A spirited debate continues over the meaning of Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." The atheist doesn't believe there was a Creation---and religious people can't seem to agree over how God did what they believe He did. Within the religious community, people continue to dispute whether the Creation evolved slowly over millions of years or within six earth days. The evidence that is presently available sometimes seems to contradict itself. Either way, all of these positions require a measure of faith on behalf of the believer.
I personally think it is hard not to see the strong evidences of Creation that abound all around us. For instance, in the book Out of the Bottomless Pit, Colonel Brown says:
"I've always been fascinated by stuff hidden underground. You ever wondered why coal and other fossil fuels exist?"
Tarbeaux shrugged his shoulders and took a large green apple from his jacket pocket.
The Colonel began, "Suppose you were given the job of designing a planet. And imagine that you were told to plan for the day when it would be inhabited by billions of people. There would only be a few at first, but eventually the population would grow until there would be tremendous demands on the resources needed for the people to survive. Billions of people would need the basic materials to preserve their food and heat their homes. And eventually they would need a substance, probably in an easily stored liquid form, that they could use to make chemicals and fuels to keep their ever growing society going."
"Got any idea what I'm talking about?"
Tarbeaux bit into the sour apple winced, "Sounds like I'd want to lay in a big supply of coal and oil."
"That's exactly it, Tarbeaux! But you'd want to store it in such a way that it would keep until the inhabitants of your planet needed it. You'd bury it deep in the ground, but you'd have to leave some evidence that the stuff was there. I guess you already know that oil was discovered in Pennsylvania because it simply bubbled out of the ground. You probably also know that local people around here called exposed coal ‘rock that burns?'
Tarbeaux nodded yes as he recalled the first drilled oil well in the world being in Titusville, Pennsylvania. He offered the Colonel a bite of his apple.
The gesture of kindness was waved away as the Colonel continued, "The coal industry in this part of West Virginia began because of another important product your imaginary planet would need.
Tarbeaux looked mildly puzzled as the Colonel continued.
"That stuff is salt, Tarbeaux, plain old table salt."
Tarbeaux didn't know whether to be amused, bored, or interested. He opted to show interest, albeit only a passing curiosity. Tarbeaux rolled down the window and tossed the apple core out. Then he turned to the Colonel and smiled, "It's biodegradable you know."
Colonel Brown ignored the apple core remark and continued, "You see, Tarbeaux, just up the road from here in the Kanawha Valley, the Indians used to get their salt. When the early white settlers came along and discovered the area, they called it the Big Buffalo Lick. The settlers boiled the brine to produce salt which they then used to preserve their meat.
As you can see, salt would be vital if you were designing a planet. As long as man roasts the meat or kills and eats it raw, he gets along pretty well without a salt shaker. But if he boils the meat, it loses the natural salt and he must add salt back somehow."
"That's why burying huge caches of salt underground would be an important element for an emerging planet. As men changed from being hunter-gathers to farmers of cereal grains, they would need extra salt to make up for the deficiencies in their diet."
Tarbeaux asked, "So what does that have to do with the opening of the coal mines in this end of West Virginia?"
The Colonel replied, "A salt making industry grew up along the Kanawha River in the 1830's. The stuff was a reddish color and highly prized for curing meat up in Cincinnati. For ten miles both banks of the Kanawha river were lined with salt furnaces. But, it took lots of wood to boil the water out and make the salt. Eventually so much of the timber got cut off of the surrounding mountains that wood for fuel got expensive. That's when they started mining and burning coal to fire their salt furnaces. Outcroppings of coal were already known but considered too expensive to use. All it took was a need and almost like a miracle, a vast underground storage compartment of cheap fuel was discovered. Salt producing continued, fired with coal.
This planet of ours literally has enough coal buried to last hundreds of years at our present rate of consumption. It's just phenomenal. Now here's the pay-off. Today billions of people need salt, but boiling salty water if very inefficient and expensive. So wouldn't you know it, we have found salt deposits that are as much as a mile wide and over seven miles deep? 98% pure! They're distributed all over the world. And to top it all off, many of the salt domes have lakes of petroleum on top of them! There's a whole band of them from Louisiana to Texas."
After a pause the old man summed up his thoughts, "You know Tarbeaux, there are two basic approaches as to why there are vast quantities of coal, petroleum, and salt buried under the skin of this planet. The Uniformitarian view says the stuff was laid down by chance over periods of millions of years and the Creationist view says it was an act of God when He created the earth. In my opinion, to believe either one of them takes a lot of faith. But, regardless of who is right or wrong, the stuff is there! Tremendous underground storage bins and tanks just waiting for us to open them up and use the contents. For me the question is not how it got there, but who put it there. I think there is a purpose behind all of this."

I think many would agree with the character in the novel and choose to believe by faith that there indeed is a Creator God who hung this planet in space. As to how God did it, you must decide by your personal faith. The Bible simply says, "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth."

Marvin Hunt
April 1998

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Marvin Hunt

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Marvin Hunt

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