Lawyer jettisons Noah's Flood
Many people think that the biblical flood of Noah was abandoned because of the
evidence. However, history tells a different story. Modern geological thought
owes much to a man named Charles Lyell. Lyell, a lawyer, published a book in
1830 called Principles of Geology. Described as a "masterpiece of persuasion",
it changed the way people thought about earth's past. According to Lyell, we
should only appeal to today's geological processes to explain earth history.
However, this approach meant that the global flood recorded in the Bible was
automatically ruled out of consideration. Lyell wanted, he wrote, "to free the
science [of geology] from Moses". Regrettably, many people have uncritically
adopted Lyell's philosophy, without considering how Noah’s flood can help us
understand earth history. Lyell changed the way many people think, but his
approach was motivated by his anti-biblical philosophy, not an objective study
of the evidence. Indeed, it is very difficult to explain earth's history without
Noah's Flood.