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I thought I was quite clear in my post # 81: even your reply in post # 82 gave every indication that you knew I was providing only a list of books And just to verify I was going provide what you expected I said this in post # 83 == == == == initially i was responding to a very specific challenge and criteria you stated in post # 1: to reiterate - my response to your challenge in post # 1 is simple: I do not deny the scientific evidence but I do reject PFAL's criteria for establishing the God-breathed Word. My response to your latest post is also simple: mentioning some of the issues you brought up at the beginning of this thread and briefly covering some things I found in Hugh Ross' book The Genesis Question will have to suffice for now. The idea of a universe in a bubble and no rain before the flood are not supported in Scripture; day 2 of creation Gen. 1:6 & ff is where the water cycle begins – condensation and precipitation – the word "sky" and "expanse" refer to the visible "dome" above us – more specifically the portion of Earth's atmosphere where clouds form and move. Even if it were a watery canopy just around the Earth, there is no science that offers compelling evidence. On page 153, Ross states this concept fails every test of plausibility since the vaporous canopy would dissipate to interplanetary space or come crashing down to Earth due to gravity; even if it was for a short time it would set up such a powerful greenhouse heating effect that no ice or liquid would remain on Earth to sustain life, and the Flood would become unnecessary. == == == == Lightfoot and Ussher were caught up in a race to see who could publish an accurate date when God created Adam & Eve. They assumed that Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 listed complete genealogical records. Jewish scholars view the lists as part of their cultural heritage and consider the genealogies adequate lists not complete lists. Lightfoot and Ussher figured it was simple math to calculate the date – add the ages of the fathers to the ages of their sons and work backward from the fairly well-established date for Abraham. Before long their date spread throughout Christendom and beyond as if it were part of the Bible text. By the 19th century, it had reached the margin notes of most English Bibles. As far as dating done by scientists - by comparing samples of currently living humans with well-dated ancient human DNA and noting the range of DNA differences among individuals of people groups of the world, researchers could then estimate the total time required for the differences to have developed. the biochemical studies so far have been on small population samples and the results are only approximate. == == == Maybe our modern global perspective assumes a worldwide flood. The scale of reference for the Flood should be understood in the context of their culture. "worldwide" references are used elsewhere: the famine of Genesis 41:56 "was over the face of the earth" = devastated all the lands of the ancient Near East in and around Egypt. We do not interpret that to imply that Australian Aborigines and American Indians had to come to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph. Likewise, I Kings 10:24 states "the whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart", we do not assume New Zealand Maoris or the Patagonian natives sent yearly delegations to Jerusalem." Mount Ararat's elevation is 16,946 feet above sea level. Genesis 8:4 says the ark came to rest on the mountains (plural) of Ararat not on Mount Ararat. The entire Ararat range extends from the vicinity north and east of Mount Ararat all the way down to the foothills skirting the Mesopotamian plain, covering more than 100,000 square miles. Noah's ark could have come to rest anywhere within this enormous region. It does not require a global flood interpretation. == == == Stories from the ancient Akkadian and Sumerian cultures tell of extraordinary long life spans. Only rough dates or ages appear in these accounts, but they claim that their most ancient kings lived thousands of years. Genesis 6 simply states that God shortened humans' lifespan to 120 years. Genesis does not say how God did this. A reasonable place to start the inquiry would be to identify what factors limits the human lifespan. Ross lists 13 factors – war and murder, accidents, disease, inadequate nutrition, metabolic rate, inadequate exercise, stress, chemical carcinogens, ultraviolet radiation, solar X-ray radiation, radioisotope decay radiation, cosmic radiation, and apoptosis (biochemically "programmed" cell death). The last one – apoptosis – could easily have been "the how" – to genetically alter a cell to limit its lifespan.