{"id":32362,"date":"2022-09-10T16:06:37","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/ancient-extinction-climate-change-or-noahs-flood\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:06:37","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:06:37","slug":"ancient-extinction-climate-change-or-noahs-flood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/ancient-extinction-climate-change-or-noahs-flood\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Extinction: Climate Change or Noah\u2019s Flood?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Noah\u2019s Flood (depicted at Answers in Genesis\u2019 Ark Encounter theme park) is a better explanation of an ancient mass extinction than global warming, says an evangelical paleontologist. Photo from ArkEncounter.com<\/div>\n

By David Roach<\/p>\n

Research published in the journal Science<\/em> ties an ancient mass extinction to global warming and predicts a similar doomsday scenario for modern humans if they don\u2019t curb climate change.<\/p>\n

But an evangelical paleontologist says the data researchers examined actually evidences Noah’s flood.<\/p>\n

There was an ancient mass extinction, said Kurt Wise, a paleontologist who teaches at Truett McConnell University in Cleveland, Georgia. \u201cBut it was not only millions of times worse and quicker than (secular researchers) have modeled, it was an event God promised never to repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fossil records under consideration \u201cdo not in any way carry a warning about global warming, but they do carry a warning about forgetting God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers at the University of Washington and Stanford University used a computer model in an attempt to establish the cause of a mass extinction indicated in the fossil record and dated by secular scientists at some 252 million years ago.<\/p>\n

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The computer model hypothesized that volcanic eruptions flooded the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, which trapped heat and consequently warmed the oceans. Warmer oceans meant less oxygen in the water, and many species went extinct as a result, according to a December 7 article in Science<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Analysis of an online database of fossils allegedly confirmed the computer model, wrote authors Justin Penn, Curtis Deutsch, Jonathan Payne and Erik Sperling.<\/p>\n

The computer model also suggested doom in humanity’s future, the researchers wrote, if climate change continues at its present rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cPredicted patterns of future ocean O2 loss under climate change are broadly similar to those simulated here,” they wrote. \u201c… These projections highlight the potential for a future mass extinction arising from the depletion of the ocean\u2019s aerobic capacity that is already under way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wise, however, said the fossil layer dated by the Science authors at 252 million years ago actually was \u201claid down across this planet in a few days about 4,500 years ago during the flood in the days of Noah,\u201d described in Genesis 6-9.<\/p>\n

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The flood first \u201cwiped out most of the species of the pre-flood seas,\u201d Wise told Baptist Press<\/em> in written comments, then began “burying animals on the land.\u201d At the same time, \u201chuge outpourings of lava were warming the waters of the flood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid such events, \u201cradiometric decay was occurring millions of times faster than it’s occurring today,\u201d said Wise, a Harvard-trained paleontologist.<\/p>\n

Radiometric decay is the process by which radioactive isotopes lose energy in geologic and archaeological materials. Scientists attempt to date specimens by determining the proportions within them of radioactive isotopes and the products of their decay, then comparing that with the known rate of decay.<\/p>\n

Because scientists without a Christian worldview assume radiometric decay always has occurred at the same rate, Wise said, their use of radiometric dating wrongly concludes sediments from Noah\u2019s time \u201cwere laid down a quarter billion years ago, over the course of millions of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wise agreed with the Science authors that life was \u201csnuffed out\u201d and global warming occurred in the process. But humans should not worry about such global warming repeating, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rainbow reminds us of God’s promise never again to destroy the world with a flood,\u201d Wise said. \u201cHowever, it is also a reminder that God judges sin, and He will again destroy the world because of human sin\u2014although this time He will destroy it by fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story originally appeared on <\/em>Baptist Press (http:\/\/www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.<\/em><\/p>\n

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David Roach<\/h2>\n

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David is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press, the Southern Baptist Convention’s news service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n