Question:

My wife is taking a astronomy class this semester so I have stolen her
textbook and am reading up on the Big Bang and other stellar topics. If a
GUT is discovered to explain the process during Planck Epoch it still
won’t explain what initiated Creation. Therefore, a GUT would have no
effect on the need for a Creator, correct?

also…

The deepest part of the ocean, Mariana’s trench, is approximately 6.8
miles below sea level but the average maximum depth of the ocean floor is
much less, and there is an enormous amount of life that survives and
thrives on the ocean floor. Mt Everest, the highest point on Earth, is
approximately 5.5 miles above sea level. If the flood was truly universal
and sea level was raised by 5.5 miles, wouldn’t the pressure increase on
the ocean floor

be too great for many of the species that inhabit it to survive?

Answer:

You are right. If scientists discover/invent a GUT, this would have no
effect on the question of whether there is a creator or not. Bottom line,
the universe we live in came into being out of nothing–to time, no space,
no matter, no energy. It would perhaps be a mistake to say given the big
bang, obviously God in the biblical sense, but creation is apparent and
discovery of a GUT would not change this fact.

Even if the highly speculative and questionably scientific multiverse idea
is proved true, this might conceivably solve some of the anthropic
questions (although I doubt it would), but it still leaves the issue of
creation of something ex nihilo.

As to the flood, it really is hard to reach solid conclusions. I am not
convinced that the conclusion from Genesis 7 is a flood which literally
immersed Mt.Everest. I believe in a flood of world-wide effect, but the
interpretation of “the water covered everything to 20 feet” is not clear.
Personally, I do not think the water was Mt Everest + 20 feet. Perhaps
there was 20 feet of rain everywhere. I am leery of trying to force a
Near Eastern author of the second millennium BC into a Western, scientific
mindset.

Nevertheless, we could speculate, if we like, on the effect of 30,000 feet
of water. I think the effect on the land plants and animals would be even
greater than that on sea creatures, but nevertheless, one could
legitimately ask. I am no marine biologist, but I am guessing that such
increased pressures would have a devastating effect, at least on some
plants and animals which cannot move. Probably deep sea creatures would
be the least, not the most affected. Such creatures could move or be moved
to higher water during a massive flood. Species in shallow water would
have a proportionally much greater increase in the pressure they are
subject to. There could be a massive die-off of corals, followed by a
later, gradual re-establishment of these marine systems with time.

Such arguments can be made about land creatures as well. I am assuming
that duck-billed platypuses did not wriggle their way to the ark. Did God
re-create platypuses? There are untold unanswerable questions, and there
is a God who can do whatever he pleases, as he is omniscient and
omnipotent.

Sorry for a vague answer, but I am an agnostic on the subject of the depth
of the water in the flood.

John Oakes PhD