I posted this in a different thread, but thought it deserved its own.
I also made a few spelling and typo corrections, though I'm sure I missed some.
To understand the Flood, one must understand the Earth's condition prior to it. The world is mostly covered in water now, but it was not always so. Most of the world's water used to be underground and above the atmosphere. There was a lot lot lot more land area then. Also, the Earth was not tilted on its axis as it is now. There were not four seasons in a year such as we experience.
The world was created with one main river that sprang from the ground at or near the highest point on Earth, the land called Eden. This main river flowed into the God's Garden, where it separated into four headwaters. It didn't rain in the world; everything was watered by the rivers and a mist that came out of the ground. The waters eventually went back into the Earth, and were circulated back to where they sprang forth from the ground in Eden; most of the world's water was underground at any given moment.
There was a great amount of water vapor above the atmosphere. This “canopy”, as it is generally referred to, diffused sunlight and filtered out the sun's harmful radiation. It probably compressed the atmosphere making it more oxygen rich by volume. In this world-wide “high pressure system” it was perpetually springtime. There were no storms or high winds. The canopy made the world conducive to the great size and longevity of its occupants. Real nice place to live compared to the flooded out wreck that was to come.
The Earth's crust was not then separated into “plates” like it is now. It was basically a solid shell floating on a subterranean ocean. There were no earthquakes or volcanoes. No floods, tornadoes, or typhoons.
There was a planet called Phaëton which orbited the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. It was destroyed. The cause of its destruction is unknown, but the effects are evident all over the solar system: The asteroid belt; the outer planets' rings; the devastated surfaces of bodies such as Mercury and our own moon; and the countless comets which orbit the sun. And the Great Flood.
Earth took a direct hit. The canopy was penetrated, and a giant piece, or pieces, of Phaëton landed and broke up the crust like a piece of shattering glass. The world was hit so hard that its orbit was affected. The axis was severely tilted, and began to wobbled as a spinning top would if hit with a rock. The Earth quaked and erupted on an unimaginable scale. Water was shooting out of the ground all over the place up into the stratosphere. The atmospheric temperature dropped quickly and significantly. The disrupted canopy began to condense and fall to Earth as a torrential downpour for the next forty days. The poles were covered in ice quickly and completely, and the ice extended far towards the middle latitudes.
So then the world was completely covered in water, much of it frozen, and the crust was broken up and had big empty pockets beneath it where thewater was. Naturally, the crust collapsed into those pockets and water filled the basins. As the basins collapsed, the crusts along their perimeters was pushed up to form the mountain ranges of theworld. There's something else beneath the crust: magma. The newly broken up and collapsed crust was then in closer proximity to the mantle and volcanoes began erupting around the world.
The world underwent a cataclysmic upheaval the likes of which we cannot fully fathom. Even after the flood waters had gone down, the world continued to dramatically change. During the period right after theFlood, the newly shaped continents were not completely separated from each other. The aforementioned polar icecaps were quickly starting to melt, and as they did, the waters came up again, and over a period of, say maybe, a couple of hundred years, the continents were largely isolated from each other. Highly diverse and unique synergistic ecosystems began to develop around the world. The survivors of these events must have been awe struck, to say the least, at what had happened to the world, and they made sure to teach their children about what happened, and why.
I also made a few spelling and typo corrections, though I'm sure I missed some.
To understand the Flood, one must understand the Earth's condition prior to it. The world is mostly covered in water now, but it was not always so. Most of the world's water used to be underground and above the atmosphere. There was a lot lot lot more land area then. Also, the Earth was not tilted on its axis as it is now. There were not four seasons in a year such as we experience.
The world was created with one main river that sprang from the ground at or near the highest point on Earth, the land called Eden. This main river flowed into the God's Garden, where it separated into four headwaters. It didn't rain in the world; everything was watered by the rivers and a mist that came out of the ground. The waters eventually went back into the Earth, and were circulated back to where they sprang forth from the ground in Eden; most of the world's water was underground at any given moment.
There was a great amount of water vapor above the atmosphere. This “canopy”, as it is generally referred to, diffused sunlight and filtered out the sun's harmful radiation. It probably compressed the atmosphere making it more oxygen rich by volume. In this world-wide “high pressure system” it was perpetually springtime. There were no storms or high winds. The canopy made the world conducive to the great size and longevity of its occupants. Real nice place to live compared to the flooded out wreck that was to come.
The Earth's crust was not then separated into “plates” like it is now. It was basically a solid shell floating on a subterranean ocean. There were no earthquakes or volcanoes. No floods, tornadoes, or typhoons.
There was a planet called Phaëton which orbited the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. It was destroyed. The cause of its destruction is unknown, but the effects are evident all over the solar system: The asteroid belt; the outer planets' rings; the devastated surfaces of bodies such as Mercury and our own moon; and the countless comets which orbit the sun. And the Great Flood.
Earth took a direct hit. The canopy was penetrated, and a giant piece, or pieces, of Phaëton landed and broke up the crust like a piece of shattering glass. The world was hit so hard that its orbit was affected. The axis was severely tilted, and began to wobbled as a spinning top would if hit with a rock. The Earth quaked and erupted on an unimaginable scale. Water was shooting out of the ground all over the place up into the stratosphere. The atmospheric temperature dropped quickly and significantly. The disrupted canopy began to condense and fall to Earth as a torrential downpour for the next forty days. The poles were covered in ice quickly and completely, and the ice extended far towards the middle latitudes.
So then the world was completely covered in water, much of it frozen, and the crust was broken up and had big empty pockets beneath it where thewater was. Naturally, the crust collapsed into those pockets and water filled the basins. As the basins collapsed, the crusts along their perimeters was pushed up to form the mountain ranges of theworld. There's something else beneath the crust: magma. The newly broken up and collapsed crust was then in closer proximity to the mantle and volcanoes began erupting around the world.
The world underwent a cataclysmic upheaval the likes of which we cannot fully fathom. Even after the flood waters had gone down, the world continued to dramatically change. During the period right after theFlood, the newly shaped continents were not completely separated from each other. The aforementioned polar icecaps were quickly starting to melt, and as they did, the waters came up again, and over a period of, say maybe, a couple of hundred years, the continents were largely isolated from each other. Highly diverse and unique synergistic ecosystems began to develop around the world. The survivors of these events must have been awe struck, to say the least, at what had happened to the world, and they made sure to teach their children about what happened, and why.
