Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
sides assumed that the best theories were those that could predict what was not yet known.
Answers to the question of how to read the land lay rooted in how to interpret physical
evidence one could bash open, kick over, or dig down into to test ideas about what should
be there. Theories could be tested against evidence.
In Sunday school I learned that Bible stories were parables to be read more for their mor-
al message than their literal words. The story of Noah's Flood taught mankind to be stew-
ards of the environment—to care for all parts of nature, even as we bent her to our desires.
Growing up, I was satisfied that Jesus taught how to live a good life and that science re-
vealed how the world worked.
Through all my schooling I never thought much about conflict between science and re-
ligion. Then, in my early thirties, I met a gregarious fundamentalist on jury duty. While I
was waiting to be called for jury selection, a middle-aged woman sitting next to me snuck a
peek at the paper I was reading and tried to strike up a conversation: “Isn't it amazing how
Mount Saint Helens shows Noah's Flood carved the Grand Canyon?”
I looked up, roused from an account of how the rivers draining the volcano's flanks
carved deep canyons into loose debris after the eruption. She continued, asking me if I re-
called how many thousand years ago Noah's Flood had reshaped the world. My raised eye-
brows and open mouth probably telegraphed my thoughts. When I told her that a global
flood was pure fiction and suggested that she might want to tack a few more zeros onto the
planet's age, she responded that only atheists believed the world was ancient. I sat there
at a loss for words—something geology professors are not generally known to be. A loud-
speaker calling her to jury service ended our awkward conversation.
My jury-duty mate is not alone in believing that Noah's Flood explains nearly all of earth
history. Her view is what geologists call “flood geology,” the resilient yet scientifically dis-
credited idea that the biblical flood remodeled the planet in one fell swoop several thou-
sand years ago. In the four hundred years since the church grounded Galileo, Christianity
has grown to accept science that disproves archaic notions about our world being the center
of the universe. Why should geological discoveries be treated any differently than those of
astronomy?
The more I looked at the history of efforts to explain Noah's Flood, the more I came to
realize that our cultural view of a centuries-long, ongoing conflict between geology and
