Claim CH311:
In the pre-Flood earth, the vapor canopy, a translucent layer of water
vapor above the atmosphere, filtered out radiation from space, decreasing
mutations and drastically increasing life spans.
Source:
Vail, Isaac Newton, 1912. The Earth's Annular System, 4th
ed. Pasadena: The Annular World Co.
Morris, Henry M., 1974. Scientific Creationism, Green Forest, AR:
Master Books, pp. 210-211.
Response:
- The vapor canopy as proposed would make the environment on
earth highly inimical at best.
- Filtering out radiation from space has no appreciable effect on life
spans. Life spans are determined mostly by programmed cell death, not
by mutations. Mutations themselves are mostly caused by factors other
than radiation. People who live at high altitudes, and thus who have
significantly less atmospheric shielding from cosmic radiation, do not
live noticeably shorter lives as a result.
Links:
Morton, Glenn R., 2000. The demise and fall of the water vapor canopy: A
fallen creationist idea. http://home.entouch.net/dmd/canopy.htm
created 2003-6-29
