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Reasons To Believe Home PageAccording to Genesis 5 and 6, one of the many changes God decreed at the time of the Genesis Flood was the shortening of human lifespans from an average of 900+ years down to a maximum of about 120 years.1 Besides protecting us from intensification of evil, this change, which apparently involved a reprograming of our cells, also protects us from certain types of cancer.2 The change also involved either the removal of some sort of pre-Flood radiation shield or, more likely, an increase in the amount of cosmic radiation showering the earth.
I see the radiation increase as the more likely change because astronomers can identify an event in human history that accounts for a dramatic increase in cosmic radiation. I’ve mentioned that event, the Vela supernova, in other writings and on a videotape, as a possible tool for bringing about part of the lifespan change.3-4 My one hesitancy about God’s use of the Vela had to do with its timing. In 1981 Robert Brakenridge’s calculations placed it between 8,000 and 15,000 years ago.5 Though this date seemed consistent with the rough biblical date for the Flood (somewhere between about 6,000 and 50,000 years ago), it clashed with anthropological research, which dates humanity’s post-Flood spread from Mesopotamia to Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe (Gen. 7:1-11:99) at about 30,000 to 35,000 years ago.
Because of a discovery published in recent weeks, the Vela now seems a good fit with all the data— biological, biblical, and anthropological. A team of four British astronomers measured the spin down rate of the neutron star left over from the Vela blast (a more reliable method than Brackenridge’s) to calculate its date. Their figure, which is still being refined, dates the Vela at 30,000 years ago, give or take 10,000 years.6 A more precise date should be available soon.
This timing does not prove God used the Vela supernova to bring about theshortening of human life. But it does serve as a reasonable, realistic candidate for God’s use in the process. Scientists and theologians alike appreciate consistency whereever it may be found.
1. Genesis 5:3 - 6:3, Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV).
2. J. Travis, "Do Suicidal Cells Prevent Colon Cancer?" Science News, 150 (1996), p. 55.
3. Hugh Ross, "Methuselah Lived How Long?" Facts & Faith , vol. 5, no. 1 (1991), pp. 4-5.
4. Hugh Ross, Noah and the Ark (Pasadena, CA: Reasons To Believe, 19910, video cassette.
5. G. Robert Brakenridge, "Terrestrial Paleoenvironmental Effects of a Late Quaternary-Age Supernova," Icarus, 46 (1991), pp. 81-93.
6. A. G. Lyne, R. S. Pritchard, F. Graham-Smith, and F. Camilo, "Very Low Braking index for the Vela Supernova," Nature, 381 (1996), pp. 497-498.
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