Pangaea and its Climate

In order to understand the significance for biblical creationism of the theory of Pangea, we must look ahead to the story of the flood. The Flood narrative is found in Genesis 7. In that story, the word for mountain or hill (har) is used for the first time in the Bible. When we consider the nature of Pangea, the super-continent, what is most apparent is the lack of any plate tectonic action. Only when the massive continent of Pangea began separating into what we know now as the continents and islands of earth did plate tectonics play a role.

Plate tectonics is the movement of the various plates of the earth’s crust. The San Andreas Fault in California is one example of the results of the movement of the earth’s plates. Volcanoes and earthquakes result when the plates move against one another. Also, all the mountains of the earth are the result of the movement of the earth’s plates. On Pangea, before the appearance of the vast continents of the earth, mountains, as we know them now, did not exist. Probably, high hills existed, but surely not mountains.

The climate of Pangea, using the biblical model as an explanation, would have been exceedingly humid. A look at fossil’s found in Antarctica illustrates well that fact. Alfred Wegener, who introduced the idea of Pangea, found the same rock formations and fossils in Africa, South America, and Antarctica. Some of the fossils were of species that grew in only one type of climate, yet the fossils were found on continents now having differing climates. Included in these fossil finds were flowering trees, much like those found in tropical environments today, and dinosaurs. How could there be fossils of tropical climate species in Antarctica, a continent now permanently covered with ice and snow?

The original makeup of earth then was, without doubt, a single, large, tropical super-continent. Such an environment would have been ideal for the great dinosaurs. Genesis 1 suggests the original plants were grasses, reeds and small bushes and trees of the kinds now existing in tropical forests. During the era of Pangea, the earth was enveloped by a dense cloud cover (Gen. 17). Genesis 2.5 states, “and all bushes of the pasture lands were not yet in the earth, and all grasses of the pasture lands were not yet in the earth, because the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth; but a mist rose up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the land.” (Gen. 2.5-6)

Let’s compare Genesis 1.11-12 and 2.5-6 because of the seeming conflict between these two texts regarding the description of the earth. In 1.11-12, the text tells us of the earth’s sprouting three kinds of plants: green grass, seed producing plants and fruit trees. The plants described in 2.5 are of a different sort. In that verse, pasture grasses and pasture bushes are described. Now, the plants described in 1.11-12 could easily be understood as plants native to a tropical environment. If Pangaea was primarily tropical, pasture lands, commonly referred to as savannahs, would not yet have developed. Further, the description of the climate in 2.6 is consistent with a heavily tropical environment. So, we can say Gen. 1.11-12 describes one kind of environment and 2.5-6 another.

Interestingly, recent discoveries in South China show animal life (as evolutionists understand the development of animal life) sprang from lakes and not the ocean, virtually setting evolutionary theory on its head (http://www.livescience.com/animals/090727-first-life.html). The biblical description of the beginnings of life on earth, consistent with the finds in China, tell of life sprouting and being created in a marshy, watery tropical environment. In that rainforest world, with its lush, abundant vegetation, a variety of animal life forms existed. Among those were dinosaurs. Unfortunately, the Bible gives no description of the kinds of animals God created first (Gen. 1.20-25). All we can learn from the biblical account is “God made the living creatures of the earth according to their species, beasts and animals creeping on the earth according to their species.”

From the beginning, life on earth has been diverse. Yet, when plants sprouted from the earth, they did so according to their species; when birds, fish and sea monsters (whales, dolphins, etc.) were created, they, too, were according to their species; when animal life was created, they as well were brought forth according to their species. No species of plant or animal life developed from another species. Each life form was made by God according to his plan. Each life form is a part of a specific family or species; each has a particular context in which it lives best.

In our next post, we will look further at life forms as described in Genesis.

Earth Coming Together

The scientific discipline of astro-physics teaches a star is formed through a process by which dense parts of molecular clouds collapse into a ball of plasma. Plasma, simply stated, is a gas-like entity. Like gas, plasma does not have a definite shape or a definite volume. The Genesis creation account perhaps teaches a similar concept.

Genesis 1.1-2 states, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” Notice what verses 1b-2a, “God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep.” At the outset, God brought into being a formless, unseeable void; this formlessness was originally inert or inactive. Thus, since the formless void was not producing energy, no light existed.

Then, God declared, “Let there be light.” The light God called into being did not just magically appear, but resulted from God’s causing the inert plasma cloud, the formless void, to begin acting within and upon itself. So, energy was produced and light appeared. The light God caused was “separated” from the darkness. When we see pictures of our universe, the separation of light from darkness is evident. On earth, the radiated energy of the sun does not become light until interaction with our atmosphere takes place.

The next step in the creative process involved the separation of the waters. What were the waters and in what context did they exist? Let’s consider Uranus, one of the ice planets of our solar system. Uranus is composed primarily of rock and various ices, with only about 15% hydrogen and a little helium (in contrast to Jupiter and Saturn which are mostly hydrogen). Uranus (and Neptune) are in many ways similar to the cores of Jupiter and Saturn minus the massive liquid metallic hydrogen envelope. It appears that Uranus does not have a rocky core like Jupiter and Saturn but rather that its material is more or less uniformly distributed.

When earth was in the early stages of creation, the planets composition could have consisted in a manner similar to Uranus. Earth could have been an ice planet with its material distributed throughout the ice-ball. Earth’s earliest form could have been as an ice planet. At that point, the statement of Genesis 1.6, “Let there be an expanse (open sky) in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters,” easily could be understood. Thus, God could have, as a step in the creative process, brought together the material parts of the earth into a ball and “separated” the water, or melted the ice, to create the oceans and an atmosphere filled with water vapor.

This separating of the waters was followed by what is described in verse 9: “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so.” As the waters were differentiated, the matter distributed throughout the water would have coalesced due to gravity to form a solid mass. The matter would have been great enough to create great energy in its coming together. Further, the mass would have been great enough to rise above the water, forming a continent. A theory does exist describing this first land mass: the continent of pangaea.

Pangaea , from Ancient Greek pan "all, entire", and gēs "Earth" (Latinized as Gæa), was the supercontinent that is theorized to have existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 250 million years ago, before the component continents were separated into their current configuration. (Note the accompanying figure on sidebar.) The name was first used by the German originator of the continental drift theory, Alfred Wegener, in the 1920 edition of his book The Origin of Continents and Oceans (Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane), in which a postulated supercontinent Pangaea played a key role. The single enormous ocean which surrounded Pangaea is known as Panthalassa.

Science and the Bible do find common ground. In the beginning of earth’s existence, one large land mass existed surrounded by a vast ocean. What the Bible adds is the existence of an atmosphere so filled with water vapor as to constitute a cloud cover enveloping the whole of the planet. Such an idea is not preposterous at all. Venus, considered to be Earth’s sister planet, is a solid mass covered by a thick cloud cover. Earth still has clouds, but they are less dense now than they would have been in the early stages of planetary development.

From here, we will look at the implications of earth originally consisting of a single continent surrounded by a vast ocean and covered wholly with water vapor clouds.

Creation: To Begin

In Genesis 1, the account of the creation of the universe is recounted. A superficial reading of the account can lead to seemingly insurmountable difficulties. Also, if we compare modern ideas of the makeup of the universe with the Genesis creation story, we find deep inconsistencies between what modern science tells us and what the Bible declares. Modern astronomy teaches us, rightly, how the earth orbits around the sun. By contrast, the Bible tells us the earth was created before the sun or the moon. Seemingly, Scripture teaches a literal six-day creative period and an earth age of no more than 4-6 thousand years. Modern geologists tell us the earth and universe are billions of years old. The Bible gives us a starting point, a point of origin, or, if you will, a genesis for all things in existence. Modern science, at best, gives us a big-bang as the starting point, but cannot offer a theory of beginning.

So, what are we to do, what are we to believe? How did things begin? How old is the earth? What about dinosaurs? When did human-kind arrive? Did we evolve? Were we created? Does Genesis 1 give us one account of creation and Genesis 2 give us another? Can we believe in theistic evolution, or does Scripture require us to accept the concept of biblical creation? Do we have proof for creation? Can proof for evolution be demonstrated? The list of questions can go on and on.

We cannot answer all of the questions concerning the origins of the universe, or the dilemmas associated with the beginnings of life, especially human life. Yet, many answers do exist. In order to find them, we must read Scripture thoughtfully and intently. In biblical studies, scholars often speak of doing a close reading of the text. Others talk of “unpacking” the text in order to discover all of the layers of truth and meaning. Answering questions about creation requires us to do both a close reading of the text and to unpack the creation narrative of Genesis 1.

Let’s start with a close reading of the first few verses of Genesis 1. The beginning phrase of Genesis 1, is, “in the beginning.” Most often, we understand that phrase to mean “when things got started.” Another option exists. If you remember your “Mother Goose” stories, you will recall most of them began with the statement, “once upon a time.” Well, we probably should read Genesis 1.1 in that manner. The writer, though, was not saying simply “once upon a time,” he was saying “to begin,” as in “to begin this account.”

What is the first declaration of Genesis? “To begin, God created the heavens and the earth.” God is the operative term. All the words of Scripture follow this initial affirmation; all of the Bible is to be understood on that basis. God started everything; God superintends everything; God controls everything; God defines everything. Every story and account in the Bible, every psalm, song, poem and proverb is a God-oriented thing. The biblical declaration of God’s existence is the center-piece of Scripture. Without the Lord, Yahweh, Elohim, El-Shaddai, etc., none of what is said in the Bible makes any sense at all. Indeed, without God, the Bible is just another book of human philosophical musings.

Further, the declaration “God created the heavens and the earth” is central to all statements of truth in the Bible. Because God created all things, he owns all things, you and me included. Thus, the Ten Commandments are valid because the One in charge has the right to demand of all humans the highest ethical behavior. Nor can the Cross be disregarded because the God who created in concert as God the Father (Gen. 1.1), God the Son (John 1.1-3) and God the Spirit (Gen. 1.2) is the same God who sent his Son into the world to die for lost humanity.

God cannot be sidelined in our discussions of origins, as modern science would have us do. We must have a concept of beginning; we must be able to look to some thing or to someone as the responsible party for our existence. If we evolved, then we are answerable to an impersonal, time-chance process as the authority for our being. We would be required to find in nature some justification for our existence and our behavior. Unfortunately, the natural world is a place where the strong visit violence upon the weak. We call this process the food-chain: some eat, some are eaten. The strong live, the weak die. Nature is very selfish, impersonal and harsh.

We do have another alternative. If God created, then we are obligated to consider him in all our decisions. We must understand we are all accountable to God for our behavior, if he in fact did create. His commands and instructions are binding upon us all. Yet, we have no cause for fear, because God is a God of love, mercy and grace. Nature knows only brute force; no justice exists in the natural world. If God started time and the universe, he will guide all things to his intended end. No hope for a final resolution of evil and injustice can be found in nature, only a continuing process filled with danger, threat and a hopeless and pointless existence. In God, though, we find hope and purpose. We can find such because he is the God of hope and he does have a purpose.