A Book Review: In The Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood by Dr. Walt Brown

As an eager college Geology major, I remember being fascinated by new revelations about the earth's wide variety of dramatic features. I studied everything from the tiny world of elements that make up the thousands of natural minerals found throughout the earth to the big picture realms of the moon, planets, and distant galaxies. In between these extremes, we were taught all about the different shapes and types of terrain found all over the globe, including the imagined origins of vast mountain ranges, plateaus and plains; impacts of glacier ice and volcanic activity; and the mysteries of deep trenches and high mountains under the seas. In related sciences, I learned the basic tenets and rigid principles of physics, chemistry and math.

All of this information and scientific understanding is useful to mankind because with it, we are able to find, process and use the earth's resources to live better, more comfortable lives. But there was one area of study in my pursuit of the BS in Geology that would not help at all in the applicable work of finding fossil fuels or extracting needed minerals from the ground. They called it Historical Geology. Despite the fact that its understanding was truly irrelevant to any industry, my professors seemed to relish in relating everything else to the supposed history, or origins, of it all.

Time and time again, as evidence for the natural, claimed happenstance origin of time, space, matter, our organized solar system and an ever complicating factor called life itself was presented, I found myself being repeatedly embarrassed for my profs. "That's all you have?" I was given one list of assumptions after another, which led to one more series of speculative scenarios after another. As I discovered that our geologists date sedimentary rocks by the fossils they contain, AND that our paleontologists date the fossils they discover by the rocks they are found within, my confidence in their conclusions drained rapidly.

So, many years later, when I discovered this book; In The Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood by Dr. Walt Brown, I was thrilled. After many years of trying to reconcile the specific explanations given for the origins of this earth's dramatic features with what I understood to be a rigorous scientific method, I have finally found a book which instead, provides a brand new and thoroughly scientific correlation between the earth's geology and a straightforward cause/effect, scientifically plausible chain of events which actually explains how ALL of what we see and know came to be. Possibly.

The qualifier, possibly, is scientifically speaking necessary. True science must claim as fact, by its own design, only that which has been observed, and/or can be repeated. The origin of this planet and its ancient features were not observed by man, nor can we repeat the events in a laboratory. But its features, when separated and defined by basic principles that have been long established, can be examined for particular evidence that may or may not support a certain theory.

Dr. Brown, who earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT was for many years a believer in the evolutionary theory until "after years of study, he became convinced of the scientific validity of creation and a global flood. "

The book is now in its 8th edition. I have been most familiar with the 6th edition, but have found the entire 8th edition is available on line for a free reading of every page. There are certain similarities with each: Part 1 details the "Scientific Case for Creation". Part 2 is called The Fountains of the Great Deep and contains the real meat of the book. This is where his own "hydroplate theory" is presented in detail. He relates his ideas about the physical requirements, processes and results (present day geological findings) of a worldwide flood that occurred in the relative recent past.

This section has grown with each edition as some of the details mentioned in one volume are greatly expanded into new chapters in the next. If you have ever marveled at the Grand Canyon, wondered about frozen mammoths, or thought at all about comets or radioactivity itself, this book offers explanations that exceed those thrown out so readily by the typical scientist seen on Nova or a National Geographic special.

Part 3 could be a valuable book by itself. Here Dr. Brown answers many "Frequently Asked Questions" that he has gathered over the years from doing seminars on this subject.

While the question of earth's origins matters little to the applied scientists of industry, and is speculated about freely in academia, the issue does pertain to the individual. "Where did I come from?" is a natural, and important, question that deserves a careful, not flip, answer.

As one might take their existence seriously, I recommend this book to any who would seriously want to consider what probably, and scientifically, happened way back "In The Beginning".  I suggest that a person interested in comparing truth claims made by even their most trusted scientific resource will find that this book represents solid rational thinking.  If you link to this free resource here, and then leave the tab ready for a quick perusal of a few pages every now and then, you will delight in your new understanding of so many of the earth's, formerly mysterious, features!