Marilyn Monroe and the Age of the Earth

Marilyn Monroe’s first major film was Niagara (1953), and it catapulted her to stardom. She portrays femme fatale Rose Loomis who is vacationing with husband George at Niagara Falls.

Niagara is a gripping murder-thriller with many surprising twists. The acting is sub-par, but I favor a good story over good acting.

The movie has breathtaking panoramic views of Niagara Falls. Camera shots of the Falls locale as it looked 60 years ago add historic interest. One marvels at the Falls’ natural beauty before the Parks Service developed the American side and before the Canadian side degenerated into tourist-trap commercialism.

Joseph Cotten and Jean Peters join Monroe as stars in Niagara, a 92-minute 20th Century Fox Technicolor production directed by Henry Hathaway.

CAUTION: The movie contains sensuality and scenes of violence and peril. Adultery is assumed, but what is depicted is quite discreet, with no vulgar language and only a few mild references to eternal perdition. Marilyn Monroe is flirtatious and suggestive, but the movie is far less salacious and less explicit than today’s PG-13 movies.

This 10-minute clip from the movie’s beginning gives a glimpse into the complex interaction of the four main characters: vacationers George & Rose Loomis and honeymooners Ray & Polly Cutler. It hints at the marital conflicts smoldering beneath the surface. (No spoilers)

 
As the movie opens, the camera pans across the majestic precipice of Niagara Falls and then captures a rainbow prism below. A man’s small silhouetted figure walks among huge boulders at the base of the American Falls toward the mist and thunderous spray.

The figure is George Loomis, husband of Marilyn Monroe’s character Rose. In a voice over George says,

“Why should the Falls drag me down here at five o’clock in the morning?
To show me how big they are and how small I am?
To remind me they can get along without any help?
All right, so they’ve proved it. And why not?
They’ve had 10,000 years to get independent.
What’s so wonderful about that?
I suppose I could too, only it might take a little more time.”

This discourse is largely disjointed and nonsensical. Loomis is rambling on the theme of how inexplicable it is that he should feel irresistably drawn to the Falls so early in the morning. He segues to how small and inconsequential he feels, and how impressed he is with the immutability of the Falls and his helplessness to alter the situation. He sees them as “independent” in that they operate completely autonomously of him or his influence or presence or that of anyone else.

I find it very interesting that Loomis views the Falls as 10,000 years old. Is this figure anywhere close to correct? (Answer: NO)

Panoramic View of Niagara Falls from the Canadian Side
The American Falls are on the left and the Horseshoe Canadian Falls on the right. Note the Maid of the Mist boat approaching Horseshoe Falls. Loomis' introductory monologue was on the far side of the American Falls at their base.
(Click for a panoramic view.)

 
When and How Did the Falls Originate?
Niagara Falls likely formed as a result of Noah’s Flood and the post-Flood Ice Age. The Falls did not exist before the Flood.

Noah’s Flood is the pivotal geological event of all time because it utterly transformed the globe. Mountains, ravines, ocean basins, and continents probably all date from the time of the Flood—they were either formed or drastically altered by the Flood.

Turbulent Flood waters caused massive erosion worldwide. Swirling sediments were hydraulically sorted and settled in layers, solidifying during the following decades. Post-flood geological adjustments continued for centuries. The oceanic, atmospheric, and geologic upheavals of Noah’s Flood exceed man’s capacity to comprehend.

The Apostle Peter declared the Flood destroyed the world (2 Peter 3:6). The Flood caused geological damage to the earth that defies imagination.

American Falls from Canada's Skylon Tower
The separate Bridal Veil Fall at the right looks minor, but it's so powerful that it is almost impossible to stand near its base due to thunderous spray. One intense Niagara scene takes place on the Bridal Veil boardwalk which can be seen below Bridal Veil.

The north-flowing Niagara River, dropping 325 feet, empties Lake Erie into Lake Ontario. The geological layers over which the river descends today were deposited by Noah’s Flood 4500 years ago. Downriver from the Falls, the walls of Niagara Gorge are full of fossils from marine animals buried in the Flood. Thus the Gorge (and hence the Falls) could not have existed before the Flood.

Climate adjustments after the Flood probably led to the Ice Age. The Niagara area was covered with thick layers of ice. As it melted and shifted, large quantities of melt-water, ice, and debris carved out the Great Lakes and the Niagara River around 4,000 years ago.

The Falls started at Queenston, Ontario, seven miles downriver and eroded back upriver. The Falls have been eroding five feet per year since the mid-1800s when European settlers started observing them. At this rate, it would take 7,000 years to erode from Queenston to the present position.

At the beginning, however, the erosion would have been far faster when runoff from the Flood and Ice Age was far greater and sediment layers were soft mud instead of hard stone. So 4,000 years is a reasonable maximum time for the Falls to erode back to their present position.

Loomis’ 10,000 years  OR  Noah’s Flood
Americans are drowning in an ocean of evolutionism. The evolutionist mind-set pervades our culture. This is why the number George Loomis gave for the age of the Falls is about two-and-a-half times their real age. He does not have a Biblical worldview, as can be seen from his behavior in the movie.

Instead of just blithely accepting what “experts” think, as George Loomis did, one needs to evaluate the undergirding assumptions and worldviews which influence – and even determine – interpretations of evidence.

Horseshoe Falls from Canada's Skylon Tower
Goat Island on the left, Canada on the right.

Prior to the evolution craze, Noah’s Flood was almost universally recognized to be global, and it was credited as the cause of earth’s sedimentary strata and fossils. The hypothetical multi-billion-year geological column “proving” evolution does not exist except on paper. Layers of sediment actually were deposited within a year by Noah’s Flood. Incredibly, these effects of the Flood have been dismissed and instead attributed to evolution to promote that theory.

The original explanation in terms of Noah’s Flood has never been disproved. It was simply rejected because it did not fit the preferred evolutionary worldview. The Biblical worldview properly attributes these geological effects to Noah’s Flood and recognizes the Flood as God’s judgment on a sin-soaked world.

Sedimentary rock layers are water-borne sediments of mud and sand which have solidified. Some sedimentary layers tens of feet thick extend multi-state; others span continents. These regional and continental deposits are found worldwide. Only a global flood would have the power to erode, transport, and deposit such immense quantities of sediment.

Often sedimentary strata are not flat. Very thick layers have been bent and folded without any cracking or breaking. This folding must have occurred before mud and sand layers hardened, implying rapid deposition by a flood. Great mountain chains such as the Himalayas, Alps, Appalachians, and Rockies are sedimentary rock which was deposited by the Flood and which buckled up afterwards.(Psalm 104:6-9)

In fossil graveyards, buried under layers of mud, billions of animal and marine fossils lie jumbled together in death. Noah’s Flood explains these petrified remains of once-living plants and animals. The Flood would have laid down great deposits of water-borne sediments full of plant and animal remains. As the sediments solidified into rock, the remains fossilized. Remains must be buried quickly in order to fossilize instead of decaying. Fossil-laden sedimentary strata worldwide are indelible records of a global flood.

Evolutionists love pronouncing, “The present is the key to the past.” This is backwards. The truth is, “The past is the key to the present.” A Biblically-informed understanding of the past explains the present geological condition of the earth by Noah’s Flood.

Age of the Earth
Chronologically Noah’s Flood is fundamental. It is critical to the “age of the earth” which directly impacts Creation-Evolution controversies.

Noah’s Flood contradicts the supposed evolutionary history of the world. Fossils and sedimentary strata found around the world were deposited in about one year by the Flood and then solidified over the following decades. Rock layers supposedly proving an ancient earth are more accurately understood as results of Noah’s Flood. They don’t represent millions of years of imaginary history. Evolutionists blindly claim this without sound scientific basis.

How old is the earth? Answers to this question are usually based on interpretations of physical evidence, not on direct observation. Interpretations are driven by worldviews. How old the earth looks depends on the worldview glasses you look through. One person may think it looks billions of years old. I think it looks like a flood-damaged globe that’s thousands of years old.

Horseshoe Falls from Helicopter
American Goat Island is on the right, Canada on the left. Note small islands on the brink of the falls near Goat Island. One is the setting for perilous action in Niagara.

Dependable answers to age questions require eyewitness testimony. The only record of eyewitness testimony for the creation of the earth is Genesis which specifies heaven and earth were created about 6,000 years ago.

The push in the last two centuries to increase the age of the earth was motivated, not by evidence, but by evolutionism’s requirement for long eons of time. Throughout history the great preponderance of scholarship regarding the Biblical records and the unanimous testimony of cultures worldwide is that the earth is only thousands of years old. This was also the historic teaching of the church until the ascendancy of the theory of evolution in the 19th century. (See article on History’s Views on Chronology).

Scripture is filled with chronological information. Chronology anchors Scripture solidly in real-world history and underscores its authenticity. The Genesis chrono-genealogies record an unbroken line of descent from Adam to Abraham and provide a solid foundation for constructing a reliable chronology. Grammar and context support this, and numerous other Scriptures confirm it. (See article on The Genesis Chrono-genealogies.)

The Genesis chrono-genealogies show that Adam to Abraham covered about 2,000 years. Abraham to Christ was about 2,000 years. Adding 2,000 years from Christ to the present totals about 6,000 years for the age of the earth.

Using the Genesis chrono-genealogies we also ascertain that Noah’s Flood was about 2500 BC. This along with current erosion rates and estimated post-Flood erosion rates gives an estimate of 4,000 years for the age of Niagara Falls.

Soli Deo Gloria.

See these related articles on Noah’s Flood and the Age of the Earth:
Noah’s Flood—Key to the Past
Noah’s Flood—A Global Event
Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Volcanoes, & Noah’s Flood

Age of the Earth 1 — Essentials
Age of the Earth 2 — Jesus’ View
Age of the Earth 3 — Genealogies
Age of the Earth 4 — History’s View
Age of the Earth 5 — Radiometric Dating
Age of the Earth 6 — Scientific Dating Methods
Are the Six Days of Creation Regular Days or Long Ages?
The Big Bang!

Subscribe – Don’t miss future blog posts!
Click the sidebar’s “SUBSCRIBE” button to follow the
Bible-Science Guy Blog. You’ll automatically receive
new posts free by email. Click SUBSCRIBE NOW!

©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:4)
Wednesday March 7, 2012 A.D.

Read my March 2012 newspaper column:
Hike the Bible

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.
(Psalm 33:6-9)