This is the online edition of In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood, 8th Edition (2008), by Dr. Walt Brown. It is designed to be read online.
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Mythology and Canopies
Vail’s case for a canopy rested largely on the mythology of the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and other ancient cultures. He argued that a real canopy, millions of years ago, produced these myths. Vail wrote,
I have been told again and again that the canopy idea is weak because it is founded on mythology. I can only protest that it is not founded on mythology. On the contrary mythology is largely founded on the canopy, fossilized in human thot [thought]. The canopy as a watery heaven close to the earth existed for untold millions of years before a myth ever germinated.23
We can all agree with Vail that ancient mythology and today’s canopy theories are linked. But which came first: myth or canopy? If the best canopy theory cannot overcome the scientific problems mentioned earlier, then a canopy did not produce or precede the ancient myths. Myths probably produced canopy theories.