The Genesis Flood
OCLC 9199761 | |
The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and its Scientific Implications is a 1961 book by
Background
By the late nineteenth century, geologists, physicists and biologists agreed that the
Origins
By the 1950s, most evangelical scientists scorned flood geology, and those who accepted the theory were increasingly marginalized within the American Scientific Affiliation (founded 1941), an evangelical organization that gradually shifted from strict creationism to progressive creationism and theistic evolution.[5] In 1954, Bernard Ramm, an evangelical apologist and theologian closely associated with the ASA, published The Christian View of Science and Scripture, which attacked the notion that "biblical inspiration implied that the Bible was a reliable source of scientific data."[6] Ramm ridiculed both flood geology and the gap theory, and one ASA member credited Ramm with providing a way for a majority of Christian biologists to accept evolution.[7]
Ramm's book sparked a young Bible teacher and seminarian,
Berated almost from the beginning of his project by influential evangelicals such as
As the manuscript neared completion,
Contents
After opening with the declaration that "the Bible is the infallible Word of God,"[14] Whitcomb's section provides biblical arguments for a universal flood[15] as well as attempting to refute non-geological difficulties with the biblical account.[16] Whitcomb specifically addresses the local flood theories of Bernard Ramm—who has far more entries in the index than anyone else.[17] Whitcomb concludes his section of the work with a review of how geological theories had influenced Christian views of the Flood since the beginning of the nineteenth century and draws the "one vitally important lesson," that the biblical doctrine of the Flood cannot be harmonized with "uniformitarian theories."[18]
Morris introduces his section on geology with the frank statement that Bible-believing Christians face "a serious dilemma" because contemporary geologists present "an almost unanimous verdict" against the biblical account of creation and the Flood. Nevertheless, Morris assures believers that "evidences of full divine inspiration of Scripture are far weightier than the evidences for any fact of science."
Reception
Several dozen Christian magazines reviewed the book and generally praised its defense of the scriptural account of the Flood, although few seemed to understand that accepting Whitcomb and Morris meant rejecting the day-age and gap theories.
Outside fundamentalist circles The Genesis Flood created "hardly a ripple of recognition."[26] Its release went unnoted by professional geology journals and periodicals covered by Book Review Digest. In a talk given to the large Houston Geological Society, Morris received a whimsical introduction by the president that fell well short of praise for his work. His call for questions at the conclusion of his talk produced none; one member said the audience was "too stunned to speak."[27]
Scientists generally regard the book as a religious apologetic rather than a research document. The Geology Department of
Whitcomb and Morris "attributed the impasse between themselves and their critics to competing cosmologies"[32] and argued that the term science could refer only to "present and reproducible phenomena", not to observations made about past events.[32] Morris filled out his own cosmology a bit further in The Remarkable Birth of Planet Earth (1972), saying that the craters of the moon were probably caused by a cosmic battle between the forces of Satan and the armies of the archangel Michael.[33] In defense of their work, Whitcomb and Morris noted that the founders of modern geological science were, like them, non-specialists: Charles Lyell (a lawyer), William Smith (a surveyor), James Hutton (a doctor and gentleman farmer), John Playfair (a mathematician), as well as a number of clergymen.
Cultural importance
Historian of Science Michael D. Gordin has called The Genesis Flood "one of postwar America's most culturally significant works about the natural world. It was read by hundreds of thousands, spawned its own research institutes, and remains absolutely rejected by every mainstream biologist and geologist."
Publication changed the lives of both authors. Morris especially was deluged with speaking invitations,[39] and his notoriety became an embarrassment to Virginia Tech.[40] In 1963, Morris became a founder of the Creation Research Society and then, in 1970, the Institute for Creation Research. He wrote many more books devoted to young-earth creationism.[41]
During the late twentieth century, young-earth creationism sparked by The Genesis Flood was regularly featured on
See also
- Creation–evolution controversy
- Deluge (mythology)
- Noah's Ark
Notes
- ^ Numbers(2006), 329
- ^ Numbers(2006), 7.
- Scopes Trial fame, believed that the days of Genesis were geological ages and even "allowed for the possibility of organic evolution—so long as it did not impinge on the supernatural origin of Adam and Eve." Harry Rimmer, the best-known creationist before World War II, asserted that millions of years might be accommodated in the hypothetical "gap" of Genesis1.
- ^ Numbers(2006), 8, 223, 241, 260; Barry Hankins, American Evangelicals: A Contemporary History of a Mainstream Religious Movement (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008):"the Religious and Science Association and the Deluge Geology Society were part of the bitter fundamentalist battle that took place in theological circles as well....These organizations were often top heavy with Seventh-day Adventists, and the fighting often pitted the Adventists against fundamentalists who thought Adventism was cultish with its reverence for prophet Ellen White." (72-73)
To Seventh-day Adventists, "the saints who greeted Christ as his Second Coming would be observing the seventh-day Sabbath in harmony with the Fourth Commandment....The Sabbath doctrine seemed to demand a literal creation week, for as Price cogently argued, if a person does not believe that there ever was a real Creation at some definite time in the past, how can we expect him to observe the Sabbath as a memorial of that event, which in his view never occurred?'" Numbers (2006), 104. - ^ Numbers(2006), 180-81, 191
- ^ Numbers(2006), 208-09. The book was considered a model of new evangelical thought, and in 1954—just as the split between evangelicals and fundamentalists was taking place—evangelist Billy Graham called for a view of biblical inspiration "along the line of the recent book by Bernard Ramm." (209)
- ^ Numbers(2006), 211. The same ASA member found it curious though that Ramm "stopped short of going through that door himself."
- ^ John Whitcomb, "The History and Impact of the Book, 'The Genesis Flood'"; Numbers(2006), 208-13.
- ^ Numbers(2006), 213. Carnell denounced even the notion of asking evangelical leaders about their beliefs concerning creation and the Flood.
- ^ Numbers(2006), 215. The eccentric creationist and fruit farmer Dudley Joseph Whitney complained, "Why, why, why, should the saints be so prone to take positions which discredit the Bible?"
- ^ Numbers(2006), 222
- ^ Numbers(2006), 224.
- Baker Book House.
- ^ Whitcomb and Morris, 1.
- uniformitarianskeptics in the last days." Whitcomb and Morris, 33-34.
- ^ These included the possibility of taking the Bible metaphorically, the argument that the Ark was too small to contain examples of all the world's animals, and that the animals could not have distributed themselves over the earth so quickly after the Flood. Whitcomb and Morris, 86-88.
- ^ Numbers(2006), 226. There are forty references to Ramm in the index.
- ^ Whitcomb and Morris, 113-14.
- ^ Whitcomb and Morris, 117-18.
- ^ Whitcomb and Morris, 327.
- ^ Numbers(2006), 227. In the first two editions Whitcomb and Morris also claimed evidence for dinosaur and human footprints side-by-side in the Paluxy River bed, some examples of which were produced by a Depression-era hoaxer. In the third printing, "they silently revised the text."(228) The Institute for Creation Research, though admitting the problems, has not quite given up on the Paluxy footprints. "The Paluxy River Tracks", (1976) Institute for Creation Research, (accessed January 05, 2009).
- ^ Whitcomb and Morris, 328-330.
- ^ Whitcomb and Morris, 331-453.
- ^ Numbers(2006), 230; Donald C. Boardman, "Review," Christianity Today (September 11, 1961), 39-40
- ^ Numbers(2006), 231-33; J. R. van de Fliert, "Fundamentalism and the Fundamentals of Geology," Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, 21 (September 1969): 69-81. Archived 2003-08-16 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Numbers(2006), 235.
- ^ Numbers(2006), 236.
- ^ "Department of Geosciences". 16 June 2023.
- ISBN 0-939873-52-4.
- ^ a b "Quotations and Misquotations:Classic example from The Genesis Flood". talk.origins. February 7, 2002. Retrieved 2007-01-19.
- ^ a b c Solum, John (February 7, 2002). "Thrust faults". talk.origins. Retrieved 2007-01-19.
- ^ a b Numbers(2006), 233.
- ^ Henry M. Morris, The Remarkable Birth of Planet Earth (San Diego, CA: Creation Life Publishers, 1972 and 1978), 66-67.
- ^ Michael D. Gordin, The PseudoScience Wars: Immanuel Velikovsky and the Birth of the Modern Fringe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), 135.
- ^ Arthur McCalla, The Creationist Debate: The Encounter Between the Bible and the Historical Mind (London: Continuum International, 2006), 172.
- ^ Numbers(2006), 234. By 2011, the book had sold 300,000 copies in 48 printings and had been translated into German, Korean, Serbian and Spanish. Paul J. Scharf, "The Genesis Flood, Tidal Wave of Change," Archived 2010-11-30 at the Wayback Machine Baptist Bulletin (July 2010).
- ^ Davis A. Young & Ralph F. Stearley, The Bible, Rocks and Time (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 2008), 157-58.
- ^ McCalla, 173.
- ^ Numbers (2006), 234-35. Numbers calls this section of his chapter on The Genesis Flood, "The Fruits of Fame."
- ^ John D. Morris, "The Creation Movement's First Foundation," Acts & Facts [Institute for Creation Research], (February 2011), 9. Morris' son recalled that when Morris resigned to form the Institute for Creation Research, "his faculty colleagues held a cocktail party to celebrate."
- Southern Baptist minister in Blacksburg, Virginiaand was virtually forced out of his teaching position at Virginia Tech.
- ^ Young & Stearley, 160.
- ^ Young & Stearley, 160-61. Young and Stearley nevertheless consider the claims of these young-earth creationists to be without "scientific credibility" and a blight on the church, which "ought to be committed to truth and reality."
- ^ Henry Morris obituary, Baptist Press News Archived 2008-02-06 at the Wayback Machine
References
- ISBN 0-674-02339-0.
- Witham, Larry (2002). Where Darwin Meets the Bible. Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515045-7.