Post by 1dell on Apr 26, 2004 11:42:01 GMT -5
by Guy Cramer
Genesis 1:2
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Earth's oldest known crystal, a grain of zircon found in the Australian Outback has been dated to about 4.4 billion years old. Most geologists believed that the early Earth surface was a molten mass for the first few hundred million years. The Zircon tells a different story as it was formed just 160 million years after the Earth itself, which indicates the planet cooled and hardened much more rapidly than had been expected.
The ratio of the rare Oxygen-18 to ordinary Oxygen-16 within the Zircon was higher than the ratio found in the Earth's mantle indicating the Zircon formed within rock on the surface, submerged in water, which means oceans had formed earlier than ever expected, more than 4 billion years ago. This early ocean also allows for life to begin at a much earlier time than previously thought. 1
The Second verse of Genesis was considered erroneous by many geologists until this Zircon finding. Genesis 1:2 describes an early earth with a plain surface, covered by lots of water, with an thick atmosphere blocking the sun, moon and stars causing perpetual darkness on the surface of the water.
While Genesis 2 confirms our early geology, Genesis 1:1 speaks about the physics of the universe:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
It speaks of a beginning of the universe and not an infinite timeline, we have recently learned through science that the universe started from the big bang.
In the beginning (time) God created the heavens (space) and earth (matter).
Our universe consists of: Time, Space and Matter
Now Zircon confirms the geology of Early Earth described in Genesis 2.
I did a paper earlier this year #Y131 which indicates that the birds of Genesis 1:20 were in fact early flightless yet feathered dinosaurs. Now a fossil of a relative of the Velociraptor dinosaur has been discovered covered with feathers. Birds are more closely related to dinosaurs than lizards or other reptiles, under modern classification birds are in fact dinosaurs. 2
In Paper #Y120 we discussed recent anomalies with genetic dating of for the start of humankind
Both Y-chromosome and mitochondrial studies indicate that we have one common ancestor on the male side and one common ancestor on the female side. But when all of the data was put together the researchers were perplexed to find that the data from male Y-chromosome studies could only be dated back a short period but the data for female mitochondrial studies could be traced back to further ancient dates.
Again these findings agree with the Biblical Flood account, a significant time difference between the common female ancestor of all women, Eve, and the common male ancestor of all men, Noah.
So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. (Genesis 7:7) NKJV
Noah had no daughters, so his wife and the wives of his sons would still show and pass on the genetic differences between the four women from the time of Eve. However, all male humans will only show the changes from the time of Noah in their Y-chromosome. None of his sons would have any Y-chromosome changes from there father and with no other men on the ark, the human male can now only be dated back to Noah, not all the way to Adam. 3
NASA astronomer Robert Jastrow, a professed agnostic, expresses the implications of recent scientific discoveries:
"For the scientist who has lived by faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."4
Four items in Genesis have been mentioned here: Genesis 1:1, 1:2, 1:20 and the story of Noah's flood and genetic diversity between men and women but science has only discovered these descriptions were accurate once we understood the big bang, Zircon Oxygen ratios, feathered dinosaurs and chromosome studies, all discoveries made within the last 50 years.
I could point out many more truths in Genesis such as the steps of creation of life follows the correct order we find in the fossil record, the appearance of the stars, sun and moon are in the correct order only when viewed from the perspective of Genesis 1:2 under the dirty atmosphere and not from outer space looking down at the earth, however, these items and others can wait for a future paper.
With all these truths in Genesis, can you be so sure that the entire Bible is not fiction as many claim, might the rest of the Bible also be fact? Your existence after this mortal life depends on your faith in this matter and for some people such as myself evidences are necessary to take the final leap of faith