by Conti, Gene;
Matt was the first to notice, “Look, look the ‘fountains’ are breaking up the supercontinent Pangaea, and the tectonic plates are separating the land masses: South America is being separated from Africa. Wow, savage man!”
“Absolutely first-rate observation and analyzation, Matt. Hope all of you caught that. Way to go!”
Pete leaned over toward Matt and gave him a fist bump.
“Have any of you lived near a river?”
Andy and Pete’s hands both went up. “Our family lives near Mobile, Alabama, and we were little kids when Katrina hit. The rivers overflowed their banks carrying massive amounts of mud in addition to water,” Andy commented.
Most of the students watched the video on the Insta-Screen, and the rest viewed it on their tablets. For the remainder of the clip the class was quiet, just taking it all in.
When it ended, I simply asked, “Well?”
Then the comments started to fly from all directions at once.
“Holy crap.”
“I had no idea.”
“The whole earth was destroyed.”
“But why did God have to kill everyone?”
“Nothing was left alive.”
Jude’s loud and arrogant voice dominated. “You can’t prove there are massive quantities of water under the earth.”
“Actually, Jude, there is proof of this. Go to YouTube and bring up The Deepest Hole in the World, and what We’ve Learned from It.”
The students studied the video on their tablets. I heard muffled comments coming from around the room. The class was obviously surprised that the mantle of the earth contained water.
Jude commented. “Yeah, but the video proves this water developed under the earth billions of years ago.”
Jim was all over Jude in a heartbeat. “Proves? Proves?” He asked angrily while looking at Jude.
Philip was leaning back in his chair, against the back wall, and looking at the ceiling. “What is the definition of science, Jude?” Philip asked, with an annoyed tone, as though Jude were wasting his and everyone’s time. “The only part that was proved beyond a shadow of a doubt was the presence of water. The billions of years part is an unprovable assumption, not based on any evidence of long ages, may I add.” He moved his eyes from ceiling to the rear doorway.
Jude just clenched his jaw tightly as he shifted his eyes briefly toward Philip who was looking out the classroom door. He felt demeaned and humiliated by Philip.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
SUSPENDED
Finally, Pete calmly raised his hand. His face reflecting that he just had an epiphany. He stood to address the class. First he looked at Jim, our ecology major. “Jim, all this water and mud encased millions of plants and animals instantaneously. That’s why no matter which strata or layer we examine of the geologic column—”
“Many are all perfectly preserved.” Jim interrupted immediately picking up on Pete’s thought process. “Yeah, Cambrian, Devonian, Silurian, and Jurassic organisms, by and large, are well preserved.”
Thad added his thoughts into the mix. “Both you guys are right. If each layer laid down was separated by millions of years, then why are the fossils well preserved, regardless of the layer—unless … this was a one-time event.”
Philip then added, “We’ve been told by our professors that fossilization is a slow process over millions of years—grain by grain, sediment slowly covering the plants and animals. Minerals gradually replacing the organic matter over eons of time, placidly converting these creatures to stone.”
Jim was getting his dander up again. “I never really thought about it. Doc is getting us to actually use our rusty brains. Ugh, all, and I mean all, fossils are found buried in sedimentary rock—which is always laid down by water. Fossils in sandstone, fossils in shale, fossils in limestone, even in coal and oil—all this caused by Noah’s Deluge. Practically the whole earth we are standing on is one big graveyard!”
“By the way, you guys,” I said, looking at Jim, Philip, and Pete, “do you realize that the earth’s stony surface is 85 percent sedimentary rock? Must have been those thousands upon thousands of ‘local floods’ over the millennia which magically covered the land,” I suggested with as much sarcasm as I could muster.
“Jim and Philip are right,” Pete added. “All these mass kills of fish and plants are all impeccably preserved, including even delicate jellyfish.” With that I handed Pete a plaque of completely intact and unmarred fossilized jellyfish. “All these creatures had to be covered with sedimentary mud rapidly.” He exclaimed while carefully examining the jellyfish plaque. “Dead fish are torn apart and jellyfish and plants decay in short order. The slow and gradual ‘millions of years’ theory is a bunch of horse pucky.” With that he began pointing out the features on each plaque to his brother Andy, sitting next to him.
Photo of multiple small fossilized fish on stone. Shutterstock
“Pete, here’s another small plate with several small fossilized fish that a mudflow suffocated quickly. Examine the fine boney structure, scales, and eyes, all perfectly preserved. Please pass it around. And I’ll bring up on the Insta-Screen other mass kills displayed in museums; plaques which contain hundreds of these flawless specimen fish on each plate.”
“I don’t know of any fish and plant burials occurring on a worldwide scale like this today,” Jim announced while watching the pics on the Insta-Screen.
“Hey, Jim,” I called as I passed a replica fossil to him. “Check this one out.”
He looked at it only for a moment. “Oh, my lord, a fish in the act of eating another fish. It didn’t even have time to finish its lunch.”
Photo of fossilized fish eating another smaller fish Photo credit: Answers in Genesis
I passed another to him, as he passed the first one over to Claudia.
“Gak! An ichthyosaur giving birth! The fry isn’t even out of the birth canal. Must be one of those rare million-year gestation times,” he stated sarcastically. I can figure this one out without a V-8!”
Photo of fossilized Ichthyosaur giving birth. www.bible.caPhoto credit: Dr. Don Patton
Jim had the class in hysterics with his comments.
I waited for the class to settle down before pointing out a fossilized tree trunk on the screen, then another and another. “Anyone want to tackle this one? See anything that really doesn’t make sense?”
The class evaluated the fossilized trees standing vertically through multiple layers of strata.
Photo of polystrate tree with strata Photo credit: copyright Creation Research www.evolutionfairytale.com
Photo of man kneeling next to polystrate tree Photo credit: David Rives at David Rives Ministry
Nate started to laugh while pointing at the screen.
“Want to let us in on the joke, Nate,” Andy implored.
“Guys, look at the pics on the screen.” Nate demanded.
“Yeah, so what?” Pete replied, turning to face Nate.
“So what? How long could that tree have remained there without rotting,” Nate declared, forcefully making his point, “while the sediment sloooowly built up around it over millions of years? Give me a break!”
“These are called polystrate fossils,” I commented, “because they traverse multiple strata.”
Jim pounded on his desk again. “Nate’s right. The dumb tree could no way last millions of years as the strata leisurely buried it. The Flood makes more sense. I just can’t wait to have my next ecology lecture. The professor is not going to know what hit him.”
Maggie appeared to want to add something to the discussion.
“Doc, I was dating an airman from Vandenberg Air Force Base for a while. He wanted to know if I wanted to see a whale on its tail. He took me to Lompoc, which was not too far from the base. And there it was, an eighty to ninety foot whale fossilized at about a forty-five degree angle in the rock.”
The class looked at Maggie, not sure what to believe.
“What did you make of it, Maggie
?” I asked.
“At the time, I didn’t understand the significance of what I was looking at. I do now. I was dopey and immature, and more interested in his tail, than the whale’s.”
The class howled with laughter. I’ll give Maggie one thing - she is honest.
The class was still in an uproar, as Nate put his hand up. In the meantime I had brought up an image of the Lompoc, California, whale.
Illustration of whale on its tail Credit: Dr. Heinz Lycklama
“Hey Doc, how did the whale get fossilized on its tail?”
“I’m going to force your creaky cogwheels to turn, if it’s the last thing I do. Stop thinking in millions of years, doggone it.”
Juan raised his hand with confidence. I nodded at him to answer.
“My grandmother made pottery from clay, which is a form of sedimentary rock, I believe. While the clay was soft and flexible, she could mold it any way she wanted, even placing carvings and other impressions in it. But once it hardened, it was easily broken— impressions and all.”
“Please stop there, Juan. Let’s see if the class can figure out the remainder of the puzzle.”
The silence was deafening.
“Your minds are still locked in the millions of years mentality— break through it! You can do it.”
Andy and Pete were intensely discussing the possible options.
“Matt! You mentioned earlier about the tectonic plates causing disastrous effects. Please read about Noah’s Flood from Psalm 104 verse 8, the first line.” Matt first started to read quietly to himself. He was nodding his head. “I’ve got it. I think. ‘The mountains rose; the valleys sank down,’” as he read it out loud. “The flood laid down the sedimentary layers over a short expanse of time, burying the animals and plants, which eventually fossilized and… .” He hesitated a bit.
“Go ahead Matt, you’re on track.”
“… and while still soft, the tectonic plate action occurred which raised those layers to the angle the Lompoc whale is in today.”
“You’re not finished, Matt.”
“Oh, yes, Juan mentioned about his grandma with the clay. If the sedimentary layers had hardened first and then later, after millions of years, the tectonic action of raising the whale into place occurred, the whale and the layers it is in would have broken in pieces, like his Grandma’s dried pottery.” He gave the class his famous used-car salesman smile.
Tom then turned around to Matt. “So you’re saying the strata had to be soft and pliable, like the potter’s clay, for the tectonic movements to raise the whale without breaking it up.” Matt nodded his assent.
Santi had turned around and was cheering Matt on. “Andale, andale!” Matt clasped his hands together and raised his arms over his head, doing a Rocky-type celebration.
I waited for Matt to settle down. Between Juan and Matt the class’ brains seemed to be greased up and working sufficiently well.
Thad contributed, “I get it—the flood waters had to first run off the earth into the valley or ocean basins. What a headline story! Oh, Oh, and that’s when and how the Grand Canyon was formed.”
“Way to go, Thad,” Jim congratulated him as he turned around and gave Thad a loud smacking high five.
Tom turned to Thad, “Yeah, only then, with the strata being soft, could the tectonic actions of the ‘mountains rising’ occur without fracturing the whale.”
The entire class became one big talkfest. They get it.
“Here, Jim, see if you can figure this one out.”
He carefully examined the object I handed to him, turning it over and around with a puzzled look.
“Well,” Jim hesitated, “it looks like a replica of a chunk of coal.”
“Okay, good start. Go on.”
“But there is something embedded in it. It … it’s a metal bowl of some sort.” He shook his head, totally confused. “How can that be? It takes millions upon millions of years for coal to form.”
“Jim!” I almost shouted at him. “Stop thinking like an atheistic ‘millions of years’ evolutionist.”
“Huh?” He looked up at me. The class was waiting for some kind of punch line as they looked back and forth between Jim and me.
“C’mon man. You yourself gave the answer. How did you say coal and oil was formed a few minutes ago?”
Photo of iron bowel in coal. Personal photo
“By sedimentation.”
“As a result of … ? You said it yourself.”
I watched the class closely. Some had figured it out and wanted to explode. “No one say anything. This is Jim’s baby to work through.”
“I’ll give you a hint, Jim. It wasn’t ancient aliens.” Matt nodded knowingly, as he was one of the ones who had the answer.
Jim’s eyes grew big and his mouth dropped open. “The flood! This metal bowl was from the cursed society that lived alongside Noah and his family prior to the flood.”
“Excellent! Jim, why don’t you read Genesis chapter 6 verse 5, while I show these photos to the class.” On the screen I projected from my tablet a photo of a bell, and another of a necklace chain, both found in coal.
“‘And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.’” Jim looked up at the screen, his mind still reeling by what he was seeing.
“Oh, Jim, here’s a replica of an ancient hammer that was found in a rock layer that was supposed to be 300 million years old.”
Photo of hammer in stone. Personal photo
He literally grabbed it from my hand, looked up at me as the class watched him, and said, “From the corrupt pre-flood world of Noah, I bet.”
Santi hollered across the room to Jim. “Claro, hombre. The evolutionistas claim that man began to evolve around two million years ago. Only the flood makes sense of it.”
Tom turned to Matt. “Either that, or it was placed in the rock by ancient aliens.” He formed antennas with his fingers on top of his head, while making googly bug eyes at Matt. The class laughed, reveling at Tom’s monkeyshines.
A student messenger entered the room and approached me with a note. Some students were around Jim as he was reticent to give up the hammer. I reviewed the note quickly and looked back at the messenger.
“Dean Avery would like an immediate response from you, Dr. Lucci.”
The class looked up in unison, speculating as to what was going on. Thad, our journalist, was all ears.
“Tell him I will meet with him straightaway.”
The messenger then turned to the students and announced that the class was suspended until further notice.
Only Santi noticed the diabolic smile that crept across Jude’s face.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
O’DARK THIRTY
My alarm clock went off and I blindly slammed it. Alarm clock— appropriate name, I thought. Are my eyes open? I looked at the clock, it was o’dark thirty; no wonder I couldn’t see a thing. I heard Emily rustling to get up.
“Honey, you don’t have to get up at this ungodly hour just for me,” I said as I turned on the light on my bedside table.
“I’ll make us a small breakfast, and coffee to take with you. You’re going to be on that long bus trip with the kids, so I’ll pack a small cooler for you, Fred, and Cindy.”
I am absolutely blessed with a wonderful wife, I thought.
“Why don’t you come with us?”
“I’ve got too much to do around here. I have to get the garden ready for winter. Besides, you said Father Flanagan is not coming, and neither are Dorothy and Vince. And I’ve been to the museums with you a number of times before.”
***
As I warmed up ‘the tank’, I took the covers off the Hella driving lights, and then hopped into the leather bucket seat, and put my coffee in its console holder next to me, behind the shifter. I’ve got the nine-inch mammoth Hellas bolted to a cross bar on a pair of huge police push bumpers I picked up used. With all the deer a
nd other creatures of the night, I didn’t need to be messing up my grill and front end. The seat belt clicked in place; I pulled out of the garage and slowly glided along the house-lined street of our sleeping subdivision. I noted that the dew was heavy on the lawns and mailboxes as I passed them by. There was also a low misty fog that must have come in during the night.
I hit the entrance ramp to I-81, and once on the highway, accelerated up to cruising speed. I locked ‘the tank’ in at seventy and flipped on the Hellas. The pair of lights cut through the patchy fog like a hot knife through butter. I settled into the driver’s seat and took a sip of my coffee.
It was still completely dark out and I couldn’t see any stars. Must be overcast, I thought. The outside temp on the dash said thirty-six degrees. The weather girl said it would be clear and should hit the high sixties.
Practically no traffic, as it was still an hour or so before rush hour began. Only ones out now are drunks, druggies, and people up to no good. I wondered which category that put me?
A vehicle approached me in the oncoming lane. I shut off the Hellas, but he was still coming with his high beams on. I quickly flashed my high beams, but he kept his brights on. Okay, buddy, you asked for it. I flipped the Hellas back on, and he immediately turned his brights off, obviously getting the message. Those photons of light pulsating against the back of his retina must have sent a searing message to his brain. Jerk.
As I drove along, I thought, most people don’t realize that at least half the drivers on the road have something in their systems that will impair their coordination and driving ability. Anything from sleeping pills to anti-depressants to anti-psychotics to narcotic pain meds to a bevy of illegal substances and alcohol, or a combo of all of these. And all while texting to boot. Maybe these new hands-free T-chip devices may cut down on accidents.
We’ve transformed our country into a nation of zombies, and our governmental Matrix loves it. Wait until they start coming for everyone’s firearms whose medical records show they popped even one Ambien. Dorothy is right. That’s the excuse the Matrix will use to nullify our Second Amendment Right to bear arms; instead of incarcerating these repeat psych offenders. Whereas they look upon the law-abiding citizen as potential serial killers.