Wild Pacific

One of the stock objections to a global flood is the logistical question of how the surviving animals repopulated isolated pockets of the planet. Did angels provide the transportation?

Last night as I was channel-surfing I ran across an Animal Planet miniseries entitled “Wild Pacific.” I didn’t watch the whole episode, but it dealt with the logistical issue of how geographically isolated islands acquired their fauna and flora. It wasn’t indigenous to the islands. So how did the plants and animals get there?

This, of course, is parallel to the same question which the young-earth creationist and flood-geologist is called upon to answer.

Animal Planet, being atheistic, has to explain this phenomenon by random, naturalistic mechanisms. A number of the explanations were sheer speculation. And, by the narrator’s admission, a number of the explanations were highly improbable. A lucky fluke.

My immediate point is not to take issue with the show’s explanations. Christians don’t automatically discount natural factors. To the contrary, we subscribe to a robust doctrine providential second-causes. We also don’t object to the idea that a geographically isolated species might develop specialized adaptations. And some of the explanations were reasonable enough. But I’d just note two things:

i) Some of these mundane explanations are also available to the young-earth creationist or flood-geologist.

ii) Moreover, if a flood-geologist or young-earth creationist were to indulge in the amount of sheer conjecture, not to mention the statistical improbability of such fortuitous, yet coincidental developments, he’d be subjected to no end of scorn by secular scientists who’d be quick to gleefully pounce on his “magical,” “faith-based” outlook.

I’m not attempting to make a case for a global flood right now. I was just struck by the unintentional irony of the show.