Genesis Apologetics K8 Student Zone-Understanding the Ice Age (6-8)

Genesis Apologetics

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Well, hello and welcome to The Zone. I'm your host Big Wave Dave. Today we are going to talk about the

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Ice Age. We are going to look at these three key questions. Let's get started.

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What was the Ice Age? What was the Ice Age? The Ice Age was a period of time when one -third of our planet was covered in snow and ice.

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These massive ice sheets covered thousands of square miles and were hundreds of feet thick.

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Many of the beautiful canyons and geological features that we see today were carved out by glaciers during the

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Ice Age. The Ice Age featured some giant animals. For example, the giant sloth grew to be 20 feet long and weighed as much as an

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Asian elephant. Life was hard for people who lived in the northern areas during the Ice Age.

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Some of them lived in caves for protection against the high winds, cold winters, and very dangerous weather.

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Although they lived in caves, they were not dumb brutes. In fact, the evidence shows that they were very smart.

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For example, they made tools, needles, jewelry, and even musical instruments.

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They made paint from ground -up tree nuts and then used them to create fantastic images on cave walls.

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Because of the harsh climate, finding food was often a dangerous adventure. However, these people were excellent hunters, not the dumb brutes that you often see in movies.

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Some scientists believe that they made and used a tool called an atlatl. These devices dramatically increased the distance and accuracy of spear throws.

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Although the Ice Age caused many animals to become extinct, it played a key role in our history.

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After the global flood, God commanded his creation to multiply and fill the earth.

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They certainly got the first part right. Before long, there were a lot of people. However, instead of spreading out, they disobeyed

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God and began to build the Tower of Babel. God put an end to their project by confusing their languages.

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After that, the people spread out. And this is where the Ice Age became an important factor.

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Since so much ocean water was bound up in the ice sheets, the seas were shallower and land bridges formed.

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This enabled animals and people to migrate from one continent to another. At the end of the

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Ice Age, many of the glaciers and ice sheets melted. This caused the ocean waters to rise and geographically isolate many of the people and animals.

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The Ice Age was God's provision to help people and animals spread out and replenish the earth after the global flood.

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Wow, it must have been really tough to have lived during the Ice Age. Okay, so now that we have a better idea of what the

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Ice Age was like, let's talk about what caused it. Now, according to experts, we need three things to have an

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Ice Age. The first is warmer oceans, because this is what's going to produce the snow and ice to make the ice sheets.

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So every few years, the temperatures of the Pacific Ocean fluctuate. Now, people that track the weather pay really close attention to this because it has a big impact upon our weather patterns.

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For example, when the temperatures are above average, we tend to have a lot more rain than snow on the west coast that year.

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Well, as you know, the global flood was not some gentle rainstorm. It was a okay, it was a worldwide cataclysmic event that included lots of subduction and volcanic activity.

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Now, all of this would have caused the oceans to warm up. All right, so now that we have a way to produce the snow and ice, we need a way to keep it from melting again.

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When volcanoes erupt, they tend to pump massive amounts of volcanic ash into the air.

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For example, in May of 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted, and when it did, it produced over 540 million tons of ash.

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And just to give you an idea of what that would look like, that's enough ash to cover a football field with a pile of ash 150 miles high.

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That is a lot of ash. Volcanic eruptions during and after the flood pumped massive amounts of ash into the air.

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Some creation scientists believe that aerosols, tiny particles of ash in the atmosphere, blocked much of the heat from the sun and prevented much of the snow from melting.

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At the beginning of the Ice Age, the warm oceans caused a lot of snow to fall. The aerosols produced by the volcanoes blocked out a lot of the heat from the sun.

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This prevented much of the snow from melting. During the Ice Age, frequent snowstorms and cool temperatures created massive ice sheets that covered much of the northern part of our planet.

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At the end of the Ice Age, the oceans cooled down and the air cleared. It snowed a lot less and the earth became much warmer.

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Many of the glaciers and the ice sheets began to melt. Which was really bad news for some people.

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We have identified two of the mechanisms needed for an Ice Age. The only thing we need now is time.

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According to Michael Ord and some other creation scientists, it would take about 700 years for the

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Ice Age to have occurred. So when was the Ice Age? Although it is impossible to know exactly when the

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Ice Age occurred, we can create a reasonable estimate. Since Noah's flood caused the

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Ice Age, we can place it on the timeline somewhere here after the flood. Assuming the

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Ice Age began shortly after the flood and lasted about 700 years, it would have started around 2304

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BC and lasted until about 2000 BC. This covers the same period of time from the

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Tower of Babel to the life of Abraham. Well, if that's true, then why doesn't the

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Bible say anything about the Ice Age? That's a great question. First of all, most of the ice sheets were far north of the areas where most of the people mentioned in the

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Bible lived. However, snow and ice are mentioned several times in Scripture, including the

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Book of Job. We have covered a lot of material today.

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It is my hope that this session has helped you understand how the Ice Age fits into history and has strengthened your faith.

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Well, I'm Big Wave Dave, and that's all the time we have together. I hope to see you soon here on the zone. God bless you and have a great day.