Ken Ham Hits Back at Christian Geologist Who Lists 21 Reasons Why Noah's Flood Never Happened
Young Earth Creationist and Answers in Genesis President Ken Ham has slammed an article by a Christian geologist who has listed 21 reasons why he thinks Noah's worldwide flood account in the Bible never happened.
Ham said Monday on Facebook that the article, "Twenty-One Reasons Noah's Worldwide Flood Never Happened," is "sad," because it's not only wrong, but also because the author, Lorence G. Collins, is a professing Christian.
Ham, who's also the president of the Ark Encounter attraction in Kentucky, takes aim at the claims made in the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry article, published in the March/April issue, which suggests that Creationists are "less imbued with scientific thinking."
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"Many Creationists love science, of course, and are quite knowledgeable," Ham insisted, before listing the credentials of several scientists working at AiG.
"Now, we're used to hearing false claims like that. What made me sad was that Collins was specifically writing this article to give Skeptical Inquirer magazine readers counter-arguments to use against Christians. And who are the readers of this magazine? Most are skeptics and atheists!" Ham continued.
"A professing believer (who claims on his website that he has 'sought to bring people to Christ') is trying to equip unbelievers to tear down the faith of believers! Ultimately, he is helping atheists attack God's Word and the Christian faith. I would not want to be in his shoes standing before our holy God — he will give an account one day," he added.
The 21 reasons Collins lists for not believing in the worldwide flood account in Genesis, he said, are based on geological arguments having to do with sedimentary deposits and the age of the Earth.
"The stair-stepped appearance of erosion of sedimentary rocks in the Grand Canyon with sandstones and limestones forming cliffs and shales forming gentle slopes cannot happen if all these rocks were deposited in less than one year," the geologist writes, listing his first reason for doubting the account.
"If the Grand Canyon had been carved soon after these rocks were deposited by a worldwide flood, they would not have had time to harden into solid rock and would have been saturated with water. Therefore, the sandstones and limestones would have slumped during the carving of the canyon and would not have formed cliffs," he continues.
Andrew Snelling, a geologist and the head of AiG's research department, discussed Collins' claims in an AiG video published on Monday.
In the video, Ham summarizes Collins' main argument against the flood as "it could never happen, because it takes millions of years for layers to be laid down."
Snelling adds: "He's looking at the present. The Apostle Peter warned us that in the last days there would come scoffers who will laugh at the idea of the flood, because they say things always continue the way they are happening today, and that is the prevailing philosophy in all of modern science, that the present is the key to the past.
"We don't see a global flood happening today, so we would have never seen one in the past. Well, how do they know? They weren't there in the past," the AiG geologist continues.
"We need an eye-witness who was there to tell (the story), and a reliable witness," Snelling says, noting that Collins' authority should be God's Word.
Ham wrote in the AiG article that believers are "commanded to tear down arguments that are against the knowledge of Christ and make our thoughts obedient to him (2 Corinthians 10:5)."
"Collins certainly isn't doing that when it comes to origins. Instead, he's taking man's ideas and reinterpreting God's Word in light of them. No longer is God the authority — instead Collins has made evolution-believing scientists and their interpretation of the evidence (and thus, even himself) the authority," he argues.
Other Christian organizations, such as BioLogos, which affirms evolutionary Creation, have argued that modern science does indeed challenge an interpretation of the Bible that presents the flood is an actual worldwide event.
"The scientific and historical evidence is now clear: there has never been a global flood that covered the entire Earth, nor do all modern animals and humans descend from the passengers of a single vessel," the group has said, arguing that many Christian scholars and scientists have reached such a conclusion.
