“For This They Willfully Forget . . . ”

Before I get into my main topic for today’s blog post, I wanted to direct you to our lead article on the website today about “flat-faced early humans.” Maybe you have already across the recent claim—which appeared in many major newspapers and websites—that some newly discovered fossils of flat-faced hominids “confirm” that three different kinds of hominids that were on parallel evolutionary paths once lived in the same area of Kenya (during the so-called “dawn of humanity” nearly two million years ago).

AiG’s Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell and Dr. David Menton will show you how the evidence confirms the creationist argument that the bones are from just another variety of human beings—descendants of people after the tower of Babel, and in the line back to Adam and Eve who were both made by the Creator God about 6,000 years ago.

I strongly encourage you to read our well-researched article that examines this latest evolutionary claim.

More and more, we are seeing the absolute willful ignorance of so many people in the culture when it comes to issues such as the global Flood, just at 2 Peter 3 predicted will happen. The July/August 2012 issue of Discover magazine contained a surprising and sad article, titled “Traces of the Great Flood.” The article is actually an excerpt from a book called The Rocks Don’t Lie (forthcoming August 2012), written by David Montgomery, a geology professor at the University of Washington.

Now, Montgomery’s article makes a surprising point: he claims that catastrophic floods formed many of the canyons and other rock formations we see today. In fact, the article’s byline even mentions the global Flood: “Geologists long rejected the notion that floods of biblical proportion had ever occurred—until one of them found proof of a Noah-like catastrophe in the wildly eroded river valleys of Washington State.”

Montgomery even gives a short history of geology, explaining that the conclusion that any of the geological formations could have been formed by a catastrophic flood was “vilified” over the nineteenth century—and that “it took most of the 20th century for other geologists to believe” that there was evidence for catastrophic flooding in Washington state. (For more on the history of geology, see Dr. Terry Mortenson, The Great Turning Point.)

In an effort to show his students what he meant by proof of a “Noah-like catastrophe,” Montgomery took them on a field trip. He writes about the reactions of his students upon viewing a remarkable geological formation in Washington State:

We drove across the Columbia River and continued eastward, dropping into Moses Coulee, a canyon with vertical walls of layered basalt. We gathered the students on a small rise and asked them how the canyon had formed. They immediately ruled out wind and glaciers. The valley was not U-shaped like a typical glacial valley, and none of us could imagine how wind might gouge a canyon out of hard basalt. But neither were there rivers or streams. After a while I pointed out that we were standing on a pile of gravel. I asked how the rounded granite pebbles came to be there when the closest source of granite lay over the horizon. Silence. (p. 44)

It’s interesting that the idea of a global Flood (or any flood, for that matter) forming this canyon had not occurred to these students. In fact, it speaks a lot about the loss of the authority of Scripture in our culture and to the denial of the past that has taken its place.

Even as Montgomery looks at the obvious evidence for the formation of this canyon by a catastrophic flood, he still denies any possibility that the Flood of Noah’s day, as recorded in the Bible, occurred. Furthermore, Montgomery strongly argues that the account of Noah’s Flood was simply a myth! He claims it was inspired by repeated local floods in places like Grand Canyon; the Black Sea; or Tsangpo Gorge, Tibet: “These were not global deluges as described in the Genesis story of Noah, but were more focused catastrophic floods taking place throughout the world. They likely inspired stories like Noah’s in many cultures, passed down through the generations” (p. 46).

In the face of evidence that these geological formations were carved by a catastrophic global Flood, these geologists still refuse to believe that the Bible holds any historical truth. They look at the evidence for the global Flood, even using descriptions such as “Noah-like catastrophe” or “floods of biblical proportion,” but they still determine that the evidence must point back to many local floods that occurred hundreds of thousands to millions of years ago. It’s a clear demonstration of the willful ignorance that 2 Peter 3 speaks of.

2 Peter 3:5–6 says, “For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.” Montgomery’s conclusions that these canyons and formations came about because of catastrophic flooding may be closer to the answer, but his argument against the possibility of there being a global Flood in Noah’s day still highlights a fundamental problem—God’s Word is being dismissed as a myth, while the myths man creates to explain the world are being regarded as fact.

As I often say to people. When I went to university, my geology profs taught me that the geological formations (such as the Grand Canyon) were formed slowly over millions of years. But over the years, geologists (like the one above) have come to realize that they can only explain such features using catastrophism. But they don’t want to believe God’s Word concerning a global catastrophe over 4,300 years ago (Noah’s Flood), so now they say, “these geological formation were formed quickly, over millions of years!” They just refuse to give up the millions of years—they have to have long ages because if they don’t, then they could never propose biological evolution! The idea of millions of years is foundational to their, yes, religion in the attempts to explain life without God.

Yes, they are truly “willfully ignorant.”

(Thanks to AiG researcher Steve Golden for his work in putting this blog post together.)

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken