The World Before the Flood

What was the world like before the flood? i have pondered this before but due to the very small amount of information given to us no definite answer can be found. but still, it is interesting to think about.

to be clear -for those of you who are old-earth creationists- i am not talking about the world before Adam, but rather the specific 1600+ years between their removal from the garden and the great flood. i am also not talking about what the people where like, since we know that "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil". 

what i am referring to was the technological advancements they could have made. if you believe  like me that man has been devolving since the fall, then that means that they were actually smarter then we are now. there's also the fact of how long they lived, how much knowledge  could one have acquired and used in that amount of time? think of the smartest men we know  throughout history -Issac Newton, Archimedes, Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, ect- now what else could they have made if they had had several hundred more years to live?

Not to mention that they did have over 1600yrs, look at how far we went in that time. and if you factor in the first two points, it isn't hard to imagine them with at least some semblance of technology, possibly the equivalent of our Renaissance or even more modern.  

once again, we can do nothing bu speculate on this matter, but i hope it was interesting.

i also believe that man is devolving. the world is broken, everything is degrading, the laws of thermodynamics, etc. i believe that there was a lotof advancement, and even great advancement after the flood. a good source i suggest looking into is The Deep End with Taylor Welch. he is a christian who looks at the more radical, unorthadox side of things. i don't agree with everything, and even disagree with a lot of it but he has a ton of information on this topic.

Interesting, ill see about him

Entropy is all around slowly degrading everything

Interesting!

"if you believe like me that man has been devolving since the fall, then that means that they were actually smarter then we are now."

Why do you believe this?

^ This

Good question

For one, you can clearly look at how long they used to live and it is obvious that our body's have gotten weaker. Secondly, sin entered the world and cursed all things, I do believe that this caused us(as well as everything else) to start deteriorating throughout generations as well as our individual lives. Third, as mentioned, everything(or at least very close to everything) in the nature universe tends towards disorder and energy is always being lost(though not destroyed) and if our universe is able to continue, it will eventually all reach an equilibrium. This does not prove the original point but it does go to show that everything is degrading, and i think humanity is no exception.

Spiritually man is definitely better off today than we were then. I believe that before the resurrection, Satan kept the nations largely in darkness, but now he is defeated and can no longer do this (John 12:31, Revelations 20:1-6).

I think left to its own devices, the universe would deteriorate, but God doesn’t let it. I also believe that the genealogies use idealized numbers that weren’t meant to reflect their literal ages.

not to debate anything, but it is written in genesis that God shortened the life of man to 120 years because they had too long to perpetuate sin in their lifetimes.

Where at?

895, 365, 805, 907, and 967 to name a few, seem pretty specific to be idealized numbers

genesus 6: 1-3

Then why are there people after the flood who reportedly lived longer than that?

Look up InspiringPhilosophy on this

do you mean in modern times? if so, it is probably because they weren't well-known before they attained a great age, therefore the "known" date of birth was mistaken. i would accept the infalability and directness of God's word above that of any birthdate recorded that long ago.

I’m talking about the second half of Genesis 11

I think we could include a general idea of entropy unrelated to the universes temperature and energy and instead the rate of disorder generally with respect to energy, so for example the rate of decomposition of a dead body, how fast bacteria can wiggle and consume a corpse was inevitably slower, and some other things leading to a more peaceful and definitely colder environment, as also human pollution leads to acid rain which damages the ozone layer and let's immense heat come through, at this time the ozone layer was around it's strongest and so a better heat filter and heat distribution system

This would mean that their literal environment would be designed to be easier and as drastic as better heat distribution gets a longer lifespan is expected as UV rays hit them less and cause less cancer and as the world was literally more orderly a better average cognitive capability would be almost certainly awaiting them making them smarter and their environment easier for them