Re: craters (part of YEC defined)
Massie (mrlab@ix.netcom.com)
Fri, 12 Mar 1999 20:05:36 -0800
Steven Schimmrich wrote:
>
> Paul <PHSEELY@aol.com> wrote:
>
> > Allen wrote,
> >
> >> So, when we look at the phrase 'windows of heaven' the idea of something
> >> lurking in the heavens seems appropriate. Unlike the stars and planets,
> >> asteroids are largely invisible to the naked eye, even up to the point of
> >> entry into the atmosphere, thus they could be thought of as lurking in
> >> space waiting to crash in ambush to the earth.
> >>
> >> The phrases 'the windows of heaven were opened' (7:11) and 'the windows of
> >> heaven were stopped' (8:2) could be refering to the onset and the
> >> subsequent suspension of an ambush by asteroids which had been lurking in
> >> space. And thus a possible Biblical explanation of the astroblems.
> >
> > This interpretation seems to be quite a stretch. It does not fit the
> > historical and biblical context. In the Bible "the windows of heaven" are
> > sluices in the firmament above which is an ocean. When they are opened, the
> > ocean above pours down; and when they are closed the ocean above is dammed up
> > again by the solid firmament. In the biblical context asteroids would be
> > considered stars and would be embedded on the underside of the firmament, not
> > above it in back of the sluices; so sluices would not have to be opened to
> > have them fall to earth.
>
> Young-earth creationists are required to force Scripture to fit these types of
> interpretations since they require virtually all Phanerozoic sedimentary rocks
> to have been deposited during Noah's flood and there's clear evidence of
> meteorite impacts throughout Phanerozoic time. Therefore, the Earth, in YEC
> cosmology, must have been intensively bombarded during Noah's flood. Scripture
> is then searched for justification for this idea. This belies the oft-repeated
> claim by YEC's that they are simply holding to a plain and literal reading of
> Scripture. They interpret Scripture as much as non-YEC's.
>
> - Steve.
>
> --
> Steven H. Schimmrich Assistant professor of geology
> Department of Geology and Geography sschimmr@calvin.edu (office)
> Calvin College schimmri@earthlink.net (home)
> 3201 Burton Street SE 616-957-7053, 616-957-6501 (fax)
> Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 http://home.earthlink.net/~schimmrich/
I would challenge all the YEC people to give us a back of the envelope
calculation of the energetics of all this. That is, you postulate a
great deal of very energetic processes during the 150 days or more of
the flood. This is a humongous amount of energy to be dissapated on the
absolutely shallow crust of the earth and the water. Others have of
course noted this but I have never seen a response in terms of Joules
per meter square per second divided into for example the energy per
meter square of water to evaporate the water. Lets see some numbers and
of course we need to see the same for the proposal of the plate
tectonics which are supposed to have occured in this very small time and
so forth.
We await the calculation.
Bert Massie