CREATION SCIENCE 101: THE PRE-FLOOD WORLD
Before the global worldwide Flood of Noah’s generation, the planet Earth was very different from the post-flood world that we observe today. According to the young Earth creation science researchers, the pre-flood Earth had a large human population in the billions. It was filled with tame animals. It had a thin crystalline water canopy shielding the planet from deadly radiation. It had a single supercontinent or landmass and a single super ocean. Its surface geography was less rugged with a more stable crust. And it had more edible and nutritious plants than the post-flood world. These superior environmental global conditions on Earth contributed to the longevity among human populations, which also facilitated the gigantism found among the pre-flood plant and animal fossil records. These global conditions resulted in the creation of an advanced pre-flood civilization decorated with megalithic architecture.
PRE-FLOOD HUMAN POPULATION
The pre-flood Earth probably had a large human population around five or 10 billion people. Many people imagine the primeval Earth with very few people, but there were probably about as many people on the Earth before the Flood as there are today – possibly even more. We should never be surprised at this estimation because pre-flood people were living an average of about 900 years, with each woman producing many children for centuries. Women probably did not reach menopause until age 500 years. A few calculations show that there were likely somewhere between five to 10 billion people alive on the pre-flood Earth, comparable to the seven plus billion people alive today.
PRE-FLOOD ANIMAL POPULATIONS
The pre-flood animals were gigantic in size and many of them were tame creatures. In other words, there were few predatory beasts devouring herbivores. Few animals ate meat till after the great flood. It was only after the Flood that God said in Genesis. 9:3: “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.” Some researchers believe that all animals became wild after the fall of Adam. However, when we compare Genesis 1:29-30, where man and animals were given permission to eat plants, with Genesis 9:1-3, where man was given permission to eat meat as well, we learn that it was not until after the global flood that all animals became wild, for their own preservation.
PRE-FLOOD CRSTALLINE WATER CANOPY
The pre-flood world had a thin crystalline water canopy shielding living systems on the planet from deadly radiation. Genesis 1:6-7 says that during the second day of the Creation Week God separated the waters of the Earth from the waters below the atmosphere and the waters above the atmosphere (the “firmament”). The firmament describes the atmosphere or expanse existing between the Earth’s oceans and the planet’s crystalline water canopy (waters above the firmament). Today’s Earth is also enveloped by water vapor in the air, but if it all fell out as rain, it would rain for only a few hours. The crystalline water canopy that covered the pre-flood Earth fell as rain for 40 days and 40 nights during the flood; therefore, we can see how substantial it must have been, though it still allowed man to view the heavenly bodies.
A somewhat comparable high-altitude atmospheric layer was discovered on the planet Venus, where a cloud layer surrounds that planet. While astronomers cannot observe the surface of Venus with Earth bound telescopes, space probes have found that the atmosphere underneath the cloud layer is relatively clear. Aside from the fact that Venus’ high-altitude layer is composed of sulfuric acid and is very foggy, we can imagine that this is somewhat similar to the transparent water vapor layer that covered the Earth before the Flood. This transparent pre-flood water vapor layer facilitated a warm hothouse effect. Pre-flood fossils have been recovered from all over the Earth, including the Arctic and the Antarctic, that show that before the great deluge the Earth was covered with a lush, luxuriant, tropical form of life. Even though according to Genesis 1:14, there were seasons, they were mild. The pre-flood climatic temperatures were about 77 degrees at daytime and 70 degrees at nigh-time and uniform everywhere.
Because the climate was uniform, there was no wind, whose sole purpose is to equalize temperature differences in the atmosphere. Because there was no wind, no dust was stirred up. Rain forms on dust particles, but with no wind, the atmosphere was dust free. Therefore there could have been no rain, whose droplets must form around dust particles. This is the scientific basis for the statement in Genesis 2:5-6 that says there was no rain before the great flood. Rather than rainfall, the Earth was watered by a gentle mist. There were no rainfall means no violent thunder storms, no deadly lightning strikes, no tornadoes, no hurricanes. With mild climate, snowfall and ice were absent as were ice storms, snow storms and blizzards. The pre-flood watering system was mild and tranquil, with no lack of water causing droughts or excess water causing floods.
PRE-FLOOD SUPERCONTINENT
The pre-flood world had a single supercontinent or landmass and single super ocean. All continents may well have been joined in one land mass. We can easily see on a globe how the continents could fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, illustrating that they were joined and then shattered during the flood and became completely divided into the seven major post-flood continents during the generation of Peleg (Genesis 10:25). A few ancient legends support this theory. The legend of Atlantis, describing a place that had an ideal climate and wonderful living conditions, is actually a corrupted description of the whole Earth before the great flood. Atlantis is described as being all one huge circular continent that is now lost under the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlanteans lived in a golden age of robust health, longevity and ease. However, the people became wicked, and Atlantis was swallowed up by the waves of the sea. It may well be that just as Atlantis was one continent; therefore, the Earth before the global flood was just one continent, which was lost under the worldwide flood waters. While the earliest extant version of the Atlantis legend was recorded by Plato in his Timeaus, Plato and other Greek philosophers got their legends from Babylon and Egypt, and the Babylonians knew of the great flood and of the pre-Flood world. The possibility of a single pre-flood supercontinent is implied in Genesis 1:9: “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.” With the waters in one place, the continents were joined in a single place. Ancient maps showing a single world continent also seem to be corrupted memories of a pre-flood supercontinent continent.
PRE-FLOOD GEOGRAPHIC SURFACE AND CRUST
The pre-flood surface was less rugged than it is today. It was less mountainous. The average depth of ocean water today is about 12,000 feet. Since virtually all the waters that were involved in the great flood are now in the oceans, and since everything on Earth was covered by the global flood waters, the mountains that were higher than 12,000 feet tall could not have been covered during the worldwide flood. Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, is 29,029 feet high; therefore, Mt. Everest could not have been covered by the global flood waters. However, the Holy Scriptures say that everything was completely covered. This means that mountains before the great flood were no taller than some 12,000 feet. Additionally, the crust of the Earth was more stable before the Flood. Proverbs 8:28 says that during the Creation Week God “strengthened the fountains of the deep.” This means that God placed large reservoirs of water deep below the surface of the Earth, and the surface (crust) was strengthened and made stable. Volcanoes, earthquakes, and other geological instability was absent before Noah’s flood. The Earth’s crust was not unstable till the first day of the great flood, when the “fountains of the great deep” broke up (Genesis 7:11). The waters gushed out and the crust of the Earth suddenly very unstable.
Modern volcanism and earthquakes are types of “residual catastrophism” remaining from the forces of the worldwide flood. Volcanoes, earthquakes and other modern tectonic activity are from the adjustment of the crust of the Earth, even now several thousand years later, from this extreme devastation. Astronomers have observed that on other heavenly bodies with solid surfaces, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the moon, there is little to no crustal movement as there is on the Earth. This observation points to a unique structure in the Earth, made to support life (Isaiah 45:18) before it became upset in the global flood. This is not surprising because the ground itself was cursed by God when said: “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast harkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life” (Genesis 3:17-18).
PRE-FLOOD PLANT LIFE
The pre-flood world had more gigantic, edible, and nutritious plants than post-flood world. Through the centuries, as genetic mutations have built up in plants, many are no longer good for food, and many have become nothing but weeds. But the Bible, in Genesis 1:29, indicates that every plant before the Flood was both edible and nutritious: “And God said, Behold, I have given you of every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” Fossils show that before the worldwide deluge a larger abundance of plants than we can imagine flourished everywhere. In Genesis 1:12, all trees were fruit trees. Thus plants now existing only as weeds were once good for food. After the flood God allowed meat-eating partly to make up for “thorns and thistles” and other mutations making plants less useful for animal and mankind’s nutrition.
ANALYSIS: PRE-FLOOD CIVILIZATION
Genesis chapters four, five, and six offers an intriguing picture of life before the global worldwide flood. These chapters still remain the primary information we have about that first human civilization that was completely destroyed by the great deluge. Only from archaeological excavation dealing with post-Flood deposits and the few artifacts found deep in the fossiliferous rock strata of the Earth’s crust, can we find clues about the nature of life in that first world.
The first mighty civilization, which once thrived over much of the Earth, has been almost completely forgotten by many modern academics and science researchers. In recent years, the discovery of amazing artifacts gives us an insight into the remarkable technological skills of pre-flood humanity. While the scientific data remains controversial, the evidence convey that pre-flood people were far from brutish primitives that Darwinists believe them to be. The pre-flood world was substantially different from our world today.
According to Genesis chapters one and two, the Earth’s waters were stored “above the firmament (expanse),” in the form of a vast blanket or canopy of invisible water vapor – producing a marvelous “greenhouse effect.” This produced a uniformly mild, warm climate all year long with no wind or rainstorms. Lush vegetation and abundant animal life flourished. This canopy, with a radiation-filtering effect caused the gigantism and longevity that researchers observed in early plants and ancient animals. The existence of this pre-flood canopy was probably the key factor accounting for pre-flood patriarchal longevity (Genesis 5:5-27). Additionally, the purity of the human genetic system and its bloodstream, with so few accumulated mutant genes, together with the primeval absence of disease-producing organisms served to maintain health and longevity.
According to Genesis chapter five, the patriarchs had many hundreds of years to beget sons and daughters. It is reasonable and very conservative to estimate the population at about seven billion at the time of the worldwide flood. During the first generation, all marriages were brother-sister unions. There were no mutant genes in the genetic systems; therefore, no harm would have resulted. Many generations after the great flood, during the time of Moses, mutations had accumulated, making such unions genetically dangerous – incestuous relationships thereafter became dangerous and was against the Mosaic laws.
Along with population increase, the technological and cultural levels of the pre-flood civilization seem to have been very high. Metal tools and implements of all kinds, and even musical instruments, were available to produce creature comforts, and to stimulate the emotional and esthe
RELATED SOURCES: The Genesis Record by Henry Morris. Halley’s Bible Handbook by Henry Halley; Three Views on Creation and Evolution by J.P. Morland & J.M. Reynolds; Understanding Creation by Mark Worthon & Hill Roberts; Understanding The Bible by Kendell H. Easley; The Dead Sea Scrolls by Craig A. Evans; Christian Apologetics by Doug Powell; Theories of the Universe by Gary F. Moring; String Theory by George Musser; The New Answers by Ken Ham; Biblical Creationism by Henry Morris; Genesis Conflict by Walter Veith, Unformed and Unfilled by Dr. Weston Fields; Creation by Dr. Grant Jeffrey; Starlight and Time by Dr. Russell Humphreys; Panorama of Creation by Dr. Carl Baugh; Speed of Light by Barry Setterfield.