More ponderings on attempts to debunk the Flood

Another attempt to discredt Flood Theology, from Bible and Science.com:

Impossible Flood Geology!

There are many reasons why Noah's flood can not account for all the geology we have. The Bible says all life on earth was destroyed by the 40 days and nights of rain. There were no survivors! Genesis 7:21-23 says, "All flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life-and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." If everything died how can there be millions of dinosaur tracks in different layers when 22 feet of water covered the earth. How can there be dinosaur nests with eggs, and young dinosaurs running around in the middle of the flood. According to the Bible all life was destroyed by the flood, yet there are many animal tracks, nests, ripple marks, and erosion between layers.

First, the Bible does not say "all life on earth was destroyed by the 40 days and nights of rain" which was just the very first stage, but by the Flood waters after they had risen to their maximum height (7:19-21). The tracks show that they hadn't died YET, that's all. They are in a layer that was covered over by others, right? The next one simply hadn't yet flowed in, but it would have to have been along fairly shortly and then the next above that and so on.

As for ripples and tracks impressed into a layer and the erosion of its surface, we have to assume there was some time lapse between the deposition of the strata and that the impressions were preserved before the full depth of the water was reached. But what is seen there wouldn't be life as usual but reflect desperation as the water rose.

However I do have to ask about nests between layers? Never heard that one before. The tracks and ripples and erosion simply represent some time lapse, if only of hours or days. But nests may need some other explanation. BETWEEN layers? What do these look like?

It took months for the waters to fully abate. It seems that there were two and a half months from the time the ark rested on Ararat (17th day of the 7th month of Noah's 600th year, Genesis 8:4) to the emergence to view of the tops of the mountains (1st day of the 10th month, v. 5). Forty days after that the earth was still covered with water and the dove found no place to land. From the emergence of the mountain tops it was four months and twenty-seven days until the ground was dry enough for them to leave the ark.

No time period is given for the rising of the waters to their maximum, just that they "prevailed upon the earth" 150 days, which would include the rising stages. It seems the receding took about seven months while the rising took something less than five, as it was exactly five months from their entering the ark to the point that the waters had receded enough for the ark to rest on Ararat. So it rose faster than it receded but still it could have taken four months or more to rise, maybe three before all the land was submerged (I'm making the most conservative guesses from very rough calculations based on the text), and during three months many people and animals would have died but still some that found high places and some kind of shelter could have continued living until there was no more land to cling to.

The first phase would have to have been the dissolving of the land from the heavy rain, which would have made mudslides and filled the rising water with sediments. And dead things. Layers of these sediments could have been accumulating from the early stages starting with the lowest areas as the rising waters brought them over the land. If they were brought in on tides they would have left the sediments in place until the next tide brought more to deposit over them. Animals could have run across them between tides. Or perhaps some other time factor is involved so that it took days between layers. And perhaps some were still being laid down even after the water had completely submerged the land, probably in that case by precipitation out of the water.

This is to answer the claim that the tracks and ripples would have been formed when the Flood waters had already covered everything.

The flood does not account for the thousands of annual layers of varies, thousands of layers of ice, coral reef growth, evaporates, and many layers of coal deposits (Wonderly 1987).

Nobody ever claimed that such things FORMED in the Flood, NOTHING formed in the Flood except the strata, things were moved around BY the Flood and living things DIED in the FLood. That's it. The many layers of varves and so on is something else. Coral reefs didn't grow in the Flood, they were already grown and were then uprooted and moved by the Flood. Coal, however, probably was formed AS A RESULT OF THE LAYERING which was formed by the Flood, as the water deposited prodigious amounts of the green things that were compressed into coal under the massive weight of the strata.

One of the greatest misunderstandings is that dinosaurs and humans lived together, and therefore Noah must have brought dinosaurs on the ark. There were no dinosaurs on the ark. Dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago.

Gotta rethink that time frame if you're going to think of the ark at all. If the Biblical Flood story is true so is the Creation as decribed in Genesis true, which appears to be about 6000 years ago, and there were no living things before that. Of COURSE dinosaurs and human beings inhabited the planet at the same time. There are no other possibilities if you believe the Bible. You can't mix the time frame of Geology and the time frame of the Bible, it's one or the other.