A. The water and the fire were present in numerous local perturbations affecting the planet. Mention the facts produced by water and fire.
B. Was there really a biblical flood?
C. What is the phenomenon called Precession of the Equinoxes and what is the consequence?
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434. It is generally thought that an abrupt change occurred in the position of the earth’s axis and poles resulting in a surge of the waters over the globe’s surface. If the change had occurred slowly, the waters would have been displaced gradually without shock, whereas everything points to a violent and sudden upheaval. Ignorant as we are of the true cause, one can state only hypotheses.
435. The sudden displacement of the waters could also have been caused by the upthrust of certain parts of the solid crust and the formation of new mountains in the bosom of the oceans, as happened at the beginning of the tertiary period; however, besides the fact that the cataclysm would not have been universal, this would not explain the sudden change in the temperature at the poles.
436. In the chaos caused by the upheaval of the waters, many animals perished. Others, in order to escape the inundation, retreated to high ground, caves and crevasses where they perished en masse either from hunger, from devouring one another, or perhaps from the eruption of the waters in the places where they had sought refuge, and from which they could not escape. This would explain the large quantity of diverse animal bones – carnivores and others – that are found mixed together in certain caves, named for this reason breccia or bone caves. They are most often found under stalagmites. In some, the bones seem to have been carried there by water currents.
437. The post-diluvial or present period - The birth of humankind - Once equilibrium was reestablished on the surface of the globe, plant and animal life quickly resumed its course. The ground had hardened to assume a more stable position; the air had become more purified and was more suitable for more delicate organs. The sun, which shined with all its light through a clean atmosphere, spread a less suffocating and more vivifying heat than that of the internal furnace. The earth became populated with less ferocious and more-social animals. The more-succulent plants offered less coarse nourishment. In other words, everything was prepared on the earth for the new guest that would inhabit it. And it was then that human beings appeared, the last beings of creation, whose intelligence should from then on contribute to the overall progress as well as to their own.
438. Have human beings really existed on the earth only since the diluvial period, or had they appeared before? This is a very controversial question nowadays, but its solution – whatever it may be – would not change anything about the set of established facts, and the appearance of human beings would be no less than thousands of years prior to the date assigned by the biblical Genesis.
439. What led to the thinking that the appearance of humans occurred only after the deluge is that no authentic vestige of their existence in the prior period has ever been found. The bones that were discovered in various places, and which led to the belief in the existence of a supposed race of gigantic antediluvians, were recognized as being elephant bones.
440. What cannot be doubted is that humans did not exist in the primary, transition, or secondary periods, not only because no trace of them has ever been discovered, but because life-supporting conditions did not yet exist for them. If they appeared during the tertiary period, it could have been only toward the end and they would not have yet multiplied very much.
441. Furthermore, the diluvial period was short; consequently, it did not bring notable changes in atmospheric conditions. Plants and animals were nearly the same before and afterward; it is therefore not impossible that the appearance of humans preceded the great cataclysm. The presence of monkeys at that time is an established fact today and recent discoveries seem to confirm that of humans as well. Whatever the case may be as to whether or not human beings appeared before the great universal flood, it is certain that their humanitarian role actually did not really begin to take shape except in the post-diluvial period; one might therefore consider this period as characterized by their presence.
442. Chapter VIII - Theories about the earth - Three theories have been formulated over the years in an attempt to explain how our planet was formed: the projection theory, the condensation theory and the incrustation theory.
443. The Projection Theory - Of all the theories referring to the earth’s origin, the one that has received the most credit of late is that of Buffon either because of this author’s position in the academic world or because not much more was known at the time in which he lived. Observing that all the planets were moving in the same direction – west to east – and on the same plane, traveling orbits whose inclination did not exceed seven and a half degrees, Buffon concluded from this uniformity that they must have been set in motion by the same cause.
444. Since the sun is a molten incandescent mass, Buffon believed that a comet had struck it obliquely, scraping its surface and tearing away a portion, which, projected into space by the violence of the collision, spit into many fragments. These fragments formed the planets, which continued to move in a circle due to a combination of centripetal and centrifugal forces and in the direction given to them by the initial collision, i.e., on an ecliptic plane. The planets would thus be parts of the incandescent substance of the sun and would therefore also have been incandescent at their origin.
445. Buffon’s theory was disproved by new scientific discoveries, and has now been almost completely abandoned for the following reasons:
1) For a long time, it was believed that comets were solid objects, whose encounter with a planet could lead to the latter’s destruction. According to this hypothesis, Buffon’s supposition would not be improbable. But today we know that comets are composed of a condensed gaseous matter, rarified enough, however, that it is possible to see medium-sized stars through their cores. In this state, offering less resistance than the sun, a violent collision capable of projecting a portion of its mass to such distances would be impossible.(2)
2) The sun’s incandescent nature is also a hypothesis that nothing till now has confirmed, but which, to the contrary, observations seem to refute. Although there is no certainty yet as to its nature, powerful means of observation currently available have enabled us to study it more thoroughly. It is now generally believed by science that the sun is a globe composed of solid matter surrounded by a luminous or photospheric atmosphere that is not in contact with its surface.
3) In Buffon’s time, only the six planets acknowledged by the ancients were known: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Afterward, many more were discovered, of which three – Juno, Ceres and Pallas – have inclined orbits of 13, 10 and 34 degrees, respectively, which does not agree with the hypothesis of a unique projection movement.
4) Buffon’s calculations regarding the cooling have been recognized as being completely inaccurate ever since the discovery of the law of decreasing heat by Fourier. The earth did not require 74,000 years to reach its current temperature, but millions of years.
5) Buffon considered only the globe’s central heat, without taking the sun’s rays into account. Today, highly precise scientific data based on experimentation has shown that, due to the thickness of the earth’s crust, the internal heat of the globe has for a long time played only an insignificant part in the exterior surface’s temperature. The variations that this atmosphere undergoes are periodic and are due to the preponderant action of the solar heat (see chap. VII, no. 25). The effect of this cause being permanent, while that of the central heat is nil or almost nil, the diminution of the latter cannot bring about noticeable modifications on the earth’s surface. In order for the earth to become uninhabitable due to overall cooling, the sun would have to be extinguished.
446. The condensation theory - The theory of the formation of the earth due to the condensation of cosmic matter is the prevailing one in science nowadays because it is the one that is best supported by observation, that best resolves the greatest number of problems, and which is based, more than all the others, on the great principle of universal unity.
447. As we can see, these first two theories arrive at the same result: the primitive, incandescent state of the globe, the formation of a solid crust through cooling, the existence of a central fire and the appearance of organic life as soon as the temperature renders it possible. They differ, however, at essential points and it is quite possible that if Buffon were alive today, he would have formed other ideas.
448. Geology takes the earth at the point where direct observation is possible. Its state prior to that is outside the realm of experimentation and can be nothing but conjectural; thus, between two hypotheses, common sense says that one must choose the one which is sanctioned by logic and which better agrees with observed facts.
Answers to Proposed Questions
A. The water and the fire were present in numerous local perturbations affecting the planet. Mention the facts produced by water and fire.
The fire appeared producing: 1) volcanic eruptions that buried surrounding terrains under thick layers of ash and lava, engulfing villages and their inhabitants; 2) earthquakes; 3) Upthrusts of the solid crust, driving the waters to the lower areas; 4) sinking of the crust to in certain places to a greater or lesser extent, into which waters flowed leaving other lands uncovered. This is what caused islands to emerge in the middle of the ocean, while others disappeared; how portions of continents separated to form islands; and how dried up arms of the ocean joined islands to continents.
As for water, it appeared to produce: 1) whether by the invasion or retreat of the oceans in certain coastal areas; 2) whether by collapses, which, holding back the course of the waters, formed lakes; 3) whether by overflowing and floods; and 4) or whether by deposits that formed at the mouths of rivers. In drawing back the ocean, these deposits formed new regions. (Genesis, Ch. IX, items 1 and 2)
B. Was there really a biblical flood?
Yes, though not worldwide. The biblical flood, also known by the name "great Asian flood," was an event whose occurrence cannot be contested. It must have been caused by the upthrust of a part of the mountains in that region. What has arisen in support of this opinion is the existence of an inland sea, which once extended from the Black Sea to the Arctic Ocean, and which has been confirmed by geological investigations. The Azov and Caspian Seas, whose waters are salty, although they are not connected to any other sea, and the Aral Sea, along with countless lakes scattered over the immense plains of Tartary and the Russian Steppes, seem to be what remain of this ancient sea. At the time of the thrusting up of the Caucasus Mountains following the universal flood, a portion of these waters retreated north toward the Artic Ocean, while the other flowed south toward the Indian Ocean. These inundations flooded and ravaged Mesopotamia and the entire region inhabited by the ancestors of the Hebrew people. Although this flood extended over quite a large area, it is acknowledged today that it was only local; that it could not have been caused by rain, no matter how heavy and continuous it might have been for forty days, since calculations have proven that the quantity of water that fell could not have been sufficient to cover all the earth up to the tops of the highest mountains. (Genesis, chapter IX, items 4 and 5. See also chapter XI, item 42.)
C. What is the phenomenon called Precession of the Equinoxes and what is the consequence?
In addition to its movement around the Sun and its rotational movement around itself, the Earth has a third movement that is completed in 25,868 years, and which produces the phenomenon designated in astronomy by the name Precession of the Equinoxes.(1) This movement consists in a sort of circular oscillation, which has been compared to that of the spin of a toy top slowing down, by which the earth’s axis, changing in inclination, describes a double cone whose tip is at the earth’s center and whose bases take up the “surface circumscribed by the polar circles, that is, an area of a 23 ½ degree radius.
The equinox is the moment in which the sun, in passing from one hemisphere to the other, is perpendicular to the equator. This happens twice per year: around March 21st, when the sun returns to the northern hemisphere, and around September 22nd, when it returns to the southern. However, as a result of the gradual change in the axis’ slant, which causes another in the slant of the equator on the ecliptic, the moment of the equinox advances a few minutes (25 minutes, 7 seconds) each year. This advance is what is called the precession of the equinoxes (from the Latin procedere, to move forward, combined from proe, forward, and cedere, to go). (Genesis, chapter IX, items 6 to 9)
Notes:
(1) According to today's data, we know that the movement designated as the precession of the equinoxes does not interfere with the seasons, since the Earth's axis of rotation maintains its 23.5°. What occurs is a change in the position in which the Earth is in orbit around the Sun at a given station. [Note made by the scholar Luiz Gonzaga Pinheiro, author of Apelos do Tempo (Appeals of Time), published by IDEAS @ WORK.]
(2) Today we know that comets are solid. They are like a rock, sometimes exceeding one kilometer in size. If a rock of such a size crashed into the Earth, it would cause a great damage, as big as the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. The fluidic nature forms its tale, and its core is rocky. [On this topic, see the Apelos do Tempo (Appeals of Time) by Luiz Gonzaga Pinheiro, published by IDEAS @ WORK.]
