Evidence for the Flood
Scientists
have found the remains of a prehistoric beach. What
made this find noteworthy was that the beach was at
the bottom of the Black Sea - 550 feet beneath the
surface.
The beach
is causing scientists to consider what was
previously unthinkable: the biblical account of the
Flood is based on an actual historical event.
Geological
studies of the Black Sea basin off the coast of
Turkey led two Columbia University geologists,
William Ryan and Walter Pitman, to theorize that
they may have discovered the geological event that
spawned the flood narrative in the book of Genesis.
According
to the theory, 7,500 years ago, the Black Sea was a
freshwater lake. Then, at the end of the last Ice
Age, water levels in the Mediterranean rose.
Eventually, the water poured over the Bosporus
Strait at a volume 200 times that of Niagara Falls,
inundating an area the size of the state of Florida.
This flood created the Black Sea as we know it
today, and Pitman and Ryan believe it is the
historical basis for the biblical flood narrative.
The
National Geographic Society wanted to find out if
the geologists were correct. They approached Robert
Ballard, the oceanographer who was the first man to
explore the wreck of the “Titanic,” about leading
the expedition.
Ballard was
initially skeptical. He compared the project to, in
his words, "searching for arks on mountaintops" -
the domain of religious fanatics, not scientists.
Ballard
eventually agreed to lead the expedition. When sonar
detected the beach at the bottom of the Black Sea,
Ballard knew they were on the right track. Then,
just weeks ago, came the most exciting discovery to
date: the remains of freshwater mollusks on that
beach - proof that Pitman and Ryan were right about
a prehistoric flood.
Ballard now
plans to look for the remains of human civilization
at the bottom of the Black Sea. As Frank Hiebert,
the chief archaeologist on the project, says,
finding this kind of evidence would be “very cool.”
That's an
understatement. While the expedition can't prove or
disprove the truth of the biblical account, it is
the latest, and possibly, greatest, in a series of
scientific discoveries that are changing the way
scientists look at biblical narratives.
Sonar
detected a beach at the bottom of the Black Sea.
Until
recently, biblical narratives such as the accounts
of King David's reign and the Flood were considered
little more than legend or myth. Scientists assumed
that they had little, if any, basis in history.
But, recent
discoveries are causing archaeologists to re-examine
their assumptions about the historicity of these
narratives.
The
exciting discoveries in Turkey are yet another
reminder that Christians have nothing to fear from
archaeology or the other sciences. If, like Ballard,
scientists approach the evidence without prejudice,
they will discover that it corroborates biblical
accounts.
So, the
next time someone tells you that the Bible is
nothing more than fairy tale and myths, tell them
what Robert Ballard found at the bottom of the Black
Sea.
It's
evidence that the only thing that stands between an
archaeologist and the truth is an open mind.
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Has Evidence of Noah’s Flood been Found?
In 1929 Sir Leonard
Woolley, the famous excavator of Abraham’s
city of Ur, claimed to have found evidence
of Noah’s flood at Ur. In two different
shafts he was able to show that civilization
existed above a layer of sterile clay eight
feet deep, with evidence of earlier
civilization below the clay level. However,
the clay was found in only two of the five
shafts sunk, and Woolley himself did not
find any similar evidence at Tell Obeid,
only four miles away.
Soon after Woolley’s
discovery similar levels were found at other
sites in ancient Mesopotamia, notably at
Tell Fara which is half-way between Ur and
Babylon, and at Kish, as well as at Nineveh
to the north. The dates were different from
Woolley’s find at Ur, and so they could not
be from the same inundation. More recently
Professor M. E. L. Mallowan has suggested
that the inundation at Tell Fara might be
the Biblical flood, and that the findings at
Kish could relate to the same disaster.
However, the evidence is inconclusive. |
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