Man, did it ever rain last night. We were under a “tornado watch” until 3am, which terrified my wife. I didn’t worry about it too much. I figured, “If it’s our time, it’s our time.” Of course, we all interpret life through the filter of our beliefs and fears. I’m sure there are people who saw the tornadoes on the news and said to themselves, “It’s End Times.” There’s a maintenance worker at the hospital who talks about End Times all the time. When she points that pistol my way I just nod my head, say “Uh huh,” then get to where I’m going. But I’m thinking to myself, “You crazy bitch!”
The other day one of my patients approached me excitedly with a Bible in her hand. At an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting the night before, a man quoted some scripture to her, so she borrowed the unit’s copy of the Good Book to check it out. She was positively beaming from ear to ear as she pointed out to me the library stamp inside the front cover. It was from her very own home town, hundreds of miles away. She felt like God had placed that book in her hands for a reason. Now, I can relate to this feeling. When I picked up a copy of Henry Miller’s Tropic of Capricorn in the laundry room of an apartment complex back in 1996, it seemed like I was meant to read that particular book at that particular time. Indeed, that event altered the course of my life. But back to the Bible. The girl came back to me a few hours later to ask me some questions. She said: “There are a few things I’m confused about, Bob. How could God have created the world in just seven days? And some of the people lived to be so old, like 700 years old. How could that be? And what about dinosaurs? Doesn’t science tell us about dinosaurs? How can God have made all the animals at the same time if dinosaurs were around long before?”
“Oh shit!” I thought to myself. I’ve never been comfortable revealing too much about my philosophy or spirituality to the kids. It’s unethical to push one’s religious beliefs on others in a therapeutic setting, although it’s quite impossible, believe me, to teach kids about addiction and recovery without one’s values creeping in along the way. Anyway, I started to tell the girl that indeed, she was asking some very good questions, and that while I did not really know the answers, I encouraged her to dialogue with people. Before I could finish my response, however, a coworker of mine, who had apparently been eavesdropping on the conversation, piped in with a string of direct answers to the girl’s questions, including some book recommendations. He said, “There’s a theory — and it has some scientific backing — that there was a water canopy surrounding the earth during Biblical times, and it filtered out a lot of the harmful UV rays that cause aging. That’s why people lived so long back then. And that’s where all the water came from during the Great Flood. And don’t forget, Noah’s Ark was really, really big, so I’m sure there was room for dinosaurs…”
My jaw ’bout hit the floor. I just snuck out of the room, wondering to myself how we’re ever going to deal with the problems we face on this planet when even among friends and coworkers we have such utterly divergent views of life and the world. Then I go home and see the trailer to the new documentary Jesus Camp. God help us all, indeed!
These illustrations show just how a water canopy covering the Earth would not only create a globally warm climate but also would shield our planet from harmful radiation. Thus, allowing mankind to reach ages up to 900 plus years and also allowing reptiles to grow to the size of our dinosaur fossils. A global flood that occured roughly 1,500 years after Adam was created would create the coal layers (compressed global vegetation) and the fossilization of the huge behemoths known to us today as the dinosaurs. Remember, in Genesis 1:6-8, God divided the waters from the waters and placed this upper water canopy ABOVE the firmament called “Heaven.”