Re: Cobb County--George Murphy and heresy, related matters

Ted wrote, in small part:
This summer, I'm supposed to speak on Creationist hermeneutics at a
conference in Ontario. Here's the details.
http://cs.redeemer.on.ca/pascal/
I haven't written anything about this yet, but I've been thinking hard
about it and would be happy to have people help me out with any
comments/suggestions they have.
 
Ted,
A few things came to mind about the false exegesis (or eisegesis) of the
gang. They insist that "after its [their] kind" refers to generation only
within species, when the use in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 show that
the phrase means "every kind of." However, they ran into a problem with
the capacity of the Ark. It appears to me that the original computations
of capacity took the volume and number involved in railroad cattle cars
and extrapolated the numbers to the Ark's cubic capacity. Then it came
out that cattle cars can be pulled onto a siding to feed and water the
animals, whereas the Ark had to be self-sustaining for the entire period.
Thereupon they decided that only a pair from each genus or family had to
be saved. This requires that between the Flood (~2400 B.C.) and Jacob
(~1750 B.C.), the ass (Genesis 12:16; 22:3; 30:43) and horse (47:17;
49:17) had differentiated. That is speedy evolution.

Morris has insisted that the human population could not have existed for
a long time because it doubles about every 130 years. From the Flood to
Abraham (~1900 B.C.) is about 500 years. That gives about 4 doublings of
the 8 persons aboard the Ark, or a total population of about 64. Since
Babel was earlier, perhaps every person went off speaking a different
language.

I note that the biblical genealogies are supposed to be complete enough
to give an accurate measure of the length of the entire period. Therefore
any measure by means of radioactivity or tree rings is in error. I recall
a paper on the bristlecone pines that claimed that there were some years
that produced double rings because the count went beyond some 4500. I
believe the count has since been extended, so some years must have three
rings.

"Firmament" is supposedly the atmosphere, except when it refers to space.
But the root notion is "beaten out," which cannot be done with air, let
along space. The sun, moon and stars are apparently stuck onto the
firmament (1:17), but birds fly "in the face of" the firmament (v. 20),
that is, in front of or below it. The only birds I can think of that fly
below the atmosphere are penguins and cormorants.

The traditional view among Creationists was that the waters above the
firmament (1:6, 7) were a canopy. This was originally supposed to be ice,
but that would have been destroyed by gravity. (Can't recall the name of
the limit involved.) Then it was vapor, which Glenn Morton showed would
have produced oven-like temperatures on earth.

The two creation stories, Genesis 1-2:4 and 2:4ff raise problems, for
they do not agree. Adam had to be created and instructed, name all the
animals, and take a nap so Eve could be constructed approximately from
dawn to a little before twilight the same day.

Another problem with the Flood is getting koalas from Ararat to Australia
without eucalyptus trees all the way, but with some fairly wide straits
en route no matter the sea level.

I recently encountered a claim that the Flood was caused by the eruption
of the deep, a layer of water about a half mile thick ten miles below the
aboriginal surface of the earth. At that depth, I figure the temperature
would be about 500 degrees F, cooking everything on the surface. That
problem was solved by declaring that God didn't let the subterranean
temperature be that high back then. I think there's another explanation
that was not given. It was so soon after creation that the heat from the
fires of hell in the center of the earth had not yet reached the upper
levels. I think that hell fire is a cooler explanation than miracle.

I'm sure there are other matters that can be added, but I don't think of
them at the moment. What I wonder is whether the material can be
presented without making it seem like a joke.
Dave
Received on Fri Jan 21 22:35:22 2005