On Friday, October 14h at 7 PM, Rocky Mountain Creation Fellowship is privileged to have as its’ monthly speaker, Mr. Michael J. Oard. Michael received his Master's degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Washington and worked as a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Great Falls, Montana. Recently retired from the National Weather Service, meteorologist Michael Oard gives a fascinating and illustrated talk - at an easy-to-understand level - on the compelling evidence for Noah’s Flood and the Ice Age that resulted. Mike is a current speaker for the Answers in Genesis ministry and has written numerous books and papers.
Michael talk on Friday is titled: The Great Ice Age - Only the Bible Can Explain It. The basic post-Flood rapid Ice Age model will be presented. Mike will also share new research on subsidiary issues of the Ice Age, such as 1) will there be a future ice age? 2) whatever happened to the woolly mammoths? 3) new results on Greenland and Antarctic ice cores, 4) the meaning of the Lake Missoula flood, and 5) how do we explain those ice ages in the rock record that are claimed to be 100s of millions to billions of years old?
Biblical Creationism has been at a disadvantage in achieving credibility among individuals who are acquainted with the earth sciences. The seventh and eighth chapters of the book of Genesis specify a catastrophe that completely transformed the surface of planet Earth (the flood of Noah). Data in the eleventh chapter of Genesis, together with additional data in I Kings 6:1; Exodus 12:40,41; Genesis 47:9, 25:26, 21:5, and 12:4, place this catastrophe about 4348 B.C. The earth's surface also contains ample evidence of ice activity that is widely perceived as impossible to have been restricted to only the last 5000 years.
According to widely held views among scientific authorities, planet Earth is now in an interglacial interlude which has been preceded by four continental glaciations and three interglacial interludes over the past one and one half million years (the Pleistocene epoch of secular geologic history). The response of some creationists has been to abandon confidence in the validity of the quantitative historical data in the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Others have preserved their faith in the Biblical data by affirming that planet Earth has never experienced continental glaciation or an ice age.
Both responses deny the evidence for continental glaciation which is clear and too widespread to deny. Michael Oard has made a major contribution, in opening up avenues for a sound understanding of the evidence for continental glaciation from the perspective of Biblical testimony. He has been equipped for this contribution by his competence as a professional meteorologist, exhaustive study of the scientific evidence related to glaciation and confidence that Moses recorded only accurate historical data.
Michael will present the factors needed to cause an ice age of such magnitude and show that the global flood of Noah, as presented in Genesis, provides all the requirements needed for widespread global glaciation. This phenomenon allowed development of ice over 30% of the land surface existing at the end of the flood. Michael also gives evidence for the unlikelihood of any continental glaciation in a climate that can be modeled by uniformitarian assumptions presently used in science to explain the past.
Estimates of how long the ice sheets existed and how long it took for the ice sheets to melt and retreat will be presented. The extent to which the evidence for glaciation is evidence for a unique catastrophic interlude in the history of our planet will probably surprise many people.
The magnitude and precision of quantitative estimates for ice accumulation time, ice volume, ice thickness, glaciated area, and ice retreat time that can be made from meteorological principles, will amaze many others.