January/February 2024 Challenge: Rodinia and the Great Deluge

[The Elderly Cartographer]

Rodinia and the Great Deluge
I'm attempting to illustrate in 1600's style cartography probably one of the best before/after scenarios: Earth, in it's original form before the continents were torn apart.

I am also attempting to challenge some of the gross misconceptions about the historic account of Noah, the Ark, and the Global Flood. You know the corny stereotypes: A gimpy boat with animals hanging out in all directions and an elderly man clinging to the prow, as the flood waters cover the Himalayan mountains. Ugh! That is so wrong and makes the Bible look like a foolish fairy tale. Note: I'm not looking to start a debate or division.

This was a helpful article: Noah's Lost World by Dr. Andrew Snelling

Any helpful criticism is welcome!

### Latest WIP ###
Deluge 1.png

[Turambar]

Great start! Looking forward to seeing the final map. I like the illustration of the ark that you have at the bottom of the page.

[Ink_alpinist]

That is a quite interesting premise and drawing! I don't know how far have you gone, but maybe you could put Jerusalem in the center of your map, as a ... historical trinket.
And we both are going for the same style, 1500s/1600s, cool.

[The Elderly Cartographer]

Great start! Looking forward to seeing the final map. I like the illustration of the ark that you have at the bottom of the page.

Thanks! I mimicked Answers in Genesis' design for the Ark's shape. As I stared at the empty space between the giant circles it just sort of came to me. I wanted to draw it in a similar style of the Great Wave off Kanagawa, but we will see.

That is a quite interesting premise and drawing! I don't know how far have you gone, but maybe you could put Jerusalem in the center of your map, as a ... historical trinket.
And we both are going for the same style, 1500s/1600s, cool.

Thank you! That is an idea... although I don't know where Jerusalem would be on Rodinia. Lol. I've heard some scholars propose that Jerusalem is over the place where the Garden of Eden once was. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into it.

[The Elderly Cartographer]

I've inked in some things that I don't want to get wiped away while I work out the designs of other parts. Currently I'm work on fleshing out the both atlases. It is a little trick because nobody, Evolutionist or Creationist, is sure of what the original Rodinia looked like. So now I have to fit in the God's brief description of the preflood world into my interpretation.

I took Ink_Alpinist's suggestion and added Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) to the map. Interesting possibility; I compared where Jerusalem was located between certain modern day cratons and to the position of the original cratons and found it somewhere in the east of my Rodinia. And looking at the Text, God says:

"The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden... Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates." - Genesis 2:8-14

Debunking myths:
The Ark was huge; approximately 1-1/2 football fields long and four stories tall, and it had a storage capacity as about 450 standard semi-trailers.

### Latest WIP ###
Deluge 2.png

[Ink_alpinist]

Cool you put Jerusalem in it. Also you started inking! The font for rodinia and its frame is nice, forward we go!

[Naima]

Pretty interesting project, there must be a lot of informed research behind !

[The Elderly Cartographer]

Cool you put Jerusalem in it. Also you started inking! The font for rodinia and its frame is nice, forward we go!

Thank you! I'm using a light graphite so if I don't ink in the elements I know I want, I'll surely wipe them off. Lol.

Pretty interesting project, there must be a lot of informed research behind !

Thanks! The global flood and Noah's Ark is one of the greatest debated topics in Creation vs Evolution. Answers in Genesis has done amazing scientific research on the topic and has a plethora of articles.

UPDATE:
Inked in the words at the top which is a direct quote from Genesis 6:7-8. And notice I had to reshape Rodinia. I should have been wiser than that! I tried to fit God's Word into my interpretation of the landscape, but as always that fails. So drew a land with God's description as the foundation. Also inked in the Ark and the water's edge. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to style/texture the water.

Debunking Myths:
Skeptics claim that only a horrible and hateful God could flood Earth and kill all land dwellers except those on the Ark. But they are clearly over looking the previous verses which say every person's thoughts were wicked continually, so much so that God was sorry that He made them. God is just and perfect. He is like a honest judge, bound to the duty of punishing any criminals. Yet even in His righteous judgment, God still gave Mankind 120 years grace-period before He flooded them.

### Latest WIP ###
Deluge 3.png

[The Elderly Cartographer]

Continuing to fill in the lines with ink. I hope God forgives me for that face. I drew it out in graphite and then ink happened and I'm stuck with it.

I haven't made too much progress over this last week, things kept getting in my way. But any progress is good, no?

Debunking Myths:
People say a Global Flood is impossible because there is not enough water in the world to cover the mountains (eg. Mount Everest) as Genesis describes. That is true for the current topography of the Earth but the Pre-Flood Earth was different. There were no tall mountains, because all of our mountain ranges today were cause by extreme impacts of the tectonic plates that took place during the flood.

The Earth's surface is 71% water and the oceans are unfathomably deep. Therefore the mountains were pushed up and deep canyons (Like the Mariana's Trench) were carved and the Global Flood waters slipped off the land into their current positions.


### Latest WIP ###
Deluge 4.png

[Ink_alpinist]

Great progress!