From the Depths of Their Hearts - A History of Flood Geology in 20th century America

The early 20th century saw many an orthodox Christian raise his voice against the theory of evolution. They became known as creationists. Some, like the well known politician William Jennings Bryan, addressed its moral implications, while others like George McCready Price and Byron C. Nelson argued against its scientific foundations. Each of them believed in a divinely inspired Bible, which told about God's six-day creation and the Noachian flood or deluge. Some advocated a fairly liberal reading of Genesis, with days of creation lasting for eons, while others insisted on 24-hour days and a relatively young earth.

The story of Noah's flood plays an important role in creationism. This world-wide catastrophe destroyed the earth and its inhabitants, except for Noah's family and the animals God gathered in the Ark. Although catastrophists like Cuvier and Buckland would allow for multiple floods, even they could not find geological evidence for the Biblical deluge. George McCready Price, devoted amateur who argued that 'God's Two Books' had to in harmony which each other, disagreed on geological methodology involving the hypotheses of evolution and uniformity, and attempted to show that there was multiple evidence for the flood. After a slow start his theory gained much popularity among orthodox Christians, who had enough of liberal theologians selling their souls to science and decomposing the Bible through Higher Criticism.

Moving on to 1961, we see another eruption of flood geology with theologian John C. Whitcomb and hydraulic engineer Henry M. Morris publishing `The Genesis Flood,' in which they advocate a model of science based upon the Bible as truth. Insisting not only upon a six-day creation, but also upon bishop Ussher's Biblical chronology, creation happening in 4004 B.C., this book shaped creationism as it is today. Although partially based upon Price's criticism of geological methods they take the other way in around in interpreting geological data with creation in hindsight.

Due to Morris and his Institute for Creation Research creationism became rapidly scientificated from the 70's onwards, with highly technical articles and papers produced written by Harvard and MIT-graduates, as well as competing flood theories like Walt Brown's hydroplate theory. These days countless well-educated men appear to be young-earth creationists, as well as about two-thirds of the American population. Historian of science Ronald Numbers, who grew up in such an environment but gradually lost his faith, became an authority on creationism. His background obviously colors his research, but not in a strictly negative sense: his respectful attitude towards creationists contrasts with the popular picture of pseudo-scientific loonies, instead painting the struggles within their hearts.