Geological Evidence
Much research has been conducted on geology in present times. These researches have revealed that several thousand years ago a great flood did inundate the region between Iraq and Turkey. This flood was so great that it destroyed the entire inhabited world of the time. The results of this broad-based research have been published in recent years. One important publication is Noah’s Flood: The Scientific Discoveries About the Event that Changed History, by William Ryan and Walter Pitman, published in 1999 by Simon and Schuster, USA.
These researches have scientifically proved that several thousand years ago the world did witness a great flood. But the researchers, owing to their secular mindset, have to say that the story of Noah, described in the Bible and also in the scriptures of other nations, has been derived from this historical event. To them, this is the mythicization of a historical event. But the right approach is to believe that what has been proved by geological research is a historical affirmation of the Great Flood which has been mentioned in the Bible and the Quran.
The truth is that during the time of the revelation of the Bible and the Quran, nothing was historically known about the flood which happened during Noah’s lifetime. However, the Quran furthermore states that Noah’s Ark would appear in the future and historically confirm the truth of Noah’s Ark. “We have left this as a sign: but will anyone take heed?” (The Quran, 54:15). The right approach in such a case should be to regard what has been proved by geological research as historical verification of the Quran and the Bible instead of saying that people invented fictional stories on the basis of this great flood of ancient times.
An article entitled, Discovery of Human Artifacts Below the Black Sea Backs Theory of an Ancient Flood by Two Columbia Marine Geologists by Suzanne Trimel, Columbia University, NYC. Columbia University marine geologists William B.F. Ryan and Walter C. Pitman inspired a wave of archaeological and other scientific interests in the Black Sea region with geologic and climate evidence that a catastrophic flood, 7,600 years ago, destroyed an ancient civilization that played a pivotal role in the spread of early farming into Europe and much of Asia. The National Geographic Society offered astonishing evidence to support Ryan’s and Pitman’s theory: the discovery of well-preserved artifacts of human habitation more than 300 feet below the Black Sea surface, 12 miles off the Turkish coast.
“This is stunning confirmation of our thesis,” Dr. Ryan said from his office at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “This is amazing. It’s going to rewrite the history of ancient civilizations, because it shows unequivocally that the Black Sea flood took place and that the ancient shores of the Black Sea were occupied by humans.” Inspiring a re- examination of the role of climate in human history, Dr. Ryan and Pitman’s findings in 1996 suggested that the terrifying and swift flood may have cast such a long shadow on succeeding cultures that it inspired the biblical story of Noah’s Ark.
Dr. Ryan and Pitman argued their provocative theory in a 1999 book, “Noah’s Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries about the Event That Changed History” (Simon & Schuster). Ryan and Pitman theorized that the sealed Bosporus strait, which acted as a dam between the Mediterranean and Black Seas, broke open when climatic warming at the close of the last glacial period caused icecaps to melt, raising the global sea level. With more than 200 times the force of the Niagara Falls, the thundering water flooded the Black Sea, then no more than a large lake, raising its surface up to six inches per day and swallowing 60,0000 square miles in less than a year. (www.earth. columbia.edu)
