Genesis 1:2-12 and the Hydrologic Cycle
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 1:40 pm
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When I read Genesis 1:2-10, I see the creation of the geophysical portion of Earth's Hydrological Cycle. I assume that the Hydrologic Cycle is Irreducibly Complex (ID), just as is said of living organisms by my fellow YEC’s.
If the Hydrologic Cycle is ID, then what is the number and kinds of most basic parts of the Hydrologic Cycle? I think there are five parts which the physical Earth itself contributes to the Hydrologic Cycle: the Day-night cycle making two parts, the air making a third part, and the land and seas making the fourth and fifth parts.
If these five are the most basic geophysical parts of the Hydrologic Cycle, and if the Hydrologic Cycle is ID, then these five correspond, in a most profoundly way, to the five instances in Genesis 1 that report on the fact that God's names things (v. 5, v. 8, and v. 10).
I am YEC (Young Earth-and-Cosmos). My presumption is that not only is the Hydrologic Cycle irreducibly complex, but that the Hydrologic Cycle cannot maintain itself indefinitely without all these five geophysical parts. I go further. I propose that the Hydrologic Cycle cannot maintain itself indefinitely without at least plant life.
And since I am YEC, I like to think that any one geophysical part of the Hydrologic Cycle cannot maintain itself for very long at all. In other words, I like to think that, minus even one of these five geophysical parts, such an *incomplete* Hydrologic Cycle cannot maintain itself for more than a day.
Thus, I like to think that even the complete geophysical Hydrologic Cycle cannot maintain itself to *full capacity* for more than a day without abundant plant life.
But, if all of the above ideas are true, then, given merely these ideas, there is no prima facie reason to think that the Hydrologic Cycle can maintain itself for long without animal life. In other words, if all the above ideas are true, then it is only natural to allow that the Hydrologic Cycle depends not merely on the geophysical features and abundant plant life, but on abundant animal life.
Here is the single central issue for me: Is God concerned for a useless abundance? Is the abundance of both water and life and Earth insignificant to the fact that any life can abide here at all? My answer is no. Abundance of water and life are necessary for life to survive. This reflects the abundance of the quantity of different cosmological constants in the way of their being fine-tuned to allow life in the universe. Abundance. Generosity. Openness.
Of course, these three allow that any evil in the mix has an abundance of resources and avenues by which to be maintained and to spread. But that’s just borrowing or stealing what does not belong to it.
But I digress.
My point is that I find reason, perhaps despite my ignorance, to think that God really did create (at least Earth’s biosphere) in six literal days.
.
When I read Genesis 1:2-10, I see the creation of the geophysical portion of Earth's Hydrological Cycle. I assume that the Hydrologic Cycle is Irreducibly Complex (ID), just as is said of living organisms by my fellow YEC’s.
If the Hydrologic Cycle is ID, then what is the number and kinds of most basic parts of the Hydrologic Cycle? I think there are five parts which the physical Earth itself contributes to the Hydrologic Cycle: the Day-night cycle making two parts, the air making a third part, and the land and seas making the fourth and fifth parts.
If these five are the most basic geophysical parts of the Hydrologic Cycle, and if the Hydrologic Cycle is ID, then these five correspond, in a most profoundly way, to the five instances in Genesis 1 that report on the fact that God's names things (v. 5, v. 8, and v. 10).
I am YEC (Young Earth-and-Cosmos). My presumption is that not only is the Hydrologic Cycle irreducibly complex, but that the Hydrologic Cycle cannot maintain itself indefinitely without all these five geophysical parts. I go further. I propose that the Hydrologic Cycle cannot maintain itself indefinitely without at least plant life.
And since I am YEC, I like to think that any one geophysical part of the Hydrologic Cycle cannot maintain itself for very long at all. In other words, I like to think that, minus even one of these five geophysical parts, such an *incomplete* Hydrologic Cycle cannot maintain itself for more than a day.
Thus, I like to think that even the complete geophysical Hydrologic Cycle cannot maintain itself to *full capacity* for more than a day without abundant plant life.
But, if all of the above ideas are true, then, given merely these ideas, there is no prima facie reason to think that the Hydrologic Cycle can maintain itself for long without animal life. In other words, if all the above ideas are true, then it is only natural to allow that the Hydrologic Cycle depends not merely on the geophysical features and abundant plant life, but on abundant animal life.
Here is the single central issue for me: Is God concerned for a useless abundance? Is the abundance of both water and life and Earth insignificant to the fact that any life can abide here at all? My answer is no. Abundance of water and life are necessary for life to survive. This reflects the abundance of the quantity of different cosmological constants in the way of their being fine-tuned to allow life in the universe. Abundance. Generosity. Openness.
Of course, these three allow that any evil in the mix has an abundance of resources and avenues by which to be maintained and to spread. But that’s just borrowing or stealing what does not belong to it.
But I digress.
My point is that I find reason, perhaps despite my ignorance, to think that God really did create (at least Earth’s biosphere) in six literal days.
.