October 14th Speaker, Mr. Michael J. Oard
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.
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