h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There's a book from A. and E. Tollmann (two geologists) that has much evidence for the Flood and provides an interesting theory for the Genesis account too. Reading it sent shivers down my neck . Here's an, er..., short summary (apologies for any inaccurracies, after all it's *me* translating from German here) and although I might appear to be taking a wide turn, I promise I'll get back to the topic.

The book is:
Alexander and Edith Tollmann: Und die Sintflut gab es doch, ISBN 3-426-77139-X

Apparently it's only available in German but there's passing mention here: http://www.creationinthecrossfire.com/Articles/Cyclothems.html



First of all, they state that some 10000 years ago, a meteor approached and split into seven major pieces (compare that to Shoemaker-Levy which broke into 9 pieces before impact on Jupiter) which hit the Earth at locations quite far away from each other and wrought havoc. They list 14 effects related to this. Further, they say that ancient man was there and *watched*, a few survived and relayed the stories to their children over into times when writing was invented. They further state that these are *reports* of a previous event but sometimes have been converted into prophecies. The events, roughly sorted in order of appearance, were:

[0] All was well and beautiful before it happened. It was 'paradise', a warm period in Earth's history and mankind didn't need clothes even in high latitudes.

1. Peruvian myth has it that one day, seven new stars appeared in the skies. The book Henoch in the Old Testament as well as Persian, Nordic (Edda) and Indian myths feature the same observation. Babylonian accounts talk of a snake with seven heads that represents the beast of Doom. An allusion is drawn to all the evil 'dragon' images around the world, which the Tollmanns associate with the image of a comet's fire-spewing head and long burning tail.

2. The fireballs at impact. Natives of Southern Argentina describe the one they saw as 'the old, mean Sun' which fell from the skies, boiled the ocean, burned the land and killed the people. The Greek legend of Phaeton and the account covered in the Book of Revelations are similar to that.

3. Huge fountains of water and molten stone and a blinding flash of light. There are reports from India (Ksemendra / Mahabharata / Matsyapurana). The Edda talks of a fight in the skies, carried out with glowing swords. The Gilgamesh Epos says that the Ghosts of the Deep raised torches to burn the land and shatter it to pieces. Perhaps this is also what the biblic account of Sodom and Gomorrha is all about. The Book of Revelation tells that there was like a huge, burning mountain falling into the sea, creating smoke that darkened everything.

4. Noise. There are legends from Peru, Siberia and Persia. These reports are from places somewhat offset from the points of impact because no-one closer to them would have survived.

5. Heat, Wind and Firestorms. [fast-forwarding through long accounts from Siberia and North America]

6. The Flood: rain and water from the depths of Earth. The 'wells of Depth' can be interpreted as Artesian wells, and the rain is quite obviously coming from all the water that was lifted into the atmosphere. [Skipping lots of details] Legends agree that it was *boiling hot* water that came down first.

7. Craters. Unfortunately, none of them can be found on land. But (being geologists) the Tollmanns found layers of dark matter and pieces of once-molten stone (breccia and shocked crystals) everywhere around their seven main locations of impacts.

8. Earthquakes. The Richter Scale is 'non-bounded' but these earthquakes would break *any* bounds. Volcanos are activated everywhere. [Legends from all around the planet].

9. The Flood. [That's what most legends are centred on]

10. Darkness. All the dirt thrown into the atmosphere obstructs light's way.

11. Cold. ['Nuclear Winter', if you so wish]

12. Acid Rain. The waters got 'bitter' and those who drank from it, died. Others got inflammations and ulcers from the exposure. Some legends call it 'blood rain' or 'blood snow' because of the colour of nitric acid.

13. Radiation damages. Miscarriages and deformations from radioactive substances and/or chemicals that were set free abound among those that survived the previous events. [Lots of accouts from Viet Nam and China: 'One out of 10 newborns was a "beautiful" one']. The Greek myth of Polyphem would fit in here.

14. Greenhouse Effect. By and by, all the dust is rained out of the atmosphere but CO2 levels are high and temperatures rise. Ice probes from Greenland show a maximum CO2 concentration some 9000 years ago, and hazelnut and other trees loving warm temperatures spread out far into Northern regions.


-- The aftermath --

* Mankind is decimated to such a degree -close to extinction- that all accounts only talk of a single couple or a handful of people being around afterwards. According to the legends (such as the Greek 'Deukalion and Pyrrha'), re-populating Earth is only accomplished by throwing stones back over one's neck that get converted into people. Similar accounts come from Guyana, the Aleutians and South America. Survivors were the few that found caves in elevated places far enough from impact locations. There wasn't much to feed on because animals suffered from the same fate and plants were severely affected by acid rain and darkness.

* By and by, all the dust rains out of the atmosphere, the water is drained into the oceans and sunlight is able to penetrate down to the surface again. First, the difference between day and night can be identified until, appearing in order of brightness, the Sun becomes visible again, then the Moon, then the stars. As time goes by, plants start growing (fostered by nutritients derived from the nitric acids) and animals come out of their hiding places.



-- And now for the topic drift, back to where it all started *again* --






In the beginning, God created the heaven and earth. And the earth was
without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face...

Wow. I wish I could read German, or that that book was available in English. It sounds fascinating!

H.

hmmmm, how about learning it?

Oh, I've just noticed that I've got the 'flood' twice in there and left out the most astonishing piece, so:

>>...all the dust rains out of the atmosphere, the water is drained into the oceans and sunlight is able to penetrate down to the surface again...<<

... which must have been a time when there were *rainbows* spanning from horizon to horizon. Now, doesn't Genesis mention the rainbow too?

Hmm, as another suggestion for reading, just look for this one:

When the Earth Nearly Died
Compelling Evidence of A Catastrophic World Change 9,500 BC
(c) 1995 by By D S Allan and J B Delair. 386pp.

Republished in 1997 as
"Cataclysm : Compelling Evidence of a Cosmic Catastrophe in 9500 B. C."

There's a review at http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/cat/earth/