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Flood geology - The revival of flood geology

Flood geology - The revival of flood geology: Encyclopedia II - Flood geology - The revival of flood geology

Flood geology was revived in the 20th century by George McCready Price, a Seventh-day Adventist and amateur geologist who wrote The New Geology in 1923 to provide an explicitly Christian fundamentalist perspective on geology. His work was adapted and updated by Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb, Jr. in their book The Genesis Flood in 1961. Morris and Whitcomb argued that the Earth was geologically recent, that the Fall of Man had triggered the second law of thermodynamics, and that the Great Flood had laid down most of the g ...

Flood geology: Encyclopedia II - Flood geology - The revival of flood geology

Flood geology - The revival of flood geology

Flood geology was revived in the 20th century by George McCready Price, a Seventh-day Adventist and amateur geologist who wrote The New Geology in 1923 to provide an explicitly Christian fundamentalist perspective on geology. His work was adapted and updated by Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb, Jr. in their book The Genesis Flood in 1961. Morris and Whitcomb argued that the Earth was geologically recent, that the Fall of Man had triggered the second law of thermodynamics, and that the Great Flood had laid down most of the geological strata in the space of a single year (the same model that Buckland had decisively rejected 130 years earlier). Given this history, they argued, "the last refuge of the case for evolution immediately vanishes away, and the record of the rocks becomes a tremendous witness . . . to the holiness and justice and power of the living God of Creation!"

This became the foundation of a new generation of Young Earth creationist thinkers, who organized themselves around Morris' Institute for Creation Research. Subsequent research by the Creation Research Society has observed and analyzed, and interpreted geological formations, within a flood geology framework, including the La Brea Tar Pits[1], the Tavrick formation in the Crimean peninsula[2], and Stone Mountain, Georgia [3]. In each case, the creationists claimed that the flood geology interpretation had superior explanatory power than the uniformitarian explanation -- a claim totally rejected by mainstream proponents. The Creation Research Society argues that "uniformitarianism is wishful thinking" [4]. As Langdon Gilkey explains,

... no distinction is made between scientific theories on the one hand and philosophical or religious theories on the other, between scientific questions and the sorts of questions religious beliefs seek to answer... It is, therefore, no surprise that in their theological works, as opposed to their creation science writings, creationists regard evolution and all other theories associated with it, as the intellectual source for and intellectual justification of everything that is to them evil and destructive in modern society. For them all that is spiritually healthy and creative has been for a century or more under attack by "that most complex of godless movements spawned by the pervasive and powerful system of evolutionary uniformitarianism", "If the system of flood geology can be established on a sound scientific basis... 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, libertarianism, behaviorism, and all the rest would be deprived of their pseudo-intellectual foundation", "It [evolution] has served effectively as the pseudo-scientific basis of atheism, agnosticism, socialism, fascism, and numerous faulty and dangerous philosophies over the past century" (Gilkey, 1998, p. 35; quotations from Henry Morris).

The impact on creationism and fundamentalist Christianity of these ideas was considerable. Armed with the backing of wealthy conservative organizations and individuals, Morris' brand of flood geology was widely promoted throughout the United States and overseas, with his books being translated into Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Flood geology is still a major theme of modern creation science, though it (and creation science in general) no longer has any crossover into mainstream science.

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