Creation Science Rebuttals -

      Liebert lists two sources for the water.  First, he appeals to the vapor canopy model for the flood waters.  I will not discuss this model here.  Very few creationists still believe this model, despite the fact that the scientific problems it introduces would have killed all life on earth under the canopy.  In fact, the young earth science organizations Answers in Genesis and Institute for Creation Research both discredit this argument, and say creationists should not use it (see below for more reading).

     The second source he lists is the fountains of the great deep, or a release of subterranean water.  I also believe this to be the case, but in my case, this was feeding a local flood, not a global one.

     Liebert says there was enough water, because the mountains we presently have did not exist then.  He believes that "As a creationist I believe all the mountain ranges of the world are a direct result of major continental movements during the flood."  However, this introduces a big problem.  If all the world's mountains are a result of the flood, then they should all be the same age...they are not!  For instance, the Appalachians are the oldest mountains in the United States, with uplift starting around 440 million years ago.  The Rockies started uplifting about 65 million years ago, and the Grand Tetons, part of the Rockies, only started uplifting 9 million years ago.  The amount of erosion from these mountains, with the most being the Appalachians, then the Rockies, then the Tetons, all show that they have all not been exposed to weathering for the same amount of time.  The Appalachians are vastly older, and much more weathered.

    This also creates a problem for other young earth theories.  The eroded Appalachians are recognized as the source of the sediment that makes up the Navajo Sandstone in the western United States.  Therefore, the Appalachians had to exist prior to the so-called global flood.  This fact alone disproves Liebert's claim that all the world's mountains arose as a result of the flood.

     Liebert argues that if the earth were flat, there is enough water to cover the land in 9,000 feet of water.  However, the world could not have been flat, for at least the Appalachians had to exist prior to the flood (for the Navajo Sandstone's benefit).  This ruins Liebert's theory...the earth was not flat.

     He mentions information from The Answers Book, which includes the Mt. Everest claim.  The top of Mount Everest contains fossil-bearing rocks.  However, if this massive uplift at the end of the flood had happened to Everest, the sediments would have still been saturated with water...the uplift would be an uplift of mud.  We would end up with a sloping hill, as the mud slumped.  Everest obviously lithified before it uplifted. 

     He mentions tiny rivers which carve out great canyons, and alludes to the runoff from the flood causing these, since it is hard to imagine, in his mind, how such a tiny river could carve a canyon.  However, the geology behind this is solid, and there is no evidence to support his claim.  This is just simple ignorance of geologic principles.

     Liebert also refers to the rapid sedimentation at Mount Saint Helens, something I discuss in this article.

     He closes with a claim new to me.  Prior to the Flood, there was only fresh water.  I could find no scientific evidence to back up this claim.

¹  Noah's Flood Waters, published on the web at www.sixdaycreation.com/facts/flood/march2004.html

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