One of the big divides between the global and local/regional view has to do with the issue of time. Can the scientific dating methods be trusted? Those who hold to a global catastrophic view many times come from the Young Earth camp. These Christians view the flood as occurring in the recent past since the earth is usually dated no later than 10,000 years old.
According to one source (J.Osgood) from the YE camp, the flood of Noah occurred around 2304 B.C. This, of course, would place the flood some 4,300 years ago. This is important to understand given that geologic history can be discerned in the rock record. Everyone understands that fossils, rocks, and various events (such as a floods) can be interpreted by looking at the rock record.
Let's say the flood took place up to 10,000 years ago. In geologic time, this would be a relatively recent event, for those who accept current scientific dating methods. The Cretaceous-Tertiary asteroid, which struck the Yucatan peninsula some 65 million years ago is believed by most scientist to have wiped out the dinosaurs. If you accept this age, then the impact occurred much later, geologically speaking, than Noah's flood. The point here is, if we can find evidence of a global catastrophic event in the rock record that is older than Noah's flood (By the way, the evidence for this asteroid impact is virtually indisputable) then the flood of Noah should be easy to discern given its recent history and global nature. Herein lies the problem, there is no evidence whatsoever of a global flood. There is much evidence of local and regional floods of the past and that is what I would like to examine next.
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