Rejecting the Biblical Flood Led to Wrong Explanation of Ice-Age Lakes, Nature Admits

Drumheller Channels. Image courtesy of Woofles, Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).




Joel Kontinen

A letter published in Nature acknowledges that rejecting the Genesis Flood was the reason why geologists came up with an incorrect explanation of ice age lakes:

”When the geologist J Harlen Bretz proposed in the 1920s that the Channeled Scablands were created by a catastrophic flood, his ideas were attacked relentlessly by geologists who subscribed to the mainstream view that erosion is slow and steady, and who wanted to distance their profession from the notion of a biblical deluge.”

While Lake Missoula was an ice age and hence post-Flood event, for several decades uniformitarian scientists were unwilling to accept anything that might resemble the biblical Flood.

The tide has turned and catastrophes are no longer dismissed – they are actually welcomed, especially on Mars, where they desperately need evidence of a watery past.

Here on Earth, the evidence for a global flood is stagerring, Only blind faith enables one to miss it.



Source:

Perron, J. Taylor and Jeremy G. Venditti. 2016. Earth science: Megafloods downsized. Nature 538, 174–175.

Lake Missoula: Rapid Flood, Huge Geological Formations

Fast formations. Image courtesy of Jina Lee, Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

Seeing is not always believing. A DVD produced by Creation Ministries International and featuring meteorologist Michael Oard tells the story of what happened when evidence seemed to support a watery cataclysm resembling the one described in Genesis:

“In the 1920's J. Harland Bretz, a secular geologist proposed to his colleagues evidence for a massive Flood across eastern Washington. He was rejected by the scientific community because what was proposing was too close to a catastrophic event with many characteristics closely described in the Bible.”

So for forty years during the heydays of uniformitarianism or slow gradual processes, they pretended that the evidence was not there, but it eventually became obvious that rapid cataclysms can and do produce major geological features.

Lake Missoula shows that even post-Flood cataclysms can form major geological features almost instantly. Millions of years are not needed.

Brainwashed to Believe in Slow Processes?

Derek Ager (1923-1993) was sceptical of Charles Lyell (pictured above). Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

Derek Ager, a British palaeontologist and geology professor, was no friend of creation, but he said some honest words about uniformitarianism, the geological view of slow gradual processes that prompted Charles Darwin to propose the theory of evolution:

“Just as politicians rewrite human history, so geologists rewrite earth history. For a century and a half the geological world has been dominated, one might even say brain-washed, by the gradualistic uniformitarianism of Charles Lyell. Any suggestion of “catastrophic” events has been rejected as old-fashioned, unscientific and even laughable.”

Yet, without uniformitarianism we would not have Darwinism.

Source:

Ager, Derek. 1993. The New Catastrophism: The Importance of The Rare Event in Geological History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Were geologists brainwashed to accept slow uniformitarian processes?

Some geologists have severely criticised Charles Lyell’s uniformitarian views. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

Without the writings of Charles Lyell, the views of his friend Charles Darwin might never have become popular. However, geology has subsequently rejected strict uniformitarianism. The late British geologist Derek Ager, who was no friend of creation, wrote in 1993:

“Just as politicians rewrite human history, so geologists rewrite earth history. For a century and a half the geological world has been dominated, one might even say brain-washed, by the gradualistic uniformitarianism of Charles Lyell. Any suggestion of 'catastrophic' events has been rejected as old-fashioned, unscientific and even laughable.”

Ager emphasised the significance of catastrophes in geology.

In 1980 the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens was an excellent illustration of rapid canyon formation. It only took a few hours to produce formations that look as though they are millions of years old.

Source:

Ager, Derek. 1993. The New Catastrophism: The importance of The Rare Event in Geological History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.