The Grand Canyon at dawn.
Dr. Alice C. Linsley
Young-earth creationists believe that the days of Genesis 1 were six consecutive 24-hour days, which occurred 6,000–12,000 years ago. They believe that about 4,300 years ago the surface of the earth was radically rearranged by a worldwide flood. Some sea creatures, and all land animals and birds not in Noah’s Ark perished and were subsequently buried in the flood sediments. Therefore, young-earth creationists believe that the catastrophic global flood was responsible for most of the rock layers and fossils. They believe that some rock layers and some fossils were deposited before the Flood and other layers and fossils were produced in localized sedimentation events or processes.Geologists agree that the age of the rock layers that make up the walls of the Grand Canyon range between 270 million years and 1.8 billion years. YEC argues that the Grand Canyon was created with the appearance of age. This begs the question: "Why would God create a deception?"
Notice that YEC focuses on geology. The YEC literature avoids anthropological data, such as the fact that humans were burying their dead in red ocher for at least 100,000 years as a symbolic blood covering in the hope of life after death. (See "On Blood and the Impulse to Immortality" for further explanation.) It fails to address the substantial evidence of artifacts which reveal that humans had already populated most of the globe by 14,000 years ago, around 10,000 years before Noah lived.
The YEC explanation for the extinction of creatures is a worldwide flood. They believe that more than 50% of all the types of land vertebrate animals that God created have been lost to extinction. This is pure speculation intended to address a weakness in the YEC teachings. But notice again, that YEC avoids discussion of the very ancient human fossils around the world that show no evidence of violent deaths such as drowning or being battered by raging waves and winds.
Consider the Gobero cemetery finds. Paleoanthropologist Paul Sereno unearthed 10,000-year skeletons at Gobero in Niger. These were buried on the edge of a paleolake on the northwestern rim of the Chad Basin. The Gobero site is the earliest known cemetery in the Sahara and the skeletons found there indicated that some were at least 6 feet tall. Sereno reports that most of the humans buried there appear to have died of natural causes.
What was happening before Noah?
The evidence of archaic human industry, religion, ritual burial, and domesticity in Africa, Arabia, and China creates a more accurate picture of the earlier populations.
On the Arabian Peninsula, the Qafzeh population was using tools 125,000 years ago at Jebel Faya and burying their dead in red ochre.
Humans were making reed mattresses 77,000 years ago in South Africa. That is where the oldest mattress— made from compacted grasses and leafy plants— was found at the Sibudu Cave site in KwaZulu-Natal. In this same region a stone carving of a python has been found that dates to 70,000 years.
There is the evidence of mining 80,000 to 90,000 years ago. These major mining operations in southern Africa included quarries and tunnels. It is estimated that a million kilos of red ocher ore were excavated from several mines. At one mine half a million stone-digging tools were found. The red ocher was ground to power and was used globally to bury rulers. Anthropologists agree that the red ocher symbolized blood.
The Pengtoushan culture thrived along the Yangtze River between BC. 7500–6100, and the Yangshao culture flourished along the central Yellow River between BC. 5000 and 3000. Yangshao nobles wore silk garments.
It hardly matters if the days of creation were 24-hour days or thousands of years each. The earth's creation predates the time of Noah by millions of years. Noah lived during the African Aqualithic, when the Sahara was wet. Noah was a Proto-Saharan ruler who lived about 6000 years ago in the region of Lake Chad. This is the only location on earth that is claimed to be Noah's homeland by the native populations. The place names of that region tell us so: Borno and Benue mean "Land of Noah" in different dialects. The Kanuri speak of Lake Chad as Buhar Nuhu, meaning "Sea of Noah."
Young Earth Creationism either ignores the human artifacts that are many thousands, even millions of years old, or it attempts to discredit the dating by saying that carbon dating is inaccurate. Of course, scientists use many dating methods. When you are talking about artifacts that are 500,000-800,000 years, even if the dating is off by 50%, the ages are still well beyond the YEC estimate of the Earth's age at 10,000 years. Many thousands of human artifacts have been found that date to over 200,000 years. See this list of some of the more significant finds.
Biblical anthropology is a relatively new science, but it helps us to see the parallels between the Genesis origin stories and similar African narratives. The parallels include speaking of the High God as Father who has a Son; estrangement from the Creator because of the disobedience of the first parents, and the belief that diversity of human appearance is due to the soil from which the first parents were formed. Thus, Adam is described as a red man being formed from the red earth of the Nile Valley. The autochthonous origin of humans is found in many African narratives. It is expressed in the Shilluk creation story. The Shilluk of Sudan call the Creator Jouk. Jouk made white people out of white sand and the Shilluk out of black soil. When the Creator came to Egypt, he made the people there out of the red silt of the Nile.
The evidence of archaic human industry, religion, ritual burial, and domesticity in Africa, Arabia, and China creates a more accurate picture of the earlier populations.
On the Arabian Peninsula, the Qafzeh population was using tools 125,000 years ago at Jebel Faya and burying their dead in red ochre.
Humans were making reed mattresses 77,000 years ago in South Africa. That is where the oldest mattress— made from compacted grasses and leafy plants— was found at the Sibudu Cave site in KwaZulu-Natal. In this same region a stone carving of a python has been found that dates to 70,000 years.
There is the evidence of mining 80,000 to 90,000 years ago. These major mining operations in southern Africa included quarries and tunnels. It is estimated that a million kilos of red ocher ore were excavated from several mines. At one mine half a million stone-digging tools were found. The red ocher was ground to power and was used globally to bury rulers. Anthropologists agree that the red ocher symbolized blood.
The Pengtoushan culture thrived along the Yangtze River between BC. 7500–6100, and the Yangshao culture flourished along the central Yellow River between BC. 5000 and 3000. Yangshao nobles wore silk garments.
The YEC literature largely avoids examination of the artifact evidence of human existence on earth. It also ignores the genomic evidence of human ancestry as early as 250,000 years before the present (YBP).
The dispersion of Abraham's early ancestors out of Africa is never discussed. (Nimrod the Kushite was one of them). In fact, Africa rarely enters YEC literature because Noah is cast as a Middle Easterner whose ship landed on a mountain in Turkey. And YEC folks mistakenly assume that Africa is the home of black people, and they are under divine judgement. The modern assumption that African = black is false. (See this discussion.)
This last fact reveals the unbiblical and racist nature of YEC dogma. At the back of YEC books such as Terry Mortenson's Coming to Grips with Genesis, one finds the Twelve Affirmations and Denials. Affirmation XII claims that the diversity of languages and skin color came about as a result of divine judgment at the Tower of Babel.
XII. We affirm that all people living and dead are descended from Adam and Eve...and that the various people groups (with their various languages, cultures, and distinctive physical characteristics, including skin color) arose as a result of God's supernatural judgment at the Tower of Babel..."
XII. We affirm that all people living and dead are descended from Adam and Eve...and that the various people groups (with their various languages, cultures, and distinctive physical characteristics, including skin color) arose as a result of God's supernatural judgment at the Tower of Babel..."
There is no denying that the oldest human fossils have been found in Africa. Not surprisingly, the oldest material in Genesis connects to early Hebrew populations living in Africa. The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship was at Nekhen on the Nile. This was a settlement in Noah's time (c. 4000 BC). The oldest preserved beard (c.3400 BC) was found there in burial no. 79, and it is the beard of a redhead.
The themes of Genesis 1-3 find their closest parallels in African creation and origin stories. So much so, that it can be argued that the Gospel has roots in Africa.
Noah was a Neolithic Proto-Saharan ruler.
It hardly matters if the days of creation were 24-hour days or thousands of years each. The earth's creation predates the time of Noah by millions of years. Noah lived during the African Aqualithic, when the Sahara was wet. Noah was a Proto-Saharan ruler who lived about 6000 years ago in the region of Lake Chad. This is the only location on earth that is claimed to be Noah's homeland by the native populations. The place names of that region tell us so: Borno and Benue mean "Land of Noah" in different dialects. The Kanuri speak of Lake Chad as Buhar Nuhu, meaning "Sea of Noah."
Young Earth Creationism either ignores the human artifacts that are many thousands, even millions of years old, or it attempts to discredit the dating by saying that carbon dating is inaccurate. Of course, scientists use many dating methods. When you are talking about artifacts that are 500,000-800,000 years, even if the dating is off by 50%, the ages are still well beyond the YEC estimate of the Earth's age at 10,000 years. Many thousands of human artifacts have been found that date to over 200,000 years. See this list of some of the more significant finds.
Biblical anthropology is a relatively new science, but it helps us to see the parallels between the Genesis origin stories and similar African narratives. The parallels include speaking of the High God as Father who has a Son; estrangement from the Creator because of the disobedience of the first parents, and the belief that diversity of human appearance is due to the soil from which the first parents were formed. Thus, Adam is described as a red man being formed from the red earth of the Nile Valley. The autochthonous origin of humans is found in many African narratives. It is expressed in the Shilluk creation story. The Shilluk of Sudan call the Creator Jouk. Jouk made white people out of white sand and the Shilluk out of black soil. When the Creator came to Egypt, he made the people there out of the red silt of the Nile.
The great challenge is to help people read Genesis more empirically so they avoid dismissal of the truth of the myths and avoid a literal reading where it is not intended. (See Between Biblical Literalism and Biblical Illiteracy.)
I continue to learn so much from you. Thank you so much for sharing your research and thoughts with all of us.
ReplyDelete