The direct correlation between biblical catastrophic events and natural terrestrial effects is readily substantiated, but what is the indicated causal mechanism for these catastrophic events?
When passing close to the sun, comets emit tails. It is assumed that the material of the tail does not return to the comet’s head but is dispersed in space; consequently, the comets as luminous bodies must have a limited life. If Halley’s comet has pursued its present orbit since late pre”‘Cambrian time, it must “have grown and lost eight million tails, which seems improbable.” If comets are wasted, their number in the solar system must permanently diminish, and no comet of short period could have preserved its tail since geological times. 199
Finally, a third natural phenomenon shows a definite downward curve. The number of comets visible to the unaided eye in recent centuries is only a small fraction of the number of cometary bodies that were observed in the historical past, in comparable periods of time. Whereas in our age about three comets are seen without the help of a telescope in the Northern Hemisphere in a century, in the days of imperial Rome, nineteen centuries ago, comets were so frequent that they were associated with many state events, such as the beginning of the rule of an emperor, his wars, his death. Often more than one comet was seen simultaneously. Some of the comets were spectacular and glowed even in the daytime.200
Of the large number of comets which Oort estimates to be periodical to our solar system (and can be considered as bonafide regular members), he believes that less than one in a million have been identified.201
A similar assertion that celestial disasters could have taken place when men on Earth were watching had already been made by the Harvard astronomer, Fred L. Whipple, who suggested that the swarm of asteroids which orbit between Mars and Jupiter were disturbed by a cometary collision there as recently as 4,700 and 1,500 years ago.202
The evidence mandates that the short”‘period comets of our solar system had to have been acquired (through gravitational capture) from interstellar space within recent geological times, probably within historical times. This acquisition by the sun of previously extra”‘solar (system) material is not limited only to cometary material or to material of cometary size. It is probable (indeed required by the known evidence) that the planets were acquired by the sun in the same way, possibly but admittedly improbably) in recent, even historical times.
There have been three principal views on the origin of planets. One is that they came from the outer reaches of space. Newton and Whiston held this view, but few followed their thinking. A second view is that a passing star either approached near to, or collided with the Sun, and the debris or solar tidal material became planets. Buffon propounded this. A third view is that before contracting, a nebular sun spun off the material which later coalesced into planets.203
Subtly, usually subconsciously, and without even stating the details of the assumption, the post”‘Newton cosmologists, beginning with Kant, appealing to heliocentricity, assumed that the planets not only revolved around the Sun; they also originated from the solar material. This assumption, usually tacit rather than explicit, is heliogenesis. It is something quite different in order and in kind than the heliocentricity of Copernicus…. heliocentricity need not require heliogenesis. But such a tacit transition has occurred in modern cosmology. Kant blazed the way for this erroneous path, and most cosmologists are still making the same assumption … The composition of the sun is quite different from that of the Earth, the Moon, Callisto, Neptune and other members of our solar system….
Any hypothesis which considers the Sun to be the source of the planetary material must necessarily cope with the principle of motion, and must ascribe or attribute, somehow, the momentum of the planets to the Sun. It has already been demonstrated that the Sun comprises 98.8% of the mass of the solar system, and yet it contains less than 2% of the angular momentum…. If the Sun spun out the planetary materials at an ancient date, it would be reasonable to conclude that they were spun out parallel to the Sun’s equator, and perpendicular to its rotational axis. But this is not the case. The disc”‘like plane of the planets is oriented. But its orientation is not to the Sun’s axis. Rather it is to the Sun’s galactic orbit. The plane of the planets almost coincides with the galactic plane. Another anomaly in any heliogenetical proposÂition, especially when coupled with the difference of this plane and the Sun’s rotational axis. 204
Early in this chapter, three possible approaches to the origin of the solar system were mentioned. One was the nebular approach, as set forth by Kant. A second was the collision approach, as set forth by Buffon. The third was the galactic approach, of large bodies following cometary orbits, as was suggested by Whiston, apparently with Newton’s approval. In reviewing the thinking of Oort and the galactogenetical hypothesis as herein discussed, there emerges something remarkably parallel to the embryonic ideas of Whiston, some 270 years ago.205
Cosmic collisions are not divergent phenomena, or phenomena that, in the opinion of some modern philosophers, take place in defiance of what is supposed to be physical laws; they are more in the nature of occurrences implicit in the dynamics of the universe, or, in terms of that philosophy, convergent phenomena. 206
It has been shown in this book, however, that forces which at present do not act on the earth, did so act in historical times, and that these forces are of a purely physical character. Scientific principles do not warrant maintaining that a force which does not act now, could not have acted previously. Or must we be in permanent collision with the planets and comets to believe in such catastrophes? 207
Then spake Joshua to Jehovah in the day when Jehovah delivered up to Amorites before the children of Israel; and he said in the sight of Israel, sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; And thou, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, Until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies…. And the sun stayed in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that Jehovah hearkened unto the voice of a man: for Jehovah fought for Israel. (Josh. 10:12”‘14)
A departure of the earth from its regular rotation is thinkable, but only in the very improbable event that our planet should meet another heavenly body of sufficient mass to disrupt the eternal path of our world….
The large number of asteroids between the orbits of planets Mars and Jupiter suggests that at some unknown time another planet revolved there; now only these meteorites follow approximately the path along which the destroyed planet circled the sun.208
The case of Abraham Rockenbuch and David Herlicius who wrote about the year 1600, and who were informed on the matter of the comets of antiquity, shows that the contents of some old manuscripts were known to the scholarly world then, though not to modern scholars.
A scholar and pamphleteer, Jonathan Swift, in his Gulliver’s Travels (1726), wrote that the planet Mars had two satellites, very small ones. 209
Swift proceeded to describe the circumstances of these mythological moons orbiting about Mars. He described (1) their sizes, (2), their respective distances from the planet, and (3) the direction of revolution of these moons in their orbits. In his imaginative essay, Swift stated that the inner moon revolved about Mars faster than the planet itself rotated. Thus, said he, to a Martian it would seem to rise in the west and set in the east. Each of these three sets of conditions comprised the situation discovered some 150 years later by Asaph Hall in 1877. 210
Under the proper conditions, Earth too can wobble, or precess. The question surrounding the Long Day of Joshua is not “Was there a spin axis precession on that day?” but rather, “What kind of spin axis precession occurred?” . . . This is a unique type of spin axis precession, first forward and then backward; first one way and then the other. This, we propose, is why “there was no day like that before it or after it.” (Joshua 10:14) …
The word for “day” in Joshua 10.13 is yowm in Hebrew. It is used to describe several divisions of time, not just 24 hours as it is used today. It often connotes “a time” such as a time of day or a time of year or a time of a season.
The exact amount of lengthening of the day may have been due in part to a change in latitude, and part to a retilting of the spin axis. This resulted in a lengthening of the afternoon and evening. The lengthening may have been of the order of two to four hours. The change in the spin rate would have been negligible. The precession phenomenon could have made this autumn day like a midsummer day in length.
Scriptures hint that the spin axis shift was a matter of two to four hours …211
Earth, like any gyroscope, can rotate around two spin axes simultaneously under the proper conditions. And the proper conditions existed on that particular day, which was October 24th or more likely October 25th of 1404 B.C. Thus not zero, not one, but TWO spin axes is the solution for that particular, renowned day. 212
”¦the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekuh, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. (Josh. 10:11 KJV)
We note the similarities between the deadly darts and the celestial arrows of the Homeric account and the great stones cast down from heaven during the Long Day of Joshua, or the “pestilence” which fell in the days of David, killing a recorded 70,000 men, That such a bolidic rain could be destructive is very possible when it is kept in mind that bolides are believed to be composed of compounds such its ammonia or cyanogen, possible mixed with iron and silicon, whereas meteors are silica, iron and/or nickel. “Fire” in the fire and brimstone translation of’ the Hebrew texts, we believe is bolides whereas “brimstone” is meteors, the two occurring simultaneously, but not being identical .211
By 701 most of the bolides and meteors had been shed off on Earth or Moon or moved into a solar orbit. But a few remained, one which (as we saw in Chapter 111) nearly hit Jerusalem. It was called the “Jerrusalem Bolide,” and was similar to the Tunguska Bolide of 1908. 214
So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt. (Exod. 9:24”‘25 KJV)
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Jehovah caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. (Exod. 14:21”‘22)
In some parts of Egypt, where bolides chanced to fall, we propose that entire communities were demolished, (us in the case of the collapsed building where Job’s children were having a birthday party exactly 216 years earlier). In addition, as we shall soon show, tidal waves perhaps 100 feet high swept the Mediterranean coast of Egypt. (When the tidal wave emanated from Krakatoa in 1883, it was a maximum of 100 feet high on the nearby coasts of Java and Sumatra and 36,000 people were drowned.) A tidal bore sweeping up the Nile Delta would also create ample havoc for that, the richest part of Egypt. 215
THERA. Thera is an island 70 miles north of Crete in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, and about 180 miles southeast of Athens. It is a caldera, about eight miles across on one side and ten miles across on tile other. The rim of the caldera projects above sea level; the crater is below sea level. A caldera is formed when a marine volcano expels several cubic miles of ash cinder, dust and lava, and the expulsion results in a hollow center. The hollow center is partly below sea level. The volcanic walls then collapse, leaving merely the rim. Thera is the largest known carldera on Earth….
The eruption of Thera has been correlated within the last two decades with the cataclysmic events simultaneous with the Exodus Catastrophe. The correlation in timing has been by carbon”‘14 datings, by buried archaeological pottery, and by historical analysis. Certain timbers remain there, buried in the paroxysm, which yield carbon”‘14 dates identical to those of the Exodus upheaval. The correlations in timing have been well documented by Mavor, Luce, and more recently, in National Geographic…. Assuming that the effect would dissipate with distance, how large would the tidal wave have been on the Levant Coast or moving up the Nile Delta, or across the Suez Isthmus? A wave of 100 feet in height could be a conservative estimate. The Suez Isthmus is 500 miles from Thera.
The paroxysm of Thera correlates with the Exodus holocaust in Egypt. Three days after the passover, the tidal waves generated by the collapsing walls of the volcanic cone would correlate with the water overwhelming Egyptian charioteers as they pursued the children of Israel across the Suez Isthmus. The site of the inundation of the Egyptian army and deliverance of the fleeing Hebrew is thought to be an arm of Lake Menzilah, an ancient
lagoon adjoining the Mediterranean Sea, and was not the Red Sea as we know it today. 216
How many times was it, according to archeologists, that Troy, or Lachish, or Jericho, or other Middle Eastern sites, were rebuilt out of’ their own rubble? How many times was it, according to the Earth”‘Mars resonant orbit model, that our planet suffered a very close fly”‘by? The answer to the question about Troy rebuilt in its rubble is approximately seven times. 217
I am sure that the reader is at least vaguely familiar with the biblical account of the Flood and, since we have already covered some of the verses relating to it, I will not recount it here.
However the Armenians call this place the place of descent, for the ark being saved in that place, its remains are shown there by the inhabitants to this day…. Nay, Micolaus of Damascus, in his ninety”‘sixth book, hath a particular relation about them; where he speaks thus: “There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Minyus, called Baris, upon which it is reported that many who fled at the time of the deluge were saved; and that one who was carried in an ark and came on shore upon the top of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved: this might be the main about whom Moses the legislator of the Jews wrote.” 218
A literal calculation of the chronologies of Genesis 11 places the ending of the Flood Catastrophe in the year 2268 B.C., and its onset in 2269 B.C. 219
The answer to the problem of the similarity of the motifs in the folklore of various peoples is, in my view, as follows: A great many ideas reflect real historical content. There is a legend, found all over the world that a deluge swept over the earth and covered hills and even mountains. We have a poor opinion of the mental abilities of our ancestors if we think that merely an extraordinary overflow of the Euphrates so impressed the nomads of the desert that they thought the entire world was flooded, and that the legend so born wandered from people to people. At the same time, geological problems of the origin and distribution of till, or diluvial deposit, are awaiting explanation. 220
The presence of volcanic ash indicates that a volcanic eruption did take place, and repeatedly, in four consecutive stages of the same epoch; but it is also apparent that the trees could have been uprooted and splintered only by hurricane or flood or a combination of both agencies. The animals could have been dismembered only by a stupendous wave that lifted and carried and smashed and tore and buried millions of bodies and millions of trees.221
So often the Flood has been pictured as having been caused only by excessive rain…. Now if the Flood had been a local phenomenon, then the accounts of an overwhelming flood might presumably have come in from one or two particular regions of localities of the Earth. Yet the accounts of an ancient Flood of continental proportions persist in over 40 different cultures in each hemisphere.
Similarly, water”‘lain strata occurs on a global scale, and at almost every elevation, both above and below mean sea level…. Evidence of a World Flood of continental dimensions occur both in the traditions of man and in the fossils and strata of his terrestrial domain. Furthermore, evidences of former gravitational interactions and tidal responses occur among other planets…. this particular account of a Flood given in Genesis … teaches that the rain was associated with the Flood, but not that rain was the primary cause of the Flood. The two phenomena were merely simultaneous….
The proposition herein set forth is that the Flood was caused by tidal movements of the oceans, tides in sub-continental proportion. Rain was also involved, but its ratio was the proverbial drop in the bucket.222
The balance of the icy particles interacted with the radiation belts, the solar radiation, and received charges of electricity while in orbit around the Earth. In about a six week period these particles settled down upon Earth, through the vortices of the radiation belts amid massive volcanic action on Earth. One interesting reflection is that the ice pack in Antarctica today is in places 10,500 feet deep, half below sea level. In drilling and assaying the ice, it has been found that the deeper the core is taken, the greater the admixture of volcanic ash below sea level. This is what the catastrophic theory would predict! 223
This logging of the ages of the post”‘diluvian patriarchs is one of the formidable but unexplained facts of Genesis….
Ancient longevity is a tradition not only in Genesis but also in many other independent folklores and literatures of the ancients. Only in Genesis has there occurred a carefully preserved account.
This curve required over 30 generations and more than 1500 years until a new norm of “three score and ten” years was reached by the descendants of Noah. This curve suggests that cumulative factors rather than single factors”‘ were involved in causing the change in the rate of aging. 224
… rather, it may have been the atmosphere which was breathed (in general), and the absence of the ozone radical (in particular). Secondly, however, a reduced level of trace elements in the diet may have also been an additional category of factors .221
Obviously, an astral body large enough to have caused the phenomenon of the Flood was far too large to be termed a comet per se. Such a body could well have had an exterior crusting of “cometary” ice, though, but would more properly be termed a planetary body than a comet. A mechanistically plausible theorization that explains heretofore unaccountable (by Uniformitarianism) astral and terrestrial phenomena is ably presented by Mr. Donald W. Patten in The Biblical Flood and the Ice Epoch. I highly recommend this book for its cogent evaluation and presentation.
Author’s Note: Since my writing of this section, rock specimens have been found in Antarctica that have been shown to have been at one time on the surface of Mars; and also some which had, at one time, been on the surface of the far side of the moon.
Also, within the last decade a complete, detailed planetary topological mapping of Venus was carried out by satellite. Venus has a violent (600 mph) and corrosive (sulphuric acid) atmosphere. Yet craters (with little or no detectable erosion) were found that had to have been formed within recent, perhaps historical times. This alone directly disproves Uniformitarianism. When NOVA asked an astrophysicist about this, his reply was: ”˜I don’t see how Uniformitarianism can ever possibly explain those craters. But I’m not willing to give it up.’
Sir, your answer is the epitome of religious dogmatism and not that of objective, scientific methodology.
FROM: amessageforthehumanrace