There are a couple of reasons I like to
read questions asked by skeptics. First, it demonstrates how little
studied many skeptics are about creation. Often, the questions are
so absurdly easy to answer, it gives me an opportunity to point out
to the skeptic that he needs to study creation more thoroughly before
rejecting it. A second reason, however, is that it gives me
inspiration for items to blog about.
Such is the case from a skeptic using
the online name, Clever Name (not really very clever but that's the
name he chose). Clever Name posted about a dozen questions
concerning the Flood. Some of them are interesting and may be used
in upcoming posts but he prompted another skeptic (going by the name
rossum) to ask how diseases – like small pox, tape worms, and polio
– survived the Flood. OK, “tape worm” is not really a disease
but you get the point. This isn't a new criticism but one I've heard
many times before. I merely haven't addressed it before now.
I've heard it suggested (via a straw
man argument) that Noah and his family had to be the most sickly
people that had ever lived because they had to carry among them all
known human maladies and parasites. The Bible does not say how
bacteria and viruses et al survived the Flood so any answer
given by creationists are educated guesses. There are many plausible
explanations - any one of which is possible (or a combination of all
of them). I will offer a few possibilities but this is by no means
meant to be an exhaustive list of options.
CARRIED BY THE FAMILY
Noah and his family could possibly have
had ailments that survived the Flood though this is the least
plausible explanation. Most viruses do not infect human hosts for a
year without being defeated by our immune system but some diseases
are chronic. Since I'm not a doctor, I can't say if there are any
viruses that hosts can “carry” for years without symptoms and
still be contagious but, if so, some of Noah's family can be blamed
if those maladies still plague us. Parasites, on the other hand, can
definitely be carried for long periods by their hosts and still be
passed along to others. Tapeworms, which were specifically mentioned
by rossum, are such parasites.
Even if some diseases survived via
Noah's family, this certainly cannot account for all of the diseases
suffered by humans today. There must be other methods as well.
CARRIED BY ANIMALS
There were at least a few thousand
animals on the Ark. There can be no doubt that many of them carried
parasites like tics, fleas, and tapeworms. Many also likely carried
viruses. Now, I already know that some critics out there will bring
up the fact that many diseases that infect humans cannot be borne by
animals. While that may be true of modern strains, it may not be
true of their ancestors. Viruses that can now only survive in humans
may have once been more robust and able to live in animals as well.
Viruses, like animals, have adapted to their environments and become
more specialized. The further back we go in time, the more general
and robust species may have been.
The funny thing is that this must be a
part of the evolutionary theory even if evolutionists don't see it as
an option for creationists. If certain viruses can only live in
humans now, how did the viruses survive millions of years ago before
humans evolved? Obviously, the ancestors of these modern, human
strains were borne by something other than humans. Evolutionists
must concede that viruses that only infect humans now must once have
survived in non-humans. If the evolutionists are honest, they should
also admit this solution exists for the creationist as well.
CONTACT WITH INFECTED DEAD PEOPLE OR
ANIMALS
Under the right conditions, things like
bacteria and viruses can survive extended periods without a host.
About one year ago, I wrote about the discovery of living bacteria
that was supposedly 34,000 years old. Decades old viruses have
also be recovered from a doomed, arctic expedition. For years after
the Flood, humans may have come into contact with the carcasses of
infected people or animals that had perished in the Deluge.
SOME DISEASES DIDN'T EXIST BEFORE
THE FLOOD
Though I risk hearing a big “gotcha”
from my opponents, I know that some germs that cause disease now, may
not have been disease causing in the antediluvean world. Many things
we now consider harmful may have once served a beneficial purpose
but, because of the Curse, has mutated to become the malevolent agent
it is now. Such a notion brings to mind the ultimate origin of
pathogens in the first place. Surely, God would not have intended
things like cancer to be part of the initial, “very good”
creation. Where then did they come from? Perhaps God, in His
foreknowledge, programed latent features into DNA that became
expressed as part of His judgment. I don't know. However it may
have happened, the same mechanism could be at work after the Flood.
Mutations that cause deformities and maladies in other species, could
also make helpful bacteria become harmful. This is the cursed world
we live in.
IN CONCLUSION, there's no reason to
believe that diseases are somehow an argument against the Flood.
There are many ways these survived the Flood without resorting to the
ridiculous idea that Noah and his sickly family carried them all.
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