarey, Ph.D., "Embracing Catastrophic Plate Tectonics" Institute for Creation Research https://www.icr.org/article/embracing-catastrophic-plate-tectonics
[15] Reed, J. 2000. The North American Midcontinent Rift System: An Interpretation Within the Biblical Worldview. St. Joseph, MO: Creation Research Society Books.
[16] Snelling, A. 2014. Geophysical issues: understanding the origin of the continents, their rock layers and mountains. In Grappling with the Chronology of the Genesis Flood. S. Boyd and A. Snelling, eds. Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 111-143.
[17] Baumgardner, J. 1994. Runaway Subduction as the Driving Mechanism for the Genesis Flood. In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Creationism. R. Walsh, ed. Pittsburgh, PA: Creation Science Fellowship Inc., 63-75.
[18] Tim Clarey, Ph.D., "Embracing Catastrophic Plate Tectonics" Institute for Creation Research https://www.icr.org/article/embracing-catastrophic-plate-tectonics
[19] ibid.
[20] ibid.
[21] Oard, M. 2004. Frozen in Time. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
[22] ibid.
[23] Raymond, L. 1995. Petrology: The Study of Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic Rocks. Dubuque, IA: William C. Brown Communications.
[24] ibid.
[25] Oard, M. 2004. Frozen in Time. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
[26] S.W. Hong, S. S. Na, B. S. Hyun, S. Y. Hong, D. S. Gong, K. J. Kang, S. H. Suh, K. H. Lee and Y. G. Je are all on the staff of the Korea Research Institute of Ships and Engineering, Taejon. This paper was originally published in Korean and English in the Proceedings of the International Conference on Creation Research, Korea Association of Creation Research, Taejon, 1993, pp. 105–137. This English translation is published with the permission of the Korea Association of Creation Research and the authors.
[27] ibid.
[28] John Haffner, “A Tale of Two Scientists and World Population”
[29] Brian Thomas, "New DNA Study Confirms Noah" Institute for Creation Research https://www.icr.org/article/9325
[30] Jeanson, N.T. 2016. On the Origin of Human Mitochondrial DNA Differences, New Generation Time Data Both Suggest a Unified Young-Earth Creation Model and Challenge the Evolutionary Out-of-Africa Model. Answers Research Journal. 9 (2016): 123-130.