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im going have this summerized. the firmament article is basically the basic case for creation. i havnt found anything u guys have put up to discredit anything in it, other than "its myth", "its not scientific", blah. so lets start with it. the scholar who wrote it has a lot more knowledge than me on the subject, and so this article can make my case better than i can in my own research and words. so, now, i ask that either of you show your case against the subjects talked about in this article. no personal opinions stating facts.
example: hydrogen doesnt glow pink, it glows orange. u may be right, but how can i find out for sure?? show me something i can see for myself if it's right.
and ill say, u two are very formiable debators.
Source
A Firmament = A Great World!
There is vast Biblical and scientific evidence showing a primordial paradise. Legends and traditions record that some people did not experience helpless old age. The Sumerians and Egyptians record that there was no sin on the earth, the crocodile did not seize prey and the serpent did not bite. From China as well we find records that tell animals and birds were led about without restraint. (ICR, Impact 192) Could this have really happened? The Bible clearly says it did and science now seems to suggest the possibility.
One of the major reasons this paradise was in place may be due to the firmament created in the sky by God on the second day. "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so" (Genesis 1:6-7). During creation there was both a vertical and horizontal separation of water. The "horizontal" separated the dry land from the water and the "vertical" separated water from water thus creating the firmament. Therefore we have an indication that water was involved in this canopy. We do not know for sure what it was made of but other possible clues come from the Hebrew word for firmament, raqiya (raw-kee'-ah). Raqiya means to flatten out and extend a solid vault or canopy.
Another interesting thing about raqiya is that it also seems to refer to metal. For years Hebrew scholars have not known what to do with this definition of "firmament" so it has generally been accepted as just being a water vapor canopy. However, Josephus, a famous Jewish Historian records that the firmament was indeed crystalline (Josephus, Antiquities) as do other modern scholars. Now new scientific evidence also seems to support the idea of metal in the firmament as well.
An interesting characteristic of most metals is that they are clear in their pure form. In fact, when men went to the moon their visors on their helmets had a thin layer of pure, transparent, gold (National Geographic, Dec. 1969). Water is H2O, meaning two parts Hydrogen and one part Oxygen. When pure H2O is compressed in experiments done today, under extremely cold conditions the Oxygen appears bluish but the two parts of Hydrogen are crystallized. At first the crystals appear transparent (can see through) and later they become opaque (can't see through). Since raqiya means to flatten, or compress together and spread out, the water (H2O) may have reacted in a similar way as seen in the above experiment, creating a firmament with hydrogen crystals (Baugh, Symphony).
Taking this a step further, microscopic examination of this crystalline, metallic hydrogen shows that a vast majority is transparent, allowing light to shine through. However, also present in smaller amounts are areas of opaque metallic hydrogen that is super conductive (Popular Science, Oct. 1989, p 25). This is important for two reasons. First of all, light would shine through only those "veins" in the firmament which were transparent. But most importantly, the opaque, super conductive material would serve as a means to hold the firmament in place. Recent experiments of super conductive material resulted in mid air suspension of certain objects. Nasa showed a photograph of a man holding super conductive material between his fingers causing a magnet to be suspended above. This would work both upside down and right side up (NASA, 1988). Keeping in mind that the earth is like a great big magnet and the firmament perhaps having super conductive metallic hydrogen, the crystalline canopy would be held in place (Discover, March 1991).
Hydrogen when excited by energy glows pink. This could perhaps indicate why plants in the pre-Flood world grew much more abundantly than today (by hundreds of feet). This is not to say that the earth would appear pink but rather pink light would be given off. It would be similar to looking through a pair of pink sunglasses where the world does not appear pink but rather all colors appear more vividly. Research has shown that plants grow better in pink light which fits the firmament model exactly (Scientific American, April 1988, p.32).
Still, yet another fascinating result of such a firmament is that it solves much of our problem with C-14 dating. C-14 comes from N-14 being bombarded by cosmic radiation. The firmament would have filtered out the harmful, short wave, radiation received from the sun and therefore C-14 could not be produced (even if canopy was just water vapor). This means that living organisms before the flood would have little or no C-14 in their bodies and therefore would appear extremely old according to the C-14 dating method despite their being young in age.
The filtering of this radiation is one of the causes for longevity of life in the pre-Flood world as well. Studies done to show the average age of people on a geographical basis, shows that people today, live shorter life spans nearer the equator (Brown, Secret, p.92). Also, it is a well known fact that the sun causes us to age much faster than normal. Recently on the Ophrah Winfrey show someone asked if there was anything to stop the aging process. The answer was that the best thing you could do was to never (summer or winter) go outside without sun screen on. The deadly, short waves of the sun are known to cause over 60 diseases today, all of which would be prevented by the firmament filtering out these rays.
Another beneficial effect of the firmament would be greater air pressure with higher oxygen (Higher oxygen without the higher air pressure would be toxic). Secular evidence from trapped air bubbles in fossilized amber shows that before the Flood we had roughly twice the atmospheric pressure and 30-35% oxygen (compared to the current 21%) (Science, Vol. 239, p. 1406). However, new evidence has caused creationists to feel this is too high because oxygen poisoning would result and therefore a better estimate may be from 23 to 25%.
Higher air pressure is also what we would expect to see with the firmament because all atmospheric gases, which NASA shows have escaped nearly 200 miles into outer space (as far as gravitational pull would allow) would have been compressed underneath this canopy (Baugh, Battle). Today, greater air pressure with higher oxygen is of great benefit to our bodies as we see from replication of such an atmosphere in hyperbaric chambers. A hyperbaric chamber is something that allows us to control the oxygen and air pressure in a controlled environment. Amazing things happen with hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBO). Normally it takes from 7 to 21 days for an open wound to heal and 53 days to completely heal. However with HBO this healing time can on average be cut in half, depending on the severity and type of problem. (Fife, 1994). Dr. William Fife is head of the HBO lab at Texas A & M University where more research is done on this subject than any other non-government center. Some of the current research done at Texas A & M seems to suggest that HBO treatment may be able to cure Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Post Polio Syndrome and heal migraine headaches within 30 to 40 minutes. Other near miraculous healings of Gas Gangrene and ear drum problems, have been treated within one to two hours (Fife, 1995). In a few cases, people have showed near miraculous healing from arthritis and Carbon Monoxide Poisoning. It was reported that one man was brought into a hospital brain-dead as a direct result of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning. This man was an organ donor so doctors wanted to purify his organs. They wheeled him and his life support system into the chamber where three days later the organs were purified as the man walked out of the hospital completely recovered with complete memory (Baugh, Battle).
It has even been suggested that as a direct result of higher pressure and oxygen that mosquitoes would not even bite you before the Flood. Today, it is the female mosquito which bites in order to receive nutrients from the oxygen in your blood. However, in the pre-Flood atmosphere the higher oxygen content and air pressure would keep this annoying pest satisfied (Baugh, Symphony). Again this is something theorized about the unobserved past so we can not be sure but scientifically speaking, it would certainly be possible.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air is much less today than during the pre-Flood era. It has been proposed that we had 8 times the amount we currently have today (from 0.026% to .25%) which again fits perfectly with the abundant vegetation of the Creation model (Discover, Dec. 1994, p.32).
The higher pressure and carbon dioxide content also explain why such lush, huge vegetation is seen in the fossil record. At K O University in Tokyo Japan, Dr. Kei Moris did some fascinating studies on a cherry tomato plant (The kind that get about 2-3 feet tall and live about 2-3 months with cherry size tomatoes). He wanted to maximize the potential of this tomato plants growth so he put it into a cylinder by which he could pump up the air pressure. Dr. Moris reasoned the plant would take in more carbon dioxide faster but inadvertently he was recreating a pre-flood atmosphere. Dr. Moris wanted to also rid the harmful rays of the sun so he brought sunlight to his basement through fiber optics, again inadvertently recreating the pre-Flood world. After two years had passed Kei Moris had a cherry tomato plant that stood over 14 feet tall, had 903 tomatoes that were baseball size (Brown, Secret,p 159). Today, this plant is still living after 14 years and is over 40 feet tall bearing 15,000 very large tomatoes (Baugh, Symphony). Being created as vegetarians (Genesis 1:29-30), this fits well into the "very good" world that God made.
Genesis 2:5 mentions that it did not rain until the time of the Flood and therefore natural streams watered the earth. With a firmament, a sub tropical climate would be expected all over the world because it would serve as a greenhouse, holding in the heat but not getting to hot. High and low air pressure systems would not form which would not allow clouds to form, which would not allow rain. This also explains why there was no rainbow before the Flood.
One final adjustment of our thinking about the pre-Flood world involves the electromagnetic field of the earth. Scientists have measured the electromagnetic field of the earths atmosphere for over a century and we now know that it has declined nearly 7% in only 130 years (McDonald). Not only does this present a healthier atmosphere in the past but a young one as well. According to this, if you would go back in time only 15 to 20,000 years ago, we would have the electromagnetic field of a neutron star and atoms could not hold together; the planet could not exist (Baugh, Symphony). Likewise, 2,000 years into the future, the field will cease and life will not be possible either (Nature, Vol. 278, 1987).
Further evidence shows that the electromagnetic field influences the body in incredible ways. In fact, it affects everything from molecules to man and without it, cells can not divide during the process of mitosis (Dubrov, p. 61). Evidence is also present showing that this much needed field was not only stronger in the past but may have even held steady before the Flood, thereby creating a better atmosphere. How and why could this be? Answer: the firmament held the energy in place (Baugh, Symphony).
My favorite example of the benefit of the higher electromagnet currents on our bodies has to deal with snakes. Today, if one is bit by a rattlesnake, a long process of treatment and pain is the outlook, unless you have a stun gun. Yes, a stun gun. I myself have one which delivers only 36,000 volts of D.C. current. If I was bit, I would take the stun gun and zap myself near the bite, again perpendicular to the first zap, and a third time just because it felt good. I probably would not even go to the hospital after this. New evidence is showing that electricity can be a cure for all kinds of venomous bites, including bees, spiders, mosquitoes and snakes. Snake venom is made up of mainly proteins and enzymes which are chemically bonded together and therefore make them impossible for your body to assimilate in any beneficial way. However, electricity breaks those bonds allowing your body to take in the protein and it turns out to be beneficial to you. So in the pre-Flood world, after the curse, if you were bit by a snake, it wouldn't affect you because of the higher electromagnetic field. Also, the wound from the bite would heal much faster because the higher oxygen and pressure would aid in the healing.
The Brown Recluse Spider is one of the most dreadful of all spiders. When you get bit by a Brown Recluse it literally rots your flesh down to the bone. One 10 year old girl bit by a Brown Recluse Spider (Fiddle back) was zapped on top of the bite while being grounded underneath the bite (under the arm). In 24 hours, all was gone. In fact, the Oklahoma State Medical Journal recorded that from September of 1988 to September of 1989, 21 cases were confirmed where a Brown Recluse Spider bite had been "zapped" for treatment and all cases were cured within one treatment (Osborn, p.9).
Regarding snakes, Dr Ronald Guderian, a missionary doctor from Seattle has successfully treated more than 60 humans with snakebites by electric shock. Tests have shown that the enzymes in snake venom are destructive to human tissue but when these enzymes are first "zapped" and than put in test tubes with human flesh, they no longer destroy the tissue (Outdoor Life, June 1988, p.66-68).
One farmer was stung by a bee and was deathly allergic to bee stings so he began running to his house. On the way he felt his chest beginning to tighten. In his preoccupied state, he tripped over an electric fence. Need I say more? (Outdoor Life, July 88, p76).
Many other examples have been recorded showing us what a great world the pre-Flood world must have been. If the world was like this, how come we are just discovering this now? We aren't discovering it, rather rediscovering it today! Ancient batteries have been found in Egypt showing not only the intelligence of man but perhaps also past medical treatments. For years, scientists did not know what these batteries were used for but new findings show much historical evidence relating electric shock to medicine. Electric fish were used for medicinal purposes by the Greeks and Romans while bronze and iron needles with electrical devices have been found in Seleucia which may have been used for acupuncture (which was already a standard practice in China). The ancient Scribonius Largus wrote, "For any sort of foot gout, when the pain comes on it is good to put a living black torpedo fish under his feet while standing on the beach, not dry but one on which the sea washes, until he feels that his whole foot and ankle are numb up to the knees" (Creation Ex Nihilo, Vol. 16:2, p.12). All of this points to a forgotten age where memories of higher electric fields once aided in the fighting of diseases and other common ailments.
Combine all of the evidence above and we may have the answer to why not only plants were larger in the fossil record but animals as well. It appears nearly everything was better in the past. Dragon flies had wing spans up to 60 inches, cockroaches were a foot long, Bison stood 10 feet at the shoulders and the Saber tooth tiger stood 6 feet at the shoulders (Baugh, Battle). Meanwhile plants which are only 20 inches today were 120 feet as seen in the fossil record (Sounds like a cherry tomato plant doesn't it?).
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