Traces of the Flood and the Ice Ages

Alan Feuerbacher

The Society has said that much of the physical evidence that geologists interpret as due to the effects of ice ages is really due to the Flood. The God's Word or Man's book says:¹⁴⁰

If we grant that a great flood could have happened, why have scientists found no trace of it? Perhaps they have, but they interpret the evidence some other way. For example, orthodox science teaches that the surface of the earth has been shaped in many places by powerful glaciers during a series of ice ages. But apparent evidence of glacial activity can sometimes be the result of water action. Very likely, then, some of the evidence for the Flood is being misread as evidence of an ice age.

The book goes on to quote a 1961 Scientific American article that says that when the ice ages were first recognized to have occurred, some of the evidence was later shown to be caused by the flow of water rather than ice. While this is true, please note that as geologists gained experience during the past two centuries they found and corrected their own errors. Also note that in the thirty years since 1961, a revolution has occurred in the earth sciences. A huge amount of evidence now exists that shows beyond all reasonable doubt that ice ages did occur.

Geologists have also found that large floods have occurred. But the evidence for them is quite different from the evidence that today is interpreted as due to ice ages. The largest documented flooding occurred at the end of the last ice age in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Its effects are clear and unambiguous, as I have seen for myself when flying over parts of Oregon and Washington. A line of hills along the Columbia River just west of Portland, Oregon was undercut by the water as it rounded the inside corner of a large bend. It looks like the undercutting of sand on a beach by a small stream, but on a far larger scale. The evidence becomes even more striking when one is flying at 25,000 feet over eastern Washington and Oregon shortly after sunrise. The early morning light adds sharp relief to the water carved features. Just as striking, these features are not evident in the high country outside the flooded area, nor are they evident across the rest of the United States, even in areas that were under continental ice sheets.

I next describe this flooding in detail, to show what the effects of a truly large flood are. While reading this, try to think of other places where these effects are seen. If you can document it, I'd certainly like to know about it.

Footnotes

¹⁴⁰ The Bible -- God's Word or Man's?, pp. 113-114, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., Brooklyn, NY, 1989.