Creation Science Book Review:

The Genesis Flood

by Henry Morris

Review by Greg Neyman

© 2006, Old Earth Ministries

Review Published June 2006

Old Earth Ministries Science website

        The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and its Scientific Implications, is by Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb.  The book was originally published in 1960.  The edition being reviewed is from the 29th printing, 1986.  Although this book is old, it remains one of the main creationist sources for information, and you can still buy brand new copies from Amazon.com and other stores. 

    This is the book that one could say started the modern young earth movement.  Although there were key events, and proponents of young earth creationism prior to 1960, this book brought it to the forefront in religious circles.  Sadly, though, it is very out of date, and much of the book relies on old scientific data which is no longer valid.  It is unclear why it has never been updated, seeing as how it is still relied upon by young earth creationists.  One gets the feeling that they revere this book so much, they do not want to mess with the original...sort of like the Bible itself.

     First, a little background.  Henry Morris is founder of the Institute for Creation Research, a well known creationist organization.  He does have a PhD, earned in 1950, in Hydraulic Engineering.   His partner in this book, John Whitcomb, was a theology professor at Grace Theological Seminary.  While this book contains mostly information from Geology, neither author is a geologist.   During Dr. Morris' education, he did Minor in Geology, therefore he has a limited understanding of Geology.

     In the introduction, the authors clearly state their biases.  Their "presupposition" that the Bible is correct is their guiding principle, and "If this means substantial modification of the principles of uniformity and evolution which currently control the interpretation of these data, then so be it."  Did they ever stop to consider that you can interpret the Bible as correct, in light of old-earth creationism (OEC)?  As young earth creationism grew, many Christians responded in kind with old earth creationism, although the OEC community was slow to respond to the growing YEC threat.  In reality, you can accept an inerrant, infallible Word of God, and believe that the earth is old.

     This review will be different from the other book reviews on this website.  It will be edited gradually, and rebuttals for claims will at first be made via links to other articles.  Eventually, these articles will be re-written for inclusion in this review.  Thus, you will witness the review in progress.  We feel it is important to get the information into the hands of the reader as soon as possible.   When the review is complete, it will say "Review Complete" in the header for this webpage.  Until the review for each chapter is complete, the Print-Friendly versions for that chapter will not be available.

Chapter List

Chapter 1 - Basic Arguments for a Universal Flood (1 Topic)

Chapter 2 - Basic Arguments Against an Anthropologically Universal Flood (x Topics)

Chapter 3 - Basic Non-Geological Arguments Against a Universal Flood (x Topics)

Chapter 4 - Uniformitarianism and the Flood: A Study of Attempted Harmonizations (x Topics)

Chapter 5 - Modern Geology and the Deluge (x Topics)

Chapter 6 - A Scriptural Framework for Historical Geology (x Topics)

Chapter 7 - Problems in Biblical Geology (x Topics)

Appendix 1 - Paleontology and the Edenic Curse (x Topics)

            If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while still believing in an old earth.  Click here for more.

    Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism?  Now that we have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life?  If you are a young earth creationism believer, click here.