Pangea

Once in awhile I will be in a discussion where someone will ask how I reconcile my spiritual beliefs with what I know about science. Good question. Really I'm just a learner in both areas. I definitely think that God's word is infallible, but it does leave some room for science to explain some of the details.

I've been going to a Bible study during which we watch a video of Kay Arthur. Well, on one of the videos she was talking about the tower of Babel. If you don't know, the towel of Babel is the story in which humans were building a tower to try to reach heaven. Because of their intent to obtain a godlike status, the Lord confused their language. As a result, the people were scattered according to their language. This is where we get the expression "to babble" meaning to speak senselessly.

What you probably learned in science class was that the continents were once together as one giant land mass called Pangea. Some Biblical scholars think that Pangea is mentioned in Gen. 1:9,10. When God was creating the Earth, He said, "Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into ONE PLACE (emphasis mine), and let the dry land appear," and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters he called seas, and God saw that it was good. These scholars argue that if the waters were gathered into one place, then the land also must be located in one place, hence the passage is referring to Pangea.

So then, the tower of Babel happened and people separated according to their language. After this, in Gen. 10:25 it says, "Two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was Peleg (means division) for in his days the earth was divided." The word for earth in Gen 1:10 and 10:25 is the same, erets. The word for divided is palag which merely means divided or split. So after the people were scattered according to their language, the continents split apart. As a result, people of many languages were spread to various parts of the Earth. Only God knows how the continents were split, or how the timing of this all occured, but there is a possible reconciliation of a scientific belief and God's word.