Academic scholars and researchers consider the story in its present form to be exaggerated and/or implausible. The story of the Deluge describes either a severe
genetic bottleneck event or the origins of a
founder effect among the descendants of the survivors, in that the survivors are related. There is no evidence of such a severe genetic bottleneck at that period of time (~2,500 BC) either among humans or other animal species; however, if the flood narrative is derived from a more localized event and describes a founder effect among one population of humans, certain explanations such as the events described by the
Black Sea deluge hypothesis may elaborate on the historicity of the flood narrative. Localized catastrophic floodings have left traces in the geological record: the
Channeled Scablands in the southeastern areas of the state of Washington have been demonstrated to have been formed by a
series of catastrophic floods originating from the collapse of glacial dams of glacial lakes in the region, the last of which has been estimated to have occurred between 18,200 and 14,000 years ago. Another geologic feature believed to have been formed by massive catastrophic flooding is the
Tsangpo Gorge in
Tibet. As with the Channeled Scablands of the state of Washington, breakthroughs of glacial ice dams are believed to have unleashed massive and sudden torrents of water to form the gorge some time between 600 and 900 AD. with the Biblical flood myth. The current understanding of the prehistoric
cataclysmic flooding from the Altai Mountains is that several
glacial lake outburst floods from the Altai Mountains caused massive flooding along the
Katun River (in the present-day
Altai Republic) some time between 12000 BC and 9000 BC, as demonstrated by the fact that much of the gravel deposited along the Katun valley lacks a stratigraphic structure, instead showing characteristics of a deposition directly after suspension in a turbulent flow. Whilst the tsunami is not identified with the Biblical flood, it is believed to contribute to the flood myths found in numerous cultures.
Flood geology The development of scientific geology had a profound impact on attitudes towards the biblical flood narrative by undermining the
biblical chronology, which placed the Creation and the flood no more than a few thousand years back in history. In 1823 the English theologian and natural scientist
William Buckland interpreted geological phenomena as
Reliquiæ Diluvianæ (relics of the flood) "Attesting the Action of an Universal Deluge". His views were supported by others at the time, including the influential geologist
Adam Sedgwick, but by 1830 Sedgwick considered that the evidence suggested only local floods.
Louis Agassiz subsequently explained such deposits as the results of
glaciation. In 1862, William Thomson (later to become
Lord Kelvin) calculated the
age of the Earth at between 24 million and 400 million years, and for the remainder of the 19th century, discussion focused not on the viability of this theory of
deep time, but on the derivation of a more precise figure for the age of the Earth.
Lux Mundi, an 1889 volume of theological essays which marks a stage in the acceptance of a more critical approach to scripture, took the stance that readers should rely on the
gospels as completely historical, but should not take the earlier chapters of Genesis literally. By a variety of independent means, scientists have since determined that the Earth is approximately
4.54 billion years old.
Flood geology (a
pseudoscience which contradicts a number of principles and discoveries of fact in the fields of geology, stratigraphy, geophysics, physics, paleontology, biology, anthropology, and archaeology in an attempt to interpret and reconcile geological features on Earth in accordance with a literal understanding of the Genesis flood narrative) can be traced to "
Scriptural geologists," a heterogeneous group of writers from the early 19th century, most of whom lacked any background in geology and also lacked influence even in religious circles. The geologic views of these writers were ignored by the scientific community of their time. Flood geology was largely ignored in the 19th century, but was revived in the 20th century by the
Seventh-day Adventist George McCready Price, who was inspired by the visions of
Ellen G. White. As Price's career progressed, he gained attention outside of Seventh-day Adventist groups, and by 1929 he was a popular scientific author among
Christian fundamentalists, though those who were not Seventh-day Adventists rejected his
young Earth theories. Through the middle of the 20th century, despite debates between Protestant Christian scientists, Most scientific fields, particularly those contradicted by flood geology, rely on
Charles Lyell's established principle of
uniformitarianism, which for much of their history was seen to contrast with the
catastrophism inherent in flood geology. However, with the discovery of evidence for some catastrophic events, events similar to those on which the flood narrative may be based are accepted as possible within an overall uniformitarian framework. In relation to geological forces, uniformitarianism explains the formation of the Earth's features by means of mostly slow-acting forces seen in operation today.
Species distribution By the 17th century, believers in the Genesis account faced the issue of reconciling the exploration of the
New World and increased awareness of the
global distribution of species with the older scenario whereby all life had sprung from a single point of origin on the slopes of
Mount Ararat. The obvious answer involved mankind spreading over the continents following the destruction of the
Tower of Babel and taking animals along, yet some of the results seemed peculiar. In 1646 Sir
Thomas Browne wondered why the natives of North America had taken
rattlesnakes with them, but not horses: "How America abounded with Beasts of prey and noxious Animals, yet contained not in that necessary Creature, a Horse, is very strange". Browne, among the first to question the notion of
spontaneous generation, was a medical doctor and amateur scientist making this observation in passing. However, biblical scholars of the time, such as
Justus Lipsius (1547–1606) and
Athanasius Kircher (c. 1601–1680), had also begun to subject the Ark story to rigorous scrutiny as they attempted to harmonize the biblical account with the growing body of
natural historical knowledge. The resulting hypotheses provided an important impetus to the study of the geographical distribution of plants and animals, and indirectly spurred the emergence of
biogeography in the 18th century. Natural historians began to draw connections between climates and the animals and plants adapted to them. One influential theory held that the biblical Ararat was striped with varying climatic zones, and as climate changed, the associated animals moved as well, eventually spreading to repopulate the globe. There was also the problem of an
ever-expanding number of known species: for Kircher and earlier natural historians, there was little problem finding room for all known animal species in the Ark. Less than a century later, discoveries of new species made it increasingly difficult to justify a literal interpretation for the Ark story. By the middle of the 18th century, only a few natural historians accepted a literal interpretation of the narrative. ==See also==