[Avodah] Mitochondrial DNA and the Mabul

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 2:16:54PM EDT, I wrote:
: All of which assumes things about mutation rates etc... that need not
: have been true before the mabul.

The pasuq seems to imply that the spin and the tilt of the earth was
involved in the mabul, as it invokes the [six] seasons, day and night
in 8:22 -- od kol yemei haaretz ... lo yishbosu." (See Rashi ad loc.)
The tilt causes the seasons, so a shevisah of the seasons implies that
the mabul changed the earth's tilt.

According the Seforno, they didn't just halt during the mabul, the seasons
didn't exist until after the mabul. And before the mabul, the sun was
over the equator, and the whole world was in perpetual spring. Rabbi
Yitzchaq in Bereishis Rabba 34:11 also says that all weather was like
that between Pesach and Shavu'os. The Seforno adds that earth's orbit
was also different. Crops grew better, and the resulting better nutrition
explains the multi-century life spans.

This in turn would do who-knows-what to the van allen belt a torus (bagel
shaped) field of electrically charged particles held by the earth's
magnetic field -- and thus the poles, the spinning core of the earth,
etc... are involved in its maintenance.

Less van allen belt means more cosmic rays reach the earth. Higher
mutation rates. Assumptions of age given number of mutations would be
well overexagerated.

BUT... this doesn't really help align the Torah with scientific
observation for a totally different reason. More cosmic rays and mutations
also means more cancer. Rather than longer lifespans than today, we
should expect far shorter ones. Despite any differences in nutrition.

(Personally, I think observation is a product of the categories of
our minds being imposed on an incomprehensible reality. And our minds
don't have the same categories at those of people who merit nissim. I've
discussed this in the past, and wouldn't be raising it now if I didn't
feel a need to let the reader know my own position isn't the train of
thought I'm trying to help RAF speculate on.)

GCT and :-)@@ii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "Fortunate indeed, is the man who takes
micha at aishdas.org        exactly the right measure of himself,  and
http://www.aishdas.org   holds a just balance between what he can
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