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There is sound, geological evidence that suggests the earth is no older than 10,000 years, according to a feature article in the June 16 issue of U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT.
John Baumgardner, acclaimed by the magazine as "… the world's pre-eminent expert in the design of computer models for geophysical convection," has designed a computer program named Terra that demonstrates the processes by which the Earth creates volcanoes, earthquakes, and the movement of the continental plates.
However, Baumgardner, described in the magazine as a "… fundamentalist Christian who believes, in accordance with the Bible, that the earth was created by God less than 10,000 years ago," designed Terra expressly to prove that the story of Noah and the flood actually happened as the Bible described it. Now, a tool that is used by geophysicists around the world tangibly demonstrates the geological validity of a global flood.
Baumgardner, who received a master's from Princeton in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. from UCLA in geophysics, suggests that when God decided to bring judgment upon the earth, He caused an enormous surge of magma to rush from the earth's core at an incredible velocity. The material ballooned close to the Earth's surface, displacing a tidal wave of seawater over the continents. After 150 days, the bubble retreated with equal speed into the Earth, and as the continents emerged, they sent the runoff back to the oceans at around 100 miles per hour.
U.S. NEWS pointed out that a very fast river with a substantial erosion capacity runs at only ten miles per hour. Baumgardner suggests that a 100 mile per hour runoff would have been sufficient to create the Grand Canyon and other massive geological features and to deposit the various sedimentary layers in about one week.
[2]Terra, when fed the proper data, viably demonstrates the various elements of the geological process that would produce such an event.
Baumgardner challenges opposing theories in several areas. Citing the inconsistencies in popular dating techniques, he says there is legitimate reason to question radiometric measurements. He also points to the differences in erosion and sedimentary patterns between various rivers, and to the discrepancies in various fossil records, as a further evidence of a global flood.
Secular geologists discount his theory, but they don't discount his qualifications, or his contributions to the study of geological transformation. Brad Hager, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology geophysicist, disagrees with Baumgardner's conclusions on a global flood, but agrees that Terra is one of the most useful and powerful tools in existence. "Baumgardner is seen as one of the world leaders in numerical models of mantle convection," he said.
Gerald Schubert of the University of California-Los Angeles Department of Earth and Space Sciences said, "As far as the code goes, Baumgardner is a world-class scientist."
And for this world class scientist, faith and science do not contradict, but rather embrace each other.
Read About It!
For additional perspectives, consider the following:
The Controversy: Roots of the Creation-Evolution Conflict
Donald E. Chittick, Multnomah
Creation and Evolution: Rethinking the Evidence from Science and the Bible
Alan Hayward, Bethany House
The Galileo Connection: Resolving Conflicts Between Science & the Bible
Charles E. Hummel, InterVarsity
The Genesis Flood
John C. Whitcomb, Jr., and Henry M. Morris, Baker
The Biblical Flood
Davis A. Young, Eerdmans
The Genesis Debate: Persistent Questions about Creation and the Flood
Ronald F. Youngblood, ed., Baker