Creationism & Flood Geology
Understanding the Flood
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This is one of the reasons why the Flood story in Genesis plays such a central role in the arguments of Scientific Creationists. It isn't simply a means of demonstrating that Creationism can be scientific; rather, it is also a means for undermining evolution. As Henry M. Morris explains in his 1974 book Scientific Creationism:
The Genesis Flood is the real crux of the conflict between the evolutionist and creationist cosmologies. If the system of flood geology can be established on a sound scientific basis, and be effectively promoted and publicized, then the entire evolutionary cosmology, at least in its present neo-Darwinian form, will collapse. This, in turn, would mean that every anti-Christian system and movement (communism, racism, humanism, libertinism, behaviorism, and all the rest) would be deprived of their pseudo-intellectual foundation.
The person most responsible for the development of Flood Geology as a central doctrine in Scientific Creationism was George McCready Price, a Seventh-Day Adventist. Price's 1902 text Outlines of Modern Christianity and Modern Science was the first effort to harmonize a completely literal reading of Genesis with scientific investigation of geology and nature.
According to Price's analysis, geologists dated the age of rock layers based upon which fossils were present; however, those fossils were themselves dated based upon which rock layers they were found in. This is a circular process, and Price argued that it was therefore impossible to prove which fossil is older and which is younger.
During the early days of the 20th century when he was first promoting his ideas, Price found few converts outside of his church. As a matter of fact, for a long time Flood Geology was automatically discredited among many creationists precisely because of its origins in Seventh-Day Adventism. A primary reason for this was that the Adventists were premillennialists who expected an immanent return of Jesus Christ and were dependent upon a very literalistic reading of the Bible in order to develop that doctrine.
Until the late 19th and early 20th century, most Christians were not premillennialists and did require the Bible to be read so literally; thus, groups like the Adventists were considered theologically suspect. Once Christians in America made the theological shift to premillennialism, however, literal readings of the Bible became more mainstream and the Young Earth Creationism which depended upon it slowly gained ground.
It would not be until the 1960s when Morris and Whitcomb wrote their influential book Genesis Flood and founded the Creation Research Society did Price's ideas about geology become dominant among most fundamentalists. They were successful because their work provided a synthesis of the biblical text and scientific data which others had thus far not managed. Their work played a major role in helping cause the final shift of creationism in the United States from being predominantly Old Earth Creationism to the more extreme Young Earth Creationism.
Lance F. contributed information for this FAQ entry.
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