EVIDENCE FOR THE FLOOD
The following historical and scientific evidence has been complied from:
* Dr. Henry Morris, Institute for Creation Research. “Why Christians Should Believe in a Global Flood” - BTG No. 116a August 1998 http://www.icr.org
* Dr. John Morris, Institute for Creation Research. http://www.icr.org/pubs/imp/imp-311.htm
* Dr. Walt Brown http://www.cs.unc.edu/~plaisted/ce/flood.html
* Frank Lorey, M. A. http://www.icr.org/pubs/imp/imp-285.htm
* Mark Isaak http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/flood-myths.html
* http://www.the-flood.net
A. Historical Evidence.
1. The testimony of Jesus.
Jesus warned us concerning the immorality and the general lack of concern of the earth’s population just before He returns to this earth. He declared: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26-27). The fact that Jesus believed in Noah’s flood and the complete destruction of all who lived at that time is very powerful evidence that the flood occurred. A person must believe Christ’s testimony or reject it. If you believe that Jesus was God incarnate then you must believe that He knew what He was speaking about when He talked about the flood.
2. Written flood legends from all over the world.
The fact that there are written records of the great Flood found in hundreds of nations and tribes from all parts of the world is firm evidence that these people groups all originated from the one family preserved through the cataclysm. All of these accounts are similar in one way or another to the Genesis record. The widespread nature of flood accounts throughout the entire human race is excellent evidence for the fact of a worldwide flood from a legal/historical point of view. See the following web site for a detail listing: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/flood-myths.html It is important to note that 95% say the flood was universal; 70% say survival depended upon a boat; 66% say the wickedness of man was the cause; 88% say there was a favored family; 66% say the remnant was warned; 67% say animals were also saved; 57% say the survivors ended up on a mountain; 35% say birds were sent out; 9% say eight people were saved; and 7% mention a rainbow.
B. Archeological and Scientific Evidence.
1. Most of the earth's crust consists of sedimentary rocks. Over 70% of the earth's surface rock is sedimentary rock (the rest of earth's surface rock is volcanic igneous and metamorphic rock). Sedimentary rock was originally formed in almost all cases under water, usually by deposition after transportation by water from various sources. Sedimentary rocks are made up of pieces of rock or other material which existed somewhere else, and were eroded or dissolved and redeposited in their present location. Sedimentary rock results from moving water which lays down layer upon layer by what’s called hydrologic sorting (sandstone, siltstone, shale, limestone, etc). This means that over 70% of the earth’s crust has been moved by a great movement of water giving strong evidence for the flood.
2. Sedimentary rock is clearly visible near the top of Mt. Everest. How could sedimentary rock deposits come to rest near the top of Mt. Everest? This could only occur if at some time in the past this mountain was under water. See this web site for pictures. http://library.thinkquest.org/10131/geology_visual.html
3. Mount Ararat was once submerged. On Mount Ararat, a volcanic mountain complex, pillow lava is found at the 14,000 foot level. The United States Geological Society states: “Pillow lava is formed when basalts erupt underwater. Pillow lava’s are mounds of lava formed by repeated oozing and quenching of the hot basalt.”
Pillow lava must be extruded under water and is recognized by its high glass content caused by very rapid cooling. All of the igneous rocks examined on Ararat by geologist Clifford Burdick were highly glassy. Ararat apparently was submerged in water to above the present 14,000-foot level. This evidence gives further weight to the Biblical account of the flood. These evidences from geology and many more point to a violent, catastrophic past history of the earth. They imply a global flood with associated volcanic and mountain building activity which changed the face of the earth.
4. The enormous numbers of fossils found around the world.
a. How are fossils formed? Fossilization requires rapid burial of a plant or animal. However, such burial is exceedingly rare today which makes fossilization almost non-existent in modern times. The existence of massive numbers of fossils worldwide is clear evidence of quick, mass burial. A global flood catastrophe would offer conditions most ideal to the location of these great numbers of fossils. The fossils give evidence that these animals were killed suddenly. Millions of fish fossils retained all the body parts indicating very rapid burial. Under normal conditions, fish do not fossilize. Dead fish are torn apart by scavengers and disintegrate on the ocean bottom. Fossils also exist with soft tissue like jellyfish and sponges. There are fossils that have preserved animal tracts in mud, fish odors, amino acids, proteins, epidermal bark in plants, cell details, chlorophyll, etc.
b. Fossils are found in the Himalayan Mountains. If you will go to the following web site http://library.thinkquest.org/10131/geology_visual.html you can see pictures of a marine animal called Ammonite which are found in large numbers in the Kali Gandaki river in Nepal. Ammonites were sea animals having shells - either straight or coiled. Some of the fossils are large with a diameter up to 2 meters. These animals are proof that the ocean once covered this area.
c. There are abundant fossil remains of marine life found atop every mountain range in the world. This evidence makes it clear that all the mountains of the world have been under water at some time in the past, as indicated by sedimentary rocks and marine fossils near their summits. For example, clusters of hundreds of gigantic (300kg/650lbs) fossilized oysters found atop the Andes Mountains in South America. See web site: http://library.thinkquest.org/10131/geology_visual.html
d. Fossils have been found in the coal deposits of Montceau-les-Mines near Autun in France. What could explain the sea, land, and lake creatures that have been found buried together in one massive fossil deposit. One of the richest fossil discoveries was found in the huge coal deposit of Montceau-les-Mines near Autun, France. Racing to beat the strip-mining machines, amateur fossil-hunters collected 7,000 slabs and more than 100,000 nodules before the mine was filled in.
Two paleontologists from the Museum of Natural History in Paris reported in Scientific American (September, 1988, p.70) that the evidence 'tells a contradictory story. They say this because some of the fossils are of marine (saltwater) creatures, some are definitely freshwater dwellers (e.g. amphibious), and some are definitely land creatures (e.g. spiders, scorpions, millipedes and certain insects and reptiles).
e. The massive worldwide coal deposits also lend further proof to sudden destruction of immense primordial forests. Coal is formed when trees, plants, roots, bark, or any vegetation (peat) are buried by water and sediment. The burial of this vegetation by sediment causes compaction, which squeezes out the water and over time through the chemical processes of decay coal is formed. Coal is actually fossilized decayed vegetation or peat.
f. The random order of the fossils. The fossils within the sediments do not exhibit strong evidence of a record of evolution with simple animals at the bottom, progressing type by type up to more and more complex animals. The order is often random or completely upside down or out of order for evolution. But this would be expected in a global flood catastrophe. Fossils from the supposed different 'ages' are often found mixed together. This indicates a huge mixing of animal bones that is not consistent with a local flood.
g. Example of random mixing of fossils. In excess of 3,000,000 fossils, representing more than 565 different species have been discovered in the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California.
h. Difficult evidence to explain. In addition, in many sedimentary rock layers geologists find some very odd features. For example, fossilized trees buried at all angles, upside-down and right-side-up, often passing through multiple rock layers, obviously the result of a marine cataclysm. These "polystrate" fossils (poly, meaning more than one; strate, meaning rock layer) are a worldwide phenomenon.
5. How long does is take to form a fossil?
One proof that animals can be fossilized very quickly was found at the Green River Formation (Wyoming, USA). A fish was apparently trapped in sediment and buried while part–way through swallowing another fish. Another fossil shows a fish, which has already eaten its meal, but has not yet had a chance to digest it. This evidence proves that fossils do not take thousands or millions of years to form.
The best evidence against the idea of slow burial of fossils has always been in the many millions of well–preserved fossil fish, often showing such things as scales and fins in exquisite detail. This would prove that these fish were buried quickly before scavengers got to them. We do not observe carpets of dead fish, or even their skeletons, on the sea floor today waiting to become fossils. Also, if the sediment did not harden fairly soon after entombing the fish, oxygen and bacteria could still get at the specimens, causing decay and ruining the features.
In another example, there is an exquisitely preserved fossil of an extinct marine reptile called an ichthyosaur. The mother ichthyosaur is shown having almost completed giving birth to a live infant—the beak of the young reptile is still inside mother's birth canal. In this spectacular case, not only is the fossil exquisitely preserved, but the fact that mother and infant are 'trapped' in a not-yet-completed birth process makes it profoundly clear that both were rapidly overwhelmed by catastrophic burial, consistent with the world flood of Noah's day. It is, of course, not feasible that mother just lay on the bottom of the ocean floor giving birth for thousands of years while being slowly covered up by accumulating sediments!
6. Could the water have covered above all the mountains?
Is there enough water to cover all the earth’s pre-flood mountains in a global flood? Most people do not realize that the volume of water on earth is ten times greater than the volume of all land above sea level. If the solid earth were perfectly smooth, water depth would be 9,000 feet everywhere. For example, the Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean is 11,033 meters (36,201 feet) below sea level. If Mount Everest were placed inside of this trench, it would disappear.
At this present time 70% of the earth is covered by water. If this water could be brought to an average water level and smoothed out over the face of the Earth it would cover the earth approximately 2 miles deep. In Psalm 104:5-9, we see that after the universal flood, God caused the water to dissipate and recede by raising the mountains higher and sinking the valleys lower. God arranged the earth's topography to create deep ocean basins to displace the water.
7. Could an ark the size Noah built hold all the animals needed? The ark of Noah was 300 cubits long, 50 cubits in width, and 30 cubits high. The most important question would be how many inches in one cubit? The Babylonians had a 19.8 inch cubit, the Egyptians had a 20.65 inch cubit, the Hebrews a 20.4 inch cubit, and some cubits from other nations were as much a 24 inches. If you take a conservative estimate of 18 inches per cubit, the ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. The size and dimensions of this ship can be shown hydro-dynamically to be exceedingly stable and almost impossible to capsize.
This size of ship equals 1,518,750 cubic feet and is comparable to 569 modern railroad boxcars. Therefore each boxcar, by comparison, would be 1,518,750 ÷ 569, or 2,669 cubic feet of space. The average size of an animal on the earth is smaller than a cat. But, just to keep it safe let's consider the average size of an animal to be a sheep. The average double deck stock car holds 240 sheep. The Ark capacity would be about 569 x 240 equaling 136,560 animals of that size. However, that still is not accurate for our needs. Since most birds, reptiles, and amphibians are much smaller, let's double the boxcar capacity for them. Therefore, the boxcars could each hold 480 different kinds of birds, reptiles, and amphibians. There were three decks in the Ark of Noah (Gen. 6:16). Noah had to take two of every kind of animal on the earth and seven of the clean animals (probably used for food). Though it is not really known exactly what is meant by a biblical kind, it is generally considered to be animals that are fertile within their own groups. Any dog can breed with another dog, therefore, dogs are one kind. It would only be necessary to bring representatives of each kind since the parents could produce offspring that would carry the genetic information for all variations within their kind.
Authorities on biological taxonomy estimate there are less than 18,000 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians living in the world today. This number might be doubled to 36,000 species to allow for known and possible unknown extinct land animals. Allowing two of each species there would have been a total number of 72,000 animals. If you add 3,000 more animals for the 5 extra of the clean animals this would bring the total to 75,000 animals far less than the 136,560 animals that could have been taken on the Ark. This means that only 60% of the Ark would have been filled allowing plenty of room for Noah, his family, and all the provisions needed for their voyage.
How did Noah get all the animals into the Ark? Remember, Scripture tells us that the animals came to the ark. Noah did not have to go find them. “Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive” (Gen. 6:20).
Though this is only a brief analysis, it should present enough evidence that the Ark account is certainly very possible. This information was gathered from the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. See http://www.carm.org/questions/noahsark.htm Or consider the Institute for Creation Research web site http://www.icr.org/bible/bhta42.html and The Genesis Record by Henry Morris.
8. Population growth statistics. An analysis of population growth statistics confirms that if the flood occurred 5-6 thousand years ago it would have been entirely possible to start with eight people and come to our present population of 6 billion people. At the time of Christ = 140 million people, in the year 1000 = 280 million, in 1804 = 1 Billion, in 1927 = 2 Billion, in 1960 = 3 Billion, in 1974 = 4 Billion, in 1987 = 5 Billion, in 2000 = 6 Billion.
At our current rate of population increase of 2% per year two people could generate 3.5 billion people in only 1075 years. Since written records go back over 4,000 years, it is obvious that the average growth rate throughout past history has been considerably less than the present rate. Therefore, if the population increased at an average rate of only 1/2% you could generate the present world population in only 4000 years. It is obvious that at this slower rate of population increase of only one-fourth of the present rate of growth, if man have lived on the earth for over a million years our population should be at a minimum of 1 trillion 500 billion people. In addition, this figure is low because it does not take into account the exponential rate of growth of population.
Conclusions:
1. If a worldwide flood did occur in the past that means that God has judged the world at least once for its wickedness.
2. If God judged the world once then the Bible is true and those that mock this evidence are just like those in Noah’s day who rejected God. The scientific community is lying to the world by not revealing this evidence because it contradicts their atheism.
3. If the Bible is true on this controversial point, you should consider the rest of what Scripture has to say about the existence of God and the fact that He sent His Son to die for your sins because of His great love for you.
2. Therefore, be assured that God will keep His Word to judge the world again as He has promised. Peter declared, “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).
3. Peter’s question in the first century is very applicable today. He said, “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness” (2 Peter 3:11). The most important question is are you living a godly and holy life? This is the only person who will be saved from the judgment to come.
This study was written by Pastor Steve Carr. If we can be of any further assistance please contact us at