Glacial Thoughts

There are a number of deep glaciers around the world although they seem to be melting fast in the face of global warming.  The deepest of them is over 2 miles thick.  Each year a new layer builds up as in the winter the snow falls, melts a little during the summer and freezes up again.  The snow compacts over a period of time as the layers on top weigh down the bottom layers.  Just like the rings on a tree tell its age, so the layers in the glacier can be counted and tell its age.  By drilling cores and counting the layers, scientists have determined the deepest and oldest of the polar glaciers are over 250,000 years old, and a number of mountain glaciers are over 70,000 years old.

     Some Biblicists tell me that the age of the earth is only 10-15 thousand years old and that the earth appears older than that because God created the earth with the appearance of age.  Noah's flood occurred 9-14 thousand years ago, (a thousand years or so after the earth was created).  But these glaciers go back 250,000 years with no sign of the flood in them.  Ice floats, why didn't the glaciers float away?  A global flood would include a lot of warm waters and mix them with polar waters, which would have done a lot of melting in the year they covered the earth.  Why are these glaciers not melted, or at least partially melted?  I can see no way these glaciers can exist without having signs of the flood in them.  Whether or not they were created with the appearance of age, the flood occurred after they were formed and there should be marks from the flood in them, but I've seen no records indicating that.

     I can imagine the waters covering all the earth, after all, the earth is 3/4 covered now.  If the mountains were lower back then, it's possible that the highest of them could have been covered.  The Bible says it wasn't just rain coming down that caused the flood, but the fountains of the deep were broken up, contributing to the deluge.  Mountains are rising today but they could have been significantly lower ten thousand years ago and the ocean floors higher as well.  Scientists believe that the rates at which we see geologic changes today are the same rates that at which they always occurred, but I think (there is no easy way to prove this) that the rates were faster the farther back in time you go.  Why?  Because the forces causing the changes were stronger then.  As the mountains grew, the forces were diminished, like releasing the compression of a spring.  Also it took less force to make the mountains rise when they were low. The same way with continental drift.  When the continents split apart they probably did so rapidly at first and as the forces abated, moved apart slower and slower.  A meteor of significant size hitting the earth could have had dramatic effects on the shape of the earth at first, and over time as the earth reshaped itself to adjust to the new mass, the effects would be less.  So I believe the flood could have happened, but where are the marks in the glaciers?

     The lack of marks make me reexamine the scriptures.  Maybe the story is allegorical after all.  Jesus believed the scriptures, and so do I, but perhaps they were meant to convey spiritual insights rather than scientific fact.  My faith does not rest on the account of the flood, but on Jesus Christ, who died for my sins, and His resurrection.  I'm keeping an open mind.