Courtesy ICR
I first met Dr. Henry Morris in early 1971. He was visiting Tampa to share his vision for a trip to Mt. Ararat to search for Noah’s Ark. I invited Dr. Morris to appear on my radio program. I was an atheist working for a religious station – the same station where I had spewed my hatred for Christians on my daily talk show months earlier before the station changed formats from news/talk to religion/country music. I thought it would be easy to dispute the claims of the Bible with Dr. Morris, but I was wrong. He knew the science behind the Bible and was able to explain it clearly and powerfully. God used Dr. Morris to open a crack in my atheist’s armor.
I prepared for my two-hour interview with Dr. Morris by doing a lot of research into the “myth” of Noah’s ark. I thought I had more than enough information to handle anything Dr. Morris might say about the ark. However, one important piece of research I had not done was read Dr. Morris’ book, The Genesis Flood. It would have helped if I had read it because I would have realized that Dr. Morris was a true scientist. I wasn’t prepared to deal with God’s scientist one-on-one.
Dr. Morris knew his subject well. He told me about the book he wrote ten years earlier (1961) and about the Institute for Creation Research he had started the year before he was on my program (1970). Dr. Morris had earned degrees from Rice University in Houston, Texas with a BS in Civil Engineering, and the University of Minnesota with an MS in Hydraulics and a Ph.D. in Hydraulic Engineering. He was a professor and Chair of Civil Engineering at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, a professor of applied science at Southern Illinois University, and Department Chair of Civil Engineering at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). In 1961, Dr. Morris worked with Dr. John C. Whitcomb, an expert in the Old Testament, to publish The Genesis Flood. They used data from several scientific disciplines (e.g. geology, archaeology, and hydrology) to demonstrate that science supports the biblical record of the worldwide Flood in Genesis.
When two hours of interview time were finished, I was stunned by what I had heard. Here was a scientist who believed in the God of the Bible and the reality of a cataclysmic Flood that destroyed every human being and animal, except for those who entered Noah’s Ark. That interview was a crack in my atheistic armor and eventually led to me placing my faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of my life.
Dr. Henry Morris was a leader in the field of Creation Science for several decades and I thank God for leading him into my life. You can learn more about the work of Dr. Morris and the Institute for Creation Research.
In Christ’s Love and Grace,
Mark McGee
Faith and Self Defense
Faith & Self Defense 