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Did the atmospheric layer where clouds exist used to contain more condensed water of some kind?
The Bible has these statements regarding this in the book of Genesis:
2:5-6 - Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.
7:11-12 - In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
Why wasn't this particular thread moved to the Religions forum?
If the OP wants to trade bible quotes this is the wrong thread to do it in.....
Because story #1 as we know it the Earth was formed many many millions of years ago. Story #2 says god popped up 6,000 years ago and created this hellhole...
According to a recent article in Geology magazine, the first rainforest on earth appeared about 300 million years ago....in Illinois of all places! Geologists uncovered remnants of the forest in an abandoned coal mine. The canopy was over 130 feet high, and the forest contained club-mosses, fern trees, and large horsetails.
I'm a lousy bible thumper but doesn't it say in that book of hand-me-down stories that it had never rained before noah's flood?
Yet the article above says the first rainforest appeared 300 million years ago. So I guess the people from noah's time before it started raining couldn't see any stars, the sun would have appeared as if it were underwater and not one plant was growing anywhere except in those secret gardens they were growing with alien assistance..... Right? no rain, no plants, no animals.
Did the atmospheric layer where clouds exist used to contain more condensed water of some kind?
There's a lot of water in space around the galaxy, but in the form of molecules. The Earth's first atmosphere was most likely a mixture of gasses. Water molecules were most likely present from the get-go, but not enough to be in liquid form.
Considering how much water is in the oceans and the atmosphere, it staggers the imagination to think about how so much of it got here. It didn't get here all at once though, but rather very gradually over a very long period of time.
We know the formation of the solar system was extremely violent just from looking at the surfaces of the Moon, Mars and many of the moons of other planets, which at littered with gigantic craters. The Earth doesn't show as many craters on the crust because of plate tectonics which recycles the surface, as well as erosion.
Eventually, as the crust cooled and comets continued to bombard the planet, liquid water would have begun to form in pockets, probably turning into steam and rising up into the atmosphere. As more water was being delivered, creating more water on the surface, which probably helped cool down the surface, and enabled the planet to contain water in a liquid state filling in low spots here and there. As water would evaporate and rise into the atmosphere as a vapor, it was trapped by the thick layer of gasses, cooled down and returned to the surface as a most or rain.
There is no evidence of there ever having been a global flood of water literally covering the entire planet as indicated in the story of the flood of Noah. The biblical story of the Great Flood is a rehashed version of an earlier tale, notably by the Sumerians, Akkadians and Babylonians, the Epic of Gilgamesh, a story which predates the biblical version. It's possible the story of the Great Flood is based on a real catastrophe, but one that was local and limited to a small area, not the entire planet. Such an event would have certainly seemed by any locals witnessing such an event that the entire planet must've been inundated. Epic of Gilgamesh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not sure why you focused only on the first part of plwhit's post, when the rest of the post was more related to giving you an answer. The thing is that it's not so useful to use the biblical account as an accurate reference, although I can see how the account can raise some questions for some folks. People back a few thousand years ago had no idea about natural phenomena, so it made more sense to them to think that some things must have a supernatural explanation. We now have a much better understanding that some things that were once regarded as supernatural events are in fact very natural events, even though they may sometimes have tragic consequences for people.
"On a side note, do you think it's interesting that no matter how mature or polite "Bible thumpers" are, they will never fail to receive insults and mockery from many many people."
There probably is a scientific reason for that...
When you start taking allegory literally, you might get in a pickle... literally.
One common theory among Bible scholars is that the flood covered the region of the countries discussed by the scriptures. Not necessarily the entire planet.
Bible scholars do not have theories, at least not in the scientific definition of the word, and since you choose the science forum that is the definition you should be using.
To be a theory, an idea must have a body of evidence, make testable predictions and be falsifiable. No biblical story can be falsifiable. Sorry but it just isnt a theory.
Quote:
The fact that other writings regarding a flood were published or recorded before the biblical version does not automatically mean they are more accurate. Have you considered that the epic of Gilgamesh was based on legends inspired by a real event.
On a side note, do you think it's interesting that no matter how mature or polite "Bible thumpers" are, they will never fail to receive insults and mockery from many many people.
I have no mocked you, but this topic and thus thread, is not in the right forum.
The 300-million-year-old forest is composed of a bizarre mixture of extinct plants: abundant club mosses, more than 40 meters high, towering over a sub-canopy of tree ferns, intermixed with shrubs and tree-sized horsetails. Nowhere elsewhere on the planet is it possible to (literally) walk through such an extensive swathe of Carboniferous rain forest.
It was discovered by Dr Howard Falcon-Lang from the University of Bristol, UK, and US colleagues, in the underground workings of a coal mine, in Illinois, USA. The results of this work are published online today in Geology, by the Geological Society of America.
The fossilized forest was preserved following a major earthquake 300 million years ago. The quake caused the whole region to drop below sea level whereupon the forest became buried in mud, preserving it forever.
Detail of a pteridosperm, an extinct seed-producing fern-like plant.
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