Learning very accurate dates is extremely important to scientists, and they work with highly skilled technicians in order to maximize the accuracy of the dates determined. The dating technique known as dendrochronology is so extremely accurate that by applying the technique the precise year in which ancient battles took place can be learned, and the precise year in which early human settlements were founded can be determined. Of great concern to young earth creationist organizations is that the topography and climate of the White Mountains of California has been determined from dendrochronological studies of the Bristlecone Pine, Pinus longaeva, to have changed very little during the past 10,000 years. The young earth creationist organizations are very much aware of this fact and hate it with a burning passion because it incontrovertibly proves that the flood story in Genesis is topographically and historically incorrect. For a while, these organizations argued that trees can, in special circumstances produce two rather than one tree ring, but they soon realized that they could not explain away, even to themselves, 5,600 extra tree rings! Moreover, the extremely accurate dates obtained through the use of dendrochronology have proved that many hundreds of dates obtained from radiocarbon dating were also very accurate.
Young earth creationist organizations are also familiar with the following facts regarding the flood story in Genesis:
- There are today about 2,000,000 genetically distinct populations of animals living on the earth. If we assume a date of about 2,349 B.C. for the flood (Bishop Ussher’s date), microevolution reduces the number of “kinds” of animals that must have been aboard the ark (to account for the about 2,000,000 genetically distinct populations of animals living on the earth today) to a few hundred thousand “kinds.”
- The several thousands of “kinds” of animals, including the dinosaurs, mammoths, giant ground sloths, etc., which have become extinct must also be considered. Did they all become extinct before the flood? If not, they were, according to the account in Genesis, aboard the ark.
- The ark, as literally described in Genesis, was much too small because the amount of water that it would be capable of displacing would weigh less than the animals on board, thus making it impossible for the ark to float.
- The floor space on the ark was too small to hold any more than a tiny fraction of the cages that would be necessary to keep the animals in place (and from eating each other).
- The amount of food required for the animals would weigh at least nearly as much as the animals, and would require a vast amount of storage space—not to mention refrigeration!
- Many of the animals aboard the ark would have required specific FRESH fruits, vegetables, leaves, grass, bark, roots, etc., including fresh fruits that are produced only on MATURE plants. Therefore, these mature plants would necessarily have been kept and maintained aboard the ark, and subsequently planted in the ground after the flood.
- Most of the genetically discrete populations of fish (including many VERY LARGE fish) would have to be taken aboard the ark and kept in tanks of water that met their very specific water chemistry needs in order to survive.
- The weight of the water on the earth would have crushed to death any of the land plants that did not drown in the water.
- After 150 days when the water abated, there would be no vegetation on the earth for the herbivores to eat, and no meat for the carnivores to eat, therefore a vast amount of food would necessarily have been kept aboard the ark to sustain the animals AFTER the flood.
- The Animals could not all be released all at once or in the same place because many of them would eat each other.
- The coming of the animals to Noah from all over the earth would have been a physical impossibility no less impossible than Santa Clause delivering presents to every boy and girl on the night before Christmas. The polar bears and penguins, not to mention all of the unique kinds of animals in Australia, would have posed more than a few special difficulties.
- After the flood, the animals could not be returned to their original habitat because all habitats would have been destroyed by the flood.
- Many of the necessary habitats would take 50 years or more to be reestablished and their reestablishment would have required the effort of many thousands of persons.
- Until all the necessary habitats could be reestablished, the animals requiring these habitats would have to be kept and cared for by Noah and his family.
- There was not enough water to cover the entire earth, and even if there was, where did it go after the flood?
- If the reported sightings of the Ark are factual, the Ark came to rest on a VERY high mountain on VERY rugged terrain from which the large majority of the animals would not have been able to descend.
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