“The Ark and the Darkness”–An Analysis of the YECist movie (Part 2: Flood, Babel, and the Beast)

Here in Part 2 of my look at the YECist movie The Ark and the Darkness, I am going to provide an overview of the second half of the movie, as well as give my observations on it. Enjoy…

The Impact of the Flood Itself
In the next part of the movie, after discussing the specifics of Noah’s Ark itself, the movie shifts to talking about the geological impact of Noah’s flood. This is where the YECist “science” (or more accurately “pseudo-science”) is put on full display.

• The first thing claimed in this part of the movie is something, quite frankly, I’ve never heard. One of the YECist “experts” claims that secular geologists who reject the global flood of Noah believe there was once a global flood on Mars. YECist creationists, though, believe this global flood on Mars happened at the same time as Noah’s flood…a little over 4,000 years ago.
• When it comes to the issue of plate tectonics, the only difference between creationists and secular scientists is that creationists believe in catastrophic plate tectonics. The continents didn’t slowly move over millions of years; they rapidly moved in the immediate aftermath of Noah’s flood…a little over 4,000 years ago. For YECists, the mid-Atlantic ridge is evidence for Noah’s flood.
• Along with the mid-Atlantic ridge, YECists also claim that all the sedimentary layers all around the earth, including the Grand Canyon, were laid down rapidly, by global tsunamis and earthquakes, in the aftermath of Noah’s flood…a little over 4,000 years ago. Things like sea creatures embedded in rock layers and fossilized trees that go through various sedimentary rock are counted as “evidence” for Noah’s flood.
• As for the death of the dinosaurs, the global catastrophe wasn’t that an asteroid hit the earth millions of years ago. It was Noah’s flood…a little over 4,000 years ago. That, at the singular ice age right after the flood…a little over 4,000 years ago.
• The reason why so many people deny this “overwhelming evidence” for Noah’s flood is because (cue II Peter 2!) “…the Bible makes it clear that the end times would be characterized by increasing unbelief of the biblical account of history in the flood event itself.”
• This section ends with another standard YECist claim about evolution—it is a religion, and secular scientists are its priests who are always “changing” and “updating” their outdated theories. The Bible, though, gives us the true, unchanging account.

My Comments
Let’s be absolutely clear on something. Geologists believe there was a global flood…ON MARS??? WHAT??? Out of curiosity, I “googled” this and, sure enough, there have been recent scientific claims that at one time, billions of years ago, there was massive flooding on Mars.  

That being said, for YECists to then say, “Yeah, we believe that too! And it happened about 4,000 years ago, right around the time of Noah’s flood!” well, I’m sorry…they have parked their Winnebago smack dab in the middle of Crazy Town and have taken up permanent residence there.

Then there is their claim for catastrophic plate tectonics. I’m no scientist, but even I can see that dumping EVERYTHING into the “It all happened during Noah’s flood” bucket is downright comical. I’ve written about this in other posts, but just think about this one thing. According to YECist claims, Noah’s flood happened roughly about 2,300 BC. Also, the Tower of Babel happened about 2240-2200 BC. Right there, that means that within a 60-year period, you had:

• Catastrophic plate tectonics that made the known continents;
• All the sedimentary layers around the world were laid;
• There was a single, solitary ICE AGE…within that 60-year period;
• All the dinosaurs that Noah saved on the Ark would have died off in that single, solitary ICE AGE…within that 60-year period.

On top of that (although this isn’t addressed in the movie), the general biblical date given to the time of Abraham is somewhere between 2100-1900 BC. YECists claim that between Babel and Abraham, one of the groups who left Babel became so isolated from the rest of humanity, that they developed their own unique genome, flourished, then came back into contact with the rest of humanity, and eventually died out. Yes, that is how they explain Neanderthals. At some point, we have to stop even taking YECists claims seriously—that means not even getting angry over them. Such absurdity isn’t worth your stress level. We are dealing with absurdist humor.

Finally, like I pointed out in my first post, there is the recurring “End Times” mindset embedded in YECism. And again, regarding II Peter 2, it does not say that the “End Times” will be characterized by people denying the historicity of Noah’s flood. Go ahead, read II Peter 2:3-10. That’s not what it says. As for the standard YECist claim that “evolution is a religion” and “secular scientists are priests,” no, that’s false. Are there some who claim evolution “disproves Christianity”? Sure. Are there some whose real “religion” is philosophical naturalism? Sure. But to claim “evolution is a religion” betrays mind-numbing ignorance. And to criticize scientists who revise their theories and hypotheses based on the more things they discover is…well, sheerly fascinating. I mean, that’s what science does. That’s how science learns more about the natural world.

More Evidence that Dinosaurs Lived Only Thousands of Years Ago
The movie then turns to give the YECist evidence that dinosaurs didn’t live millions of years ago, but rather only a few thousand years ago.

• The YECist “experts” claim that “they” (who “they” are, the movie doesn’t say) have found boa constrictors with T-Rexes and box turtles and ducks with dinosaurs. Despite this “evidence,” though, museum displays don’t show those things because they are intentionally covering up the truth that evolution and millions of years is a lie.
• They also bring up the fact that scientists have found dinosaur soft tissue and claim that this evidence isn’t in any textbooks and that secular scientists are trying to cover it up. Mark Armitage, who published a paper on soft tissue on a triceratops horn was fired for doing so.
• They then say the lifespan of collagen is 1,000 times shorter than the general age evolution gives for dinosaurs. Therefore, the lifespan of collagen proves that all dinosaur fossils are only 4,400 years old.
• Finally, the movie claims that all the myths and legends throughout literature that talk about dragons living at the same time as humans are actually talking about dinosaurs.

My Comments
I am not a scientist and certainly not an expert in these things. As for the claim that “they” found modern animals with dinosaurs—the movie doesn’t give any specific names, studies, or evidence to support that claim. As for the dinosaur soft tissue, it is quite well-known. To the point, the claim that “secular scientists” are trying to cover this evidence up is just a lie. In fact, there have been further studies on it. Here’s something that BioLogos provides on its website. Also here.

The claim that absolutely kills me though is that the dragons in myths and legends contain historical accounts of dinosaurs and how human beings lived at the same time as them. When I visited the Creation Museum back in 2016, they had this display that claimed the Anglo-Saxon literary work Beowulf contained historical information that talked about dinosaurs (there is a fire-breathing dragon in the story). Beowulf is dated back to somewhere in the 400s AD. That means, according to YECists who make these types of claims, that there were fire-breathing dinosaurs in England (and around the world) roughly at the same time Saint Augustine was writing his Confessions.

I’ve said it before—I can’t get upset about these claims anymore. They are pure comedy.

The Genetic Bottleneck and the Tower of Babel
The movie then moves to the historicity of the Tower of Babel and argues that the “genetic bottleneck” discussed in current genome studies happened shortly after the flood and around the Tower of Babel.

• The movie points out that there are 200 flood stories throughout the world. These stories all go back to the event at the Tower of Babel. Basically, when God dispersed the people at Babel, each group took with them that original account of Noah’s flood. Over time, though, their accounts changed and became inaccurate. Only the biblical account is the true, accurate account.
• In addition to those flood stories, the movie points out that linguists, when they try to trace modern languages back to an original language, they can’t do it. At best, they estimate a number of “root language families.” And, according to YECists, these “root language families” mirror the same number of nations in the table of nations in Genesis 10—seventy languages, seventy nations.
• Finally, the movie attempts to tie in the story of the Tower of Babel with what can be characterized…(gulp) nationalism. It claims that what happened at Babel is that the people wanted to build a tower and establish a one-world government. But God stopped that and then supernaturally formed all the different languages at once. He instituted government and ordained that there be various nations, not a one-world government. Those who are now pushing for a one-world government are attacking nationalism. (While this is being discussed, there is a CGI picture of the Tower of Babel with a brontosaurus at its base).

My Comments
Let’s just be honest and admit that, as always, the “evidence” YECists make is beyond thin. I am not a linguist, but just with a little bit of snooping around on Google, I found that linguists have traced modern languages back to three—NOT 70—main language families: Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, and Afro-Asiatic. I simply have no idea where the movie got their information from that there were seventy root languages. I’m going to go out on a limb and say they probably made it up—their “evidence” being the seventy nations in the table of nations of Genesis 10. Their thinking probably was, “Look! Seventy nations in Genesis 10! That means their MUST be seventy root language families!” And voila…that’s their “evidence.”

The thing that made me cringe was how the movie characterized Babel as an attempt to establish a one-world government, and then the claim that God ordained there be nations, not a one-world government. I have two observations. First, this claim clearly stems from their “End Times/Dispensationalist/Left Behind” worldview. In their minds, they read Revelation (as many Evangelicals do, sadly) as predicting a future seven-year tribulation period with a literal one-world ruler (i.e. the Antichrist/the Beast). And since they’ve already tried to make “historical parallels” between Noah’s flood and a future literal fiery judgment, it isn’t surprising they are going to look for further “historical parallels” between Babel and the Beast. The problem is that Dispensationalism and the Hal Lindsey/Tim LaHaye interpretation of it is completely wrong. The Beast in Revelation 12-13 is the Roman Emperor who ruled the “entire world,” meaning the Roman Empire, at the time. Revelation is not a prediction of a yet-to-be future “new world order,” but rather a work that shows Christians who were suffering persecution by Rome what God was doing. That’s a whole other subject, though.

But what really made me cringe was the bumbling talk of nationalism, because these days “Christian nationalism” is the buzzword that is people freak out over. I’ll say more about that in a third wrap-up post, though, where I directly address the “Last Days” worldview that clearly is driving the movie’s claims that Genesis 1-11 is historical. Be looking for it in the next day or so.