Darwin and the case for 'militant atheism'

[StAnastasia]

Hi, StAnastasia - That it would be one heckuva comet’s tail to provide all that water, was why I postulated an interplanetary cloud of water. … I really don’t want to postulate another planetoid coming by, to pull the water out of the atmosphere, even with my limited math, I know that just doesn’t work.

Donsnow, in his New Theory of the Earth (1696) William Whiston proposed the comet theory of Noah’s deluge, just as you have done. <See William Whiston and the Deluge>

You could of course postulate another planetoid that came by to recapture all the cometary water; you could argue that Europa, which is largely composed of water – possibly with a deep ocean under an icy crust – gravitationally sucked off all the excess water from Noah’s flood, and then was kicked back out of orbit until it was eventually captured by the gravitational pull of Jupiter. If future space missions discover the remains of terrestrial organisms under Europa’s crust, will this be proof that my theory is correct? Time will tell!

StAnastasia

 

[StAnastasia]

Donsnow, in his New Theory of the Earth (1696) William Whiston proposed the comet theory of Noah’s deluge, just as you have done. <See William Whiston and the Deluge>StAnastasia

Georges Cuvier had this to say about Whiston’s comet theory about Noah’s Flood:

"Whiston fancied that the earth was created from the atmosphere of one comet, and that it was deluged by the tail of another. The heat which remained from its first origin, in his opinion, excited the whole antediluvian population, men and animals, to sin, for which they were all drowned in the deluge, excepting the fish, whose passions were apparently less violent.”

 

[donsnow]

Donsnow, in his New Theory of the Earth (1696) William Whiston proposed the comet theory of Noah’s deluge, just as you have done. <See William Whiston and the Deluge>

You could of course postulate another planetoid that came by to recapture all the cometary water; you could argue that Europa, which is largely composed of water – possibly with a deep ocean under an icy crust – gravitationally sucked off all the excess water from Noah’s flood, and then was kicked back out of orbit until it was eventually captured by the gravitational pull of Jupiter. If future space missions discover the remains of terrestrial organisms under Europa’s crust, will this be proof that my theory is correct? Time will tell!

StAnastasia

It would be nice, if time told in your lifetime.

 

[donsnow]

Georges Cuvier had this to say about Whiston’s comet theory about Noah’s Flood:

"Whiston fancied that the earth was created from the atmosphere of one comet, and that it was deluged by the tail of another. The heat which remained from its first origin, in his opinion, excited the whole antediluvian population, men and animals, to sin, for which they were all drowned in the deluge, excepting the fish, whose passions were apparently less violent.”

Oh, what a card, Georges Cuvier!

 

[StAnastasia]

It would be nice, if time told in your lifetime.

Donsnow, that depends on the funding for NASA’s exploration program, which may not be high priority at the moment. I suspect governments are going to find it higher priority in the near future to stop global warming on Earth than to search for life on frozen Europa.

 

[Mystic_Banana]

Donsnow, that depends on the funding for NASA’s exploration program, which may not be high priority at the moment. I suspect governments are going to find it higher priority in the near future to stop global warming on Earth than to search for life on frozen Europa.

I think the general consensus at the moment is, we’ll never populate anything other than the Earth - or it was until the recent stuff about the moon… one of the long term ideals of Sci-Fi (and probably Sci-real) was always “don’t worry about burning up this planet - we’ll just go to some other ones eventually!” - anyway, chucking more and more of our diminishing supply of metals, fuels etc. at other planets with lovely hopes like this aren’t neccesarily gooing to be so popular, although it would only be one tiny little probe, wouldn’t it?

Still, I love theories like this! And who knows? The flood is one of those universal legends - turns up all over the place…

 

[donsnow]

Donsnow, that depends on the funding for NASA’s exploration program, which may not be high priority at the moment. I suspect governments are going to find it higher priority in the near future to stop global warming on Earth than to search for life on frozen Europa.

I’m afraid you’re right.:crying: