Evolution Impossible (20 page)

Dodwell’s date of 2345
B.C.
, while being very close to the Genesis date for the Flood calculated as being around 2303
B.C.
, is based on an extrapolation that is heavily influenced by the oldest point on his curve. This corresponds to measurements at the solar temple of Amen-Ra, built by Amenemhet I at Karnak Egypt, which was oriented to the setting sun of the summer solstice at the date of its foundation, traditionally assigned as 2045
B.C.

However, Egyptian chronology is problematic and highly controversial. An alternative date for Amenemhet I would be 1703
B.C.
, which would change Dodwell’s extrapolated date to a time a hundred years or so after the biblical date for the Flood.
⁴³

Of course, we do not actually know what event caused the major deflection of the earth’s axis at this time and what effect it had on the earth. For example, the disturbance of the earth’s axis may have been associated with the rapid movement of the continental plates and the production of mountain ranges such as the Himalayas, European Alps, and mountain ranges of the Americas. These are events that, on the basis of the fossil record (that is, the occurrence of fossils high up in these mountain ranges), took place sometime after the Flood. Whatever the event, we know from the obliquity of the ecliptic data that we can measure at the present time that some major physical event that was large enough to produce a significant deflection of the angle of the earth’s tilt did occur roughly about the time of or just after the biblical date for Noah’s Flood.

When we consider the overall historical evidence that we have, the naming of the nations, the chronological dates for ancient nations, and the Flood accounts preserved in the ancient traditions of many cultures around the world, including the Ebla tablets’ records, support for the historical accuracy of the Genesis account is significant. When combined with scientific findings such as the deuterium depletion effect possibly explaining the change in the lifespan after the Flood, and astronomer Dodwell’s observations of a major event affecting the tilt of the earth around the time of the Flood, we have considerable consistent historical data collaborating the geological evidence for an historical worldwide Flood.

1
. Ian T. Taylor,
In the Minds of Men
(Toronto, Canada: TFE Publishing, 1984), p. 66, 110, 350.

2
. T.D. Alexander, “Introduction to Genesis,”
ESV Study Bible
(Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), p. 39–48; John Ashton and David Down,
Unwrapping the Pharaohs: How Egyptian Archaeology Confirms the Biblical Timeline
(Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2007), p. 89–95.

3
. For details on how this date is calculated from historical records and a comparison of the date calculated by James Ussher in a.d. 1650, see appendix 1.

4
. André Parrot, “Flood (in Religion and Myth),”
Encyclopaedia Britannica
(Chicago, IL: William Benton Publisher, 1967), Vol. 9., p. 455–456.

5
. Apollodorus and R. Hard, translator,
The Library of Greek Mythology
(Oxford World’s Classics) (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

6
. D.A. Leeming and M.A. Leeming,
A Dictionary of Creation Myths
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 236.

7
. Parrot, “Flood (in Religion and Myth),” p. 455–456.

8
. Leeming and Leeming,
A Dictionary of Creation Myths,
p. 180–181.

9
. Ibid., p. 14.

10
. Ibid., p. 16.

11
. Ibid., p. 47, 86, 145, 186, 200, 204, 209, 230, 239, 302.

12
. Parrot, “Flood (in Religion and Myth),” p. 455–456.

13
. Robert Young,
Analytical Concordance to the Holy Bible,
8th edition (London: Lutterworth Press, 1966), p. 698.

14
. E.R. Nelson, R.E. Broadberry, and G.T. Chock,
God’s Promise to the Chinese
(Dunlap, TN: Read Books, 1997), p. 105–119.

15
. See:
http://www.ashmolean.org/ash/faqs/q001007.php
.

16
.
The World Book Great Geographical Atlas
(Sydney, Australia: World Book Australia Pty. Ltd., 1984), p. 181.

17
. Manetho, “Manetho’s History of Egypt,” in
Manetho, with an English Translation by W.G. Waddell
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1964), p. xi.

18
. Ibid., p. 7.

19
. Manetho, “Book of Sothis App. IV,” in
Manetho, with an English Translation by W.G. Waddell,
p. 239; see also James Ussher,
The Annals of the World,
1658, sections 1657 AM–1762 AM, at
http://www.archive.org/details/AnnalsOfTheWorld
.

20
. J. Lampriere, “Aegyptus,”
A Classical Dictionary: Containing a Copious Account of All the Proper Names Mentioned in Ancient Authors,
8th edition (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies Publishers, 1812), p. AEL.

21
. Thomas Maurice, “Maurice’s Observations on the Ruins of Babylon,”
London Review and Literary Journal
(August 1817): p. 145. Note that the figure of 1,903 years can also be found in the medieval Latin translation by William of Moerbeke (a.d. 1215–1286) of a Greek manuscript of Simplicius.

22
. Eusebius,
Chronici Canones
(London: Humphredurn Milford, 1923), p. 1–14.

23
. R. Young,
Analytical Concordance to the Holy Bible,
8th edition (London: Lutterworth Press, 1966), p. 437, 534.

24
. Ibid., p. 533.

25
. Josephus, “The Antiquities of the Jews,” 1.6.1, in W. Whiston, translator,
The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus
(Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2008), p. 41.

26
. C.J.F. Dowsett, “Armenia,”
Encyclopaedia Britannica
(Chicago, IL: William Benton Publisher, 1967), Vol. 2, p. 422.

27
. Josephus, “The Antiquities of the Jews,” p. 41.

28
. See, for example, B. Cooper,
After the Flood
(Chichester, England: New Wine Press, 1995).

29
. L.C. Goodrich, “China,”
Encyclopaedia Britannica,
Vol. 5, p. 575.

30
. Giovanni C. Pettinato,
Elba: A New Look at History (Near Eastern Studies)
(Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991).

31
. J.A. Black, G. Cunningham, J. Ebeling, E. Flückiger-Hawker, E. Robson, J. Taylor, and G. Zólyomi, “The Sumerian King List: Translation,”
The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature,
1998–2006,
http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/
, Oxford.

32
. John C. Sanford,
Genetic Entropy & The Mystery of the Genome
(Waterloo, NY: FMS Publications, 2008), p. 155.

33
. We have to assume that these ages are for the first child.

34
. See, for example, P.G. Cook and A.L. Herczeg,
Environmental Tracers in Subsurface Hydrology
(New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000); E. Mazor, editor, 2003,
Chemical and Isotopic Groundwater Hydrology,
3rd edition (New York: Marcel Dekker, 2003); W. Epstein and T.K. Mayeda, “Variations of the
¹⁸
O/
¹⁶
O Ratio in Natural Waters,”
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta,
vol. 4 (1953): p. 213.

35
. G. Somlyai, G Jancsó, G. Jákli, M. Molnár, I Somlyai, and K. Krempels, “Application of Deuterium Depletion in Cancer Treatment and Prevention,”
Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference on Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods,
June 8–12, 2009, Zilina, Slovakia, p. 45; see also, A. Kovács, I. Guller, K. Krempels, et al., “Deuterium Depletion May Delay the Progression of Prostate Cancer,”
Journal of Cancer Therapy,
vol. 2 (2011): p. 548–556.

36
. Gbor Somlyai,
Defeating Cancer! The Biological Effect of Deuterium Depletion
(Budapest: 1st Books, 2002), p. 27–28.

37
. I.J. Winograd, B.J. Szabo, T.B. Coplen, et al., “Two-million-year Record of Deuterium Depletion in Great Basin Ground Waters,”
Science,
vol. 227 (February 1, 1985): p. 519–522.

38
. T.D. Alexander, “Genesis 6:15” comment,
ESV Study Bible,
p. 62.

39
. John Woodmorappe,
Noah’s Ark: A Feasibility Study
(El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research, 1997).

40
. G.F. Dodwell and C.R. Davidson, “Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun’s Gravitational Field from Observations Made at Cordillo Downs, South Australia, During the Total Eclipse of 1922 September 21,”
Royal Astronomical Society, Monthly Notices,
vol. 84 (1924): p. 150–162.

41
. Algernon DeHorsey,
Draysonia: Being an Attempt to Explain and Popularise the System of the Second Rotation of the Earth as Discovered by A.W. Drayson (1911)
(Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishers, 2009), originally published in 1911.

42
. George F. Dodwell, “Our Tilted Earth or the Obliquity of the Ecliptic: Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern Observations of the Obliquity of the Ecliptic, Measuring the Inclination of the Earth’s Axis, in Ancient Times and Up to the Present,” 1962, at
http://www.setterfield.org/Dodwell_Manuscript_1.html
.

43
. John Ashton and David Down,
Unwrapping the Pharaohs: How Egyptian Archaeology Confirms the Biblical Timeline
(Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2007), p. 206.

Chapter 9

Erosion Rates, Sedimentation Rates, and Other Evidence in Conflict with Radiometric Dating Ages

One of the foundational assumptions underpinning evolution is the great age of the earth and in particular the hundreds of millions of years assigned to the fossil-bearing strata of the so-called geologic column. However, are the fossils and rocks really that old? Just about every major national park I have visited has a mural of the region with a caption stating that the various rock formations are so many million years old. Similarly, many nature documentaries air commentary to the effect that the particular animals or plants featured evolved so many million years ago.

This wide publicity for the long ages view of earth’s history is not surprising, as this assumption in now comprehensively entrenched in secular education. However, the reasons for its widespread support are possibly underpinned by a reluctance to accept a young-earth view, as this would be seen as lending support to the Bible as a reliable historical document. For example, there is now substantial evidence for the severe marginalization of some scientists who subscribe to the view that life on earth must have been intelligently designed, rather than being the result of random processes. I referred to some examples of this type of vilification earlier in this book, and a documentary illustrating the extent and severity of this intentional censorship of scientists has been prepared by Ben Stein.
¹

One of the main reasons for the strong support for the long ages evolutionary view of earth’s history comes from published radiometric dating results. So I will discuss this dating method in some detail later in the next chapter. It is important to remember, however, that the radiometric dating method relies on a number of assumptions that cannot be proven. In effect, it is at best only an indicator of relative ages and not absolute ages.

I mention this point now because there is a substantial amount of solid logical evidence that the earth must be young, and that the global Flood was relatively recent, that is, only thousands of years ago, not millions of years. In my view, it is important that the highly controversial rock-dating issue be evaluated in the context of many different dating methods or age indicators available to us. Let us now consider some of these.