Noah's Flood by William Ryan and Walter Pitman

Noah's Flood is a novel whose subject has been the debate of religious experts and scientists alike since the beginning of written history. Almost every creationist story has an origin pertaining to or involving in some way a "great flood" in which the world that the ancients knew was destroyed. In this book, the authors describe in great detail their research and expeditions in an effort to solve this mystery. One of the things that I found most interesting about the book was how detailed the research that they did on the sea and river beds was. Some of the fossil remains that they examined varied only in minute detail, but implied drastic changes in environment. To ensure that an accurate depiction of the past was created, the team members responsible for analyzing the remains had to be meticulous in their examination. It turned out, however, that the painstaking attention to detail and identification of the fossilized organisms along with the analysis of the mineral concentration in various parts of the Black Sea led them to the theory that the Ancients did witness a huge flood, but it was more than likely not the result of divine intervention. They, along with the rest of their expedition, hypothesized that the ancients inhabiting the world at that time were congregated around the Black Sea because of its centralized location. They believe that next, because of rising sea levels, the Mediterranean Sea level rose so high that it overflowed into the Black Sea, causing a huge flood. Although the subject of the book is quite fascinating (the mingling of religion and science), the way that the book is written is rather dull. I would recommend this book only to friends who are able to maintain focus through pages of fossil analysis and sea bed material composition comparisons.

Questions:

1. If the author is writing on a debatable issue, does he or she give proper consideration to all sides of the debate, or does he or she seem to have a bias?

The topic of this book is one of the most hotly debated among geologists and religious experts. However, the authors of this book do an excellent job of providing an objective environment throughout their expedition as well as providing an objective environment for the reader in order to develop his or her own perspective on the matter. They also make an effort to provide examples of religious texts from various different sources as well as alluding and analyzing pertinent ancient texts such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is because of this objectivity, along with the results that they obtained, that the theory they propose is so widely discussed by the scientific community.


2. How has the book increased your interest in the subject matter?

This book has increased my interest in the subject matter of geology through the way its authors used it to solve an age-old question. Too often, we forget that there is application in all fields of science. However, this book is refreshingly symbolic of how science can be used not only to improve technology, but how it can also be used to solve ancient mysteries both logically and effectively.


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