The Old Testament 557
A star shall fall from Heaven.
558 The Bible According to Einstein
million megatons.313 And
when the asteroid struck the ocean floor, crust
melted into molten rock, and an upheaval of magma,
vapor, rock debris and water
followed. Eight-kilometer-tall waves sped out. And
the ground shook so violently in proto-North-America
and South America that trees were uprooted and plants
were tossed into the air. And dinosaurs, reptiles and
large land creatures lost their footing and fell
over. And small animals flew through the air
and landed on their backs.
Now at the impact,
a cloud of water vapor, dust and ash shot up. And some
of it sped out beyond the upper atmosphere and
into outer space. The rest remained and made
a giant cloud. Shocked quartz was sprayed
all over the Americas. And little basaltic balls
like bullets rained down on Earth. And below
the cloud and rain of pellets, lava flowed lavishly
over parts of proto-Mexico.
A crater two-hundred-kilometers
in diameter had been created in the crust underneath
the sea and in the Gulf of Mexico.
And no living organism,
no microbe within five-hundred kilometers
of the impact was alive -- all life within this region
had been instantly incinerated by the
blast. The flesh of all the animals had turned
to crisp and ash -- this was Nature's holocaust.
And shock waves
travelled through the mantle of the Earth and
bounced off the outer and the inner core. Earthquakes
occurred around the globe. And the Deccan Traps
on the other side of Earth ignited and
they spit out flames.
The wrath of Nature was upon the face of Earth.
And red ashes
and bits of glowing rock rained down on
proto-Mexico. They ignited plants and
trees. And angry fires raged in proto-Mexico. And
vegetation fueled the flames which
flickered like unto huge red tongues reaching
for the heavens. And one-million-square kilometers
of plains and forests burned. Then the fires spread to
proto-Texas, proto-Belize and proto-Guatemala. Behind
the flames were charred wood, charred leaves and charcoal.
And there was panic
among Earth's creatures in the region. The slower
animals were overrun by flames and instantly
cremated. The fastest creatures fled the flames, but
found themselves surrounded soon by fire and by heat. And
air was full of smoke. And all animals, small
and large, slow and fast, which did not die
by burning, choked. The animals fell over, struggled
on the ground for several minutes and then
were motionless.
And several kilometer-sized
waves travelled seven times around the globe. And
for seven days, the oceans rose and fell. And continents
were flooded and were drained. And ocean
life was tossed about like unto salad
in a bowl. And many shellfish, marine reptiles, sponges,
____________________
313
This is equivalent to ten-thousand times the explosive power of the world's stockpile of nuclear warheads at the time of the 1980's.The Old Testament 559
plankton, algae, fish and ocean organisms
found themselves on land and died.
And magma spurted from
the Deccan Traps in India. And a cloud of ash
and gas two-thousand kilometers in size did hover
there. And lava flowed on top of lava. And lava
ignited forests to the north and east. And as in
proto-Central-America, a ring of fire ranged
outward, burning vegetation in its path. And flames
spread rapidly as if transported by horses
and by chariots. And heat incinerated creatures
living on the continent of India. The flames raised
their heads and hands to heaven and quivered with
the fear of hell.
Now the air in southern
proto-North-America and in northern South America
was black and full of particles. Visibility
was half a meter. And as living creatures breathed
in soot, they coughed and choked, and their
lungs filled up with dirt and smoke. They toppled
to the ground and died.
And ants and other
insects had a feast feeding on the dead.
And clouds of dust, meteorite
debris, water vapor, smoke and ash
spread around the globe. And asteroid dust
and ash relatively rich in iridium settled on
the Earth. And the atmosphere was full of
particles and soot. And all around the world, the
largest creatures suffocated so.
And Earth's environment
was ruined. And as for creatures, being big was
suddenly a big big disadvantage.
And large pieces
of atmospheric fallout rubbed against the molecules
of air, became incandescent and caught fire. It
was as if fireworks were everywhere around
the globe. And incandescent pieces landed in
the trees, setting them ablaze. And half
the forests of the world were trees of flames. And
hell was upon the face of Earth. And smoke
added to the black of an already black black atmosphere.
And soon the Sun was
no longer visible from anywhere on
Earth -- a curtain of darkness had descended
on thy Earth.
And during the next
day, it was night. And during night, it was also
night. And during the day after, it was still
night. Indeed, for the next nine months, it would be night.
And being robbed of
light, plants no longer photosynthesized. And
many plants thus died. And bacteria and
microorganisms multiplied profusely in
decaying bio-matter.
On the surface of
the oceans and the seas, algae succumbed and
formed a scum. Oceans stank. And inland, swamps
and marshes turned green, then brown. And
they too gave off a putrid stink. And plankton-feeding
fish and water-life feasted on the dead remains. But
for many, it was but their last supper.
And the surviving small
herbivores on land ate decaying plants and trees. And
these creatures feasted as if without a worry.
And nitrous oxide in the
atmosphere mixed with water and made nitric acid. Then
clouds let loose their rain. And it rained
an acid rain. And although the rain washed
away some smoke and soot, when it landed on the leaves
of plants and trees, the acid ate into organic
matter. And leaves of plants and trees had holes. And
when rain landed on
560 The Bible According to Einstein
the shellfish on the sandy beaches, the shells
dissolved and disappeared. And the worm-like
creatures living in the shells were exposed to
Nature's elements and to hungry seashore birds.
And a month went by. And
still darkness reigned on Earth. And weed-like plants
turned yellow. And withered were the leaves
of trees. And plants grew weak and
stems bent over, as if to pray.
In the tropics, the
temperature went down. And in the polar regions, the
temperature went up somewhat. But overall, the
Earth began to cool.
And several months
went by. And trees in forests fell. And in
Earth's seas, bacteria and microorganisms consumed
the dead remains of photosynthetic plankton. And
plankton-feeding fish and shellfish
died. Dead fish floated on the surface
of the oceans and the seas. And marine predators
fed on the dead. And they feasted as if without
a worry. But for many, it was but their
last supper.
And some dead fish
and shellfish washed up onto sandy shores. And
small amphibians, reptiles and mammals, which had
survived the first wave of Nature's
holocaust, feasted on the dead.
And the living ate
the dead until the dead were gone. And then the
living starved. And some of them grew weak and
passed away. And those that did survive ate those
that had just died.
Thus the four
elements -- fire, water, air and earth -- inflicted
death upon the living of the Earth.
And summer came. But
summer was without the Sun -- it was as cold
as in December. And two years of winter would so follow.
And emissions from
the Deccan Traps raged on and filled the air
with sulfur compounds, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide
and other toxic gases. And the gases combined
with water vapor in the atmosphere and formed
sulfuric and carbonic acids. And when it rained, it
rained an acid rain.
And several months
went by. And the temperature in the
tropics dropped. And on the continents, cold-blooded
creatures such as insects, reptiles, worms, amphibians
and other animals became lethargic, for their
metabolism dropped. And beetles crawled
more slowly. And worms barely budged in
earth. And lizards, snakes, frogs and
salamanders seemed asleep. But warm-blooded
creatures, such as birds and mammals, were
more active. And they ate slowly moving bugs and
worms. Some placentals fed on small lethargic
frogs and snakes. And on reptiles such as baby
lizards, other mammals ate.
And from the heavens
fell the acid rains and washed away some soot. And the
rain collected in the ponds and lakes. And
the waters of some pools became acidic. And
the acid burned the skin of fish and other
water life. And some fish bled. Some turned blue and
red and white. And in small ponds, many
fish were dead.
And darkness was
upon the face of Earth. And the temperature of air
declined. And water in the lakes in non-tropic regions
turned to ice. And salamanders, small aquatic
reptiles, frogs and fish froze in ice. And animals
north of the tropic of Cancer and south of the tropic of
The Old Testament 561
Capricorn were cold. And both warm- and cold-blooded
creatures succumbed to cold and died.
At first, it had seemed
as if the world were going to end in fire. Now it
seemed as if the world would end in ice. And it was
a nightmare for all life, as night lasted for nine months.
And rain fell steadily
for another month, washing away the atmospheric particles
and dust. And behold, in one cloud appeared a
hole. Through it did sunbeams stream -- they looked
like the light from heaven streaming through a
window in a church.
Now the death toll
was enormous -- four-fifths of the species
of pre-existing plants and animals had gone
extinct. And in a layer of earth, the dead
were buried so.314
Another mass extinction
had come and gone so fast.
Another group of creatures had perished in the past.
And although all ammonoids
had died, a few nautiloids survived. And amphibians,
using both water and land to their advantage, faired
relatively well. And so did snakes and turtles. And
some fresh-water life in large lakes did
survive. And deep-sea ocean organisms
mostly were unscathed.
And the small did
better than the big. And this was true from the
giant reptiles to the tiny protozoa. And for
example, the protozoa, which lived on, were
one-tenth the size of Jurassic protozoa. And
no land animal more than twenty-five kilograms survived.
Now most of bio-history
had been without catastrophes. In such
times, evolution had responded well to regular, continuous
and slowly changing situations. The creatures of the
world had played the game of life; they
had obeyed the rules of evolution; and
they had followed the laws of Nature. They
had been rewarded so. The rules had for
years been fixed, or so it seemed.
____________________
314
The death list read as follows.562 The Bible According to Einstein
And then
at random instances in geo-history, the mighty force
of Nature's hand came pounding down on Earth. Roughly
every fifty-million years, a
catastrophe struck Earth -- an asteroid, a
sudden change in temperature, a burst of widespread
vulcanism, a sudden rise or drop in ocean level, or
a ruthless, selfish, cruel and dominating
creature. At such cataclysmic periods, the
game board was knocked off the table. And the pieces
were scattered on the floor. And Earth's creatures
had to play on, even without pieces, boards or
rules. And during such tormented times, the game
was not a game of strategy, action and reaction as
in chess -- the game became a game of
chance, like dice. And even rule-abiding creatures
with well-established niches went extinct. And it was
as if Evolution cast lots to decide who would live and
who would die and who would rule. So
catastrophes, though rare and random, had
a haphazard consequence for evolution.
And after such events, the
pieces were picked up. New players were
called in. The game began anew.
Can these bones live?
____________________
315 Man's
fascination with the dinosaurs would go beyond
paleontological digs.
In modern times, movies
would be made about dinosaurs.
A few parks with
bones and footprints would be set apart.
Museums of natural history would be filled with
all types of giant skeletons.
Visitors would
come and stare in awe.
Man in modern times would be fascinated by the dinosaur,
a creature that dominated Earth for
one-hundred-million years and more.
In contrast, man to date has dominated Earth
for just ten-thousand years.
But man's search for understanding of the dinosaur goes beyond
mere curiosity, for the story of the dinosaur raises
important questions for mankind -- questions
such as, Will the human race, like the dinosaurs, be erased?
Will there be another collision with an asteroid that
will wipe out all higher forms of life?
Or will it be a new disease, climatic change or war?
If not, will humans be successful like the dinosaur
and live a hundred-million years or more?
In modern times,
evolutionists and philosophers would come to realize
that bigger was not always better.
And most numerous was not necessarily best.
So maybe smarter is not better either.
And evolutionists and philosophers would question
which biological assets have true lasting value.
Will Nature's experiment in creatures with intelligence bear fruit?
Or will it be that the human being is
too intelligent for its well-being?
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