Catastophism?

what do you guys think?

If true.....it would be extremely difficult for us to confirm it presently.....

If not true.....there are many unexplained anomalies floating around out there that does not fit with the known history of man on this planet. A couple quick examples would be human appendage prints fossilized in rock pre-dating humans supposed beginnings and ancient maps accurately surveying antartica's coast which has been frozen under ice for thousands of years.......only to be mapped by radar in the past 50 years, proving the millenia old maps to be completely accurate.

Well, we can verify the mechanisms of gradualism, ie. erosion by wind, water, etc. We have also seen some evidence of Catastrophes happening in the past causing significant earth formation, ie. volcanoes, earthquakes, meteors.

My take? I would take a middle road. Erosion is constantly at work and is occasionally accelerated by the odd catastrophe. The world is younger than a completely gradualist approach would make it, but older than a completely catastrophic approach would.

a completely catastrophic approach gives no timeline......... we could be the second, fourth, fifteenth or six hundreth civilization.........depending on the actual age of our planet from the point it was able to support life until now.

Would you have any links to some info on this at all?

Originally posted by Evil Dead
a completely catastrophic approach gives no timeline......... we could be the second, fourth, fifteenth or six hundreth civilization.........depending on the actual age of our planet from the point it was able to support life until now.

true, I was thinking more geologically, but it is would depend entirely on how often and how far apart the catastrophes were.

Debbiejo - Here's a good summary. Not too in depth, but it covers the basics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catastrophism (I hope this link works this time 😮

It's not a theory at all. There have been 5 mass extinctions in Earth's history, the 2nd largest of which killed the dinosaurs.

Ours is yet to come...

Originally posted by Quiero Mota
It's not a theory at all. There have been 5 mass extinctions in Earth's history, the 2nd largest of which killed the dinosaurs.

Ours is yet to come...

2nd? what was the first?

The one at the end of the Cambrian period.

I just see it all as doom prophecy. They say religion uses scare tactics and this theory is practically the same.

"It happen to the Dinosaurs and it will happen to us"

Then they throw a buch of geology studies and a bunch of Climate and Weather data. My honest opinion? Doomsayers using Science as a backbone for their arguments.

sorry there WD........but this has nothing to do with doom sayers. It's not a question of "if"....it's a question of when. Simple mathmatics.......even if you are to believe that the earth will never encounter another species killing asteroid, the sun itself which all life on this planet survives from will die out eventually.......

that wasn't the point of this post......

My question was actually in regards to the out of place occurances in our history. Such as human hand prints in solid rock........ancient maps containing knowledge unable to be known for at very least the last 13,000 year.......

the quesiton was regarding the timeline of man....... if it were possible that man has existed much longer than we know of......even if in a much smaller culture.....only to become near extinct due to catastrophy, having knowledge lost for untold centuries/millenia only to have it rediscovered at a later date.

I've heard this before and it does make since. Why would we assume we are the only ones with the history.....That there wasn't a catastrophe before. The moon has such large craters in it and even here there are some large ones.......hmmm

Atlantis huh?

Or a better pre-flood civilization than is depicted by most bible lovers.

Atlantis or maybe something else even.....hmm

There is even a bible scripture that says "And god REPLENISHED the earth"......Replenished....Notice the "Re?"

In Genesis.

Also there is the legon of Lemuria

Description
Lemuria was an ancient civilization which existed prior to and during the time of Atlantis. Physically, it is believed that Lemuria existed largely in the Southern Pacific, between North America and Asia/Australia. Lemuria is also sometimes referred to as Mu, or the Motherland (of Mu). At its peak of civilization, the Lemurian people were both highly evolved and very spiritual. While concrete physical evidence of this ancient continent may be difficult to find, many people "know" that they have a strong connection to Lemuria. http://www.lemuria.net/

http://www.thule.org/lemuria.html <---- This site has a map layout

Lemuria is the name of a hypothetical "lost land" variously located in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Its 19th century origins lie in attempts to account for discontinuities in biogeography. Lemuria has been rendered superfluous by modern understanding of plate tectonics.

Though Lemuria has passed out of the realm of science, it has been adopted by Occult writers, as well as some Tamil people of India. Accounts of Lemuria differ according to the requirements of their contexts. However, all share a common belief that the continent existed in ancient times but sank beneath the ocean as a result of geological change, often cataclysmic.

Geologists today regard sunken continents as physical impossibilities, given the isostatic equilibrium of continental plates floating on the thermoplastic mantle.

this thread has nothing to do with atlantis, the bible or other fictional tales...............

keep on track......serious discussion. I didn't make this thread to here mystic/occult tales already debunked as mentioned nor the ramblings of an ancient philosopher who admittedly told the tale as one he had heard on his travels......supposed to have taken place thousands of years before even his existence. the bible has no relevant place of mention...anywhere. While I'm sure there have been many great floods that could have destroyed a small culture.......there is scientific evidence to support this........not some made up, flood the whole ****ing planet, put 2 of each of a few million species of animal on a boat crap.......as mentioned in the bible. a few thousand years have gone by.......not one thing mentioned in the bible has been shown true.....how long before you nuts give it up? I'd rather hear about the Atlantis, Lemuria, Hollow Earth/Reptile people crap than that stupid trash.......

What I was referring to was Pre-flood....The word "Replenish" is in the very beginning of Genesis. Making it seem like the planet was once inhabited then was no longer, then replenished again......Just thought it was interesting, because many people don't catch that word and it was pre-flood.....oh well..

Even I wasn't talking about an actual flood, just flood as an analogy to a civilization that existed before ours. Timelinewise your fossilized handprints wouldn't make sense for that one, but it does make a poetic point.

I don't have a problem with the idea that things happened along a different timeline than we know.