Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution for the origin of the species when he sailed around the world on a ship named the Beagle. On that voyage, in 1834, he explored the eroded valley of the Santa Cruz River in Argentina and he commented on the lapse of ages and the gradual erosion that produced the valley.

We now know that a GLOF (Glacier Lake Outburst Flood) occurred when an icy glacier blocked the river near the mountains and dammed up a huge reservoir. When the water burst through the ice, the GLOF eroded the valley quickly, probably in days.

When I was a boy, I travelled with my family in Washington State, and I noticed that the dry interior had hundreds of eroded water channels, all dry, and I saw probably the biggest water fall in the world, Dry Falls, four times the size of Niagara, in a deep eroded valley. I knew then that something very big had happened.

In the 1920s, a Geologist named J. Harlen Bretz named that region in Washington State the Channeled Scablands and claimed a massive flood had occurred. He was opposed for about forty years by his colleagues who claimed his ideas were outrageous and biblical.

Before he died, he won the argument and he is now a hero of Geological Sciences. At the age of 96 in 1979 he said “All my enemies are dead, so I have no one to gloat over.”

We know now that a glacier formed a reservoir, Glacial Lake Missoula and the GLOF eroded at least 2000 square miles / 5200 sq km of scablands. The Columbia River flow was equivalent to every river in the world, multiplied by ten, and an eroded gully 200 feet deep has been found, offshore on the floor of the ocean. Those are biblical proportions.

So why do evolutionists dislike GLOFs? Ask a Scottish cow.

In the Highlands of Scotland, the cows are long-horned and long-haired. They’re a primitive model of Hamitic Longhorn, imported by the ancestors in the ancient stone ages. Think of a dinosaur among cows.

Nearby Scottish farmers developed breeds like the Aberdeen Angus that is supposed to make hamburgers taste better, and Ayrshires, and Belted Galloways, and Clydesdale horses, and those black and white terrier dogs.

Animal breeding is man-made evolution, and it only happens with gradual uniformitarian conditions. Farming districts with generations of peace and stability produce new breeds. Unruly places like the Highlands had constant clan warfare and cattle thieving. If your cow showed signs of improvement, it would not be yours for long. The motto for my Highland family is “touch not the cat but a glove.” That explains the enduring Stone Age model for cows.

In 1980, scientists led by Luis Alvarez proposed the K-Pg or K-T Extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs after an asteroid struck the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, and that scenario is widely accepted today.

The new science of Catastrophism now claims that the dinosaur era is framed by the Triassic–Jurassic Extinction Event at the beginning and the K-Pg at the end. Apparently the history of the Earth is filled with massive die offs called extinction events, mass extinctions, or biotic crises. This science of disruption is new and the terms are fluid.

Darwin’s theory requires a universe that spans immense lengths of time without interruption, and now science has removed that possibility. We know the Earth has a tortured history.

Among secular scientists, interest in extinction events is growing because of the concern for climate change and global warming. We are being warned that humans are disrupting life on Earth, just like in ancient times and we could end up like the dinosaurs.

The creation story in the Bible has periods of time identified with the Hebrew term “Yom.” Whether or not a Yom is exactly 24 hours is a discussion for another time, but the larger pattern in the Bible is ecosystems succeeding each other, with distinct pauses between; plants – sea life – birds – land animals.

Someone, four thousand years ago described a pattern that our best scientists have only begun to learn in the last forty years.

Noah’s flood is an extinction event, and so are the events prophesied in Bible books like Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation. Jesus said about our future “For at that time there will be great tribulation, unmatched from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again. If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened.” (Mathew 24: 21 and 22)

Something very big is going to happen.

Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. You turn man back into dust and say, “Return, O children of men.” For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night. You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; in the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew. In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew; toward evening it fades and withers away. (Psalm 90: 1 to 6)