ancient weather – Lynn Brown Writer

The History of Earth’s Weather

What Happened to the Dinosaurs?

The Original Climate Change

Let’s talk about weather throughout early time. I promise not to be boring.

There are two theories. https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/entinctheory.html. This article divides theories between intrinsic (planetary causes) and extrinsic (extra planetary causes).

We can also look at theories in terms of ancient meteorology.

The History of Earth’s Weather

Constant theory: Planet Earth has always had the weather it does now, including eras of severe chilling and warming known as Climate Change.

This was the favorite view because it explained today’s weather (except for the very beginning of weather) and supported evolution, which required billions of years and no interruption in the process.

However, it did not explain why dinosaurs disappeared. They should have evolved. It also did not explain a marine biological system collapse.
Cataclysmic theory: Planet Earth’s original weather (whatever that was) was interrupted by a cataclysmic event. This is now the preferred view because it explains certain geological data and what happened to the dinosaurs.

What Happened to the Dinosaurs?

Within the Cataclysmic theory are several hypotheses, each depending on the event envisioned. Let’s talk about the two favorite hypotheses.

There was an enormous asteroid or comet. The earth’s original weather was variable, like it is now, when a comet slammed into the earth leaving certain identified markings. A frequently mentioned site is the crater of Chiczulub on the Yucatan Peninsula. The comet would have been the size of a mountain.

According to this theory, the impact raised an enormous poisonous dust cloud that rose into the atmosphere and spread over the earth, blocking out much of the sunshine. This caused stunting of the size and amounts of plants. This killed off the enormous reptilian dinosaurs because they couldn’t get enough to eat. The smaller dinosaurs continued to evolve into fish and birds. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dinosaur-extinction.html#:~:text=Evidence%20suggests%20an%20asteroid%20impact,happened%20over%20millions%20of%20years.

Questions: If the impact was disastrous, why wasn’t earth knocked off its orbit and why didn’t all life end in the flames of the sun or in the cold of deep space? Why didn’t the enormous reptiles just take all of the food and let the little guys starve, ending the smaller species, including humans?
Earth’s weather was created by God to be perfect, but a cataclysmic event changed earth’s weather, not only temporarily during the event but for all time, requiring various kinds of animals to adapt quickly to the new environment or die.

There was no evolution before this event, and there was certainly no time for interspecies evolution after it. This event happened in 2343 or 2345 B.C.

News flash! People lived with dinosaurs.

(Even one of the comet hypotheses dates the comet to only thousands of years, in which case people would be living with dinosaurs.) https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-an-asteroid-caused-extinction-of-dinosaurs.html

The Genesis theory does not rule out one or more comets during or after the event.

Now, that wasn’t too bad, was it?

By now you have probably deduced that the last hypothesis is commonly referred to as Noah’s Flood: a misnomer if there ever was one.

Noah didn’t cause the flood. And it was much more than a flood. It was a cataclysm of meteorological events!

It was the end of the Dream Time.

And we will venture into those waters next time!

Photo credit: Photo by Jake Fagan on Unsplash

Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?

Genesis: the Geological Time Table and the RATE Findings

The Original Earth

Does Genesis Verify Pangea?

Weather Alert!

The Genesis Account of Intelligent Design

We have already discovered that Genesis is the most authoritative account of ancient history. That does not mean we cannot question it or compare it to other sources. Just remember that we have proven Genesis to be the most authoritative history book.

Remember that Moses writes in the ancient Hebrew verbs indicating that his report is nonfiction. Also, recall that he writes in a minimalistic style. His goal is not to tell everything he knows, but to direct the reader to the most important history.

I will use the New International Version unless I tell you differently.

Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?

Be an excellent journalist and ask the six questions.

Moses begins with, “In the beginning God….” In the beginning of what? Of everything: time, space, matter…. Nothing existed except the Judeo-Christian God. I will use “God” for the Judeo-Christian deity.

Who? God

What? He created everything including humans.

When? Let’s get back to this. It deserves a section of its own.

Where? God is everywhere at once.

How? He spoke and various things appeared—except for humans. He made the man of dirt (“the dust of the earth”) and later made the woman from the man’s rib.

Why? Unlike many cultural stories who say humans were made to serve the gods, Moses says God created humans for company. He loved the puny little things and wanted them to choose to love him back. How weird is that?

Genesis: the Geological Time Table and the RATE Findings

Let’s return to “when.”

Moses says all of creation was completed in six days. On the seventh day, God rested. (Not that God was tired: he was setting an example for humans.)

Now, some people try to have their cake and eat it, too. They don’t want to seem unscientific, so they try to jam the Genesis account into traditional geological time.

They say, “Well, a day is a period of time like…an eon…or a geological era.”

Sorry, folks, the creation story is written with narrative verbs. The seven days are literal. (Although an eon of rest sounds inviting sometimes!)

How long ago was Creation Week?

The traditional Jewish date of the beginning of Creation Week is October 7, 3761 B.C. However, there is a 165 year period under debate. The traditional date used the genealogies in Genesis and added the years from then to when the date was calculated.

The traditional Christian date for Creation Week is 4004 B.C. Archbishop Ussher calculated this and added dates to the King James Bible when it was first published in 1611.

Ussher used all of the genealogies of the Christian Bible, which brought calculations to known dates in world history. He added the gap dates between the end of the New Testament to his own time.

Since then, other biblical scholars have checked his work, using all genealogies, known historical dates, and scientific findings.

Ussher was found to be almost correct. The actual date of creation was 4 or 6 years earlier.

In case you are wondering, the recalculation of geologic time, using all of the RATE findings, makes Ussher’s date scientifically defendable.

And, by the way, there is an enticing nuclear decay spike during Creation Week! What was its cause and effect? We don’t know yet.

The Original Earth

Genesis gives a unique, specific description of the creation of planet Earth that is as bizarre to our minds as good science fiction.

Genesis 1:2 (chapter 1, verse 2) says, “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
1. All kinds of ideas clash in my mind!
  1. The earth was formless. Okay. (Struggle.) Got that.
  2. The earth was empty. That’s easy to understand.
  3. Darkness…well, yeah. Light hadn’t been created yet.
  4. The surface of the deep. What’s the deep? Deep what? Deep sea? That doesn’t seem likely since water gets its own note next. Deep as in the core of the earth? Maybe. How did an ancient Egyptian prince know this stuff?
  5. The waters. Okay. There were the waters and the deep. Got it. Sort of.
After God created light, and then night and day (yes, a day began after sunset because the Earth was in darkness until light was made) Genesis 1:7 says, “God made the expanse and separated the waters under the expanse from the waters above it….God called the expanse ‘sky.’”

Does Genesis Verify Pangea?

Genesis 1:9: “And God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.
- Now that’s interesting. There were two areas: all of the waters, and all of the land. Could this be verification of the Pangea hypothesis? https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-was-pangea#:~:text=They%20all%20existed%20as%20a,creating%20a%20volcanic%20rift%20zone.

Weather Alert!

Genesis 2:5b-6: “…for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth…but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.” So…rain is an abnormal event!

Irrigation was the primary infrastructure interest in ancient Egypt and therefore of great interest to Moses.

Okay, my head hurts. I can’t take anymore.

I bet you could use a break, too.

Read it for yourself: Genesis 1:1-2:6

Photo credit: https://www.istockphoto.com/portfolio/gorodenkoff?mediatype=photography