Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
12
Phantom Deluge
I
HAVE OFTEN WONDERED
how creationists could reject a whole series of independent scientif-
ic advances, from the coherent order of species in the fossil record to radiometric dating and
plate tectonics. Even more curious is how they reject science even when it appears to support
the historical veracity of scripture. The key to understanding modern creationist thinking lies
in understanding the influence of John Whitcomb and Henry Morris. Shocked by what they
saw as the bending of God's Word to the whims of science, these two men wrote the topic
that launched the modern revival of young-Earth creationism.
In 1948, Whitcomb was a Princeton ancient and European history major who converted
to evangelical Christianity in his freshman year. Following graduation, Whitcomb enrolled
in Grace Theological Seminary, a fundamentalist school in Winona Lake, Indiana, where he
later taught the Old Testament and Hebrew. This combative young Bible teacher, the son of
General Patton's chief of staff, considered endorsement of an old Earth and a local Flood to
be an abominable folly rooted in uncritical acceptance of uniformitarian geology.
Raised Southern Baptist, Morris drifted into religious indifference in his undergraduate
years. After a period of intense soul-searching following graduation, he rejected evolution
and embraced a literal six-day creation. Not letting this interfere with pursuing his worldly
interests, he went on to earn a PhD in hydraulic engineering from the University of Min-
nesota. A successful academic, he eventually headed the civil engineering program at Vir-
ginia Polytechnic Institute.
This unique pair, an Old Testament theologian and a hydraulic engineer, met in the sum-
mer of 1953 at the annual American Scientific Affiliation convention. Whitcomb attended
