What’s your story?
Toni Morrison once wrote “If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
And so I did. Writers often joke about how their imaginary friends won’t talk to them, or that they do things that are quite unexpected. I know it sounds crazy - but it’s true.
I love a good sea monster story - from the Kraken to Perseus and the Sea Serpent to the Loch Ness Monster and everything in between. Something about the idea of a giant creature lurking beneath the surface of the ocean sets my imagination (and my goosebumps) on fire. It is said that every legend is based on at least a bit of truth. And that truth is what keeps us searching for what still lies undiscovered.
As a geologist, I’ve always been fascinated by the great marine reptiles. Their bones have been found in the rock strata. There is irrefutable proof they did exist. So what happened to them? If the Flood of Noah was real (and I believe there is enough evidence in the rock layers worldwide to support that it was), what happened to the great dragons of the sea?
Years of history and legend are filled with stories of giant creatures lurking in the ocean depths - some benevolent and others deadly and terrifying. Leviathan, the Mosasaur, has always intrigued me the most. The great mysterious dragon of the sea is mentioned in five different places in the Bible, as a fierce creature of strength and cunning created to live and play in the ocean.
While I have to admit the thought that a creature survived over millions of years does sound impossibly thrilling - what about a creature who survived a global flood and went on to exist thousands of years after in relative secret?
I wrote Beneath the Deep because I love a good sea monster story - and I wanted to read one from the Creation Science perspective.
As Jules Verne so aptly put it, “the human mind is always looking for something to marvel at.” He poked fun at this in the first chapter of his novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. But that is what we do - we imagine, we dream, and we investigate.
As our technology improves, so does our ability to search deeper into the dark depths of the ocean and ferret out its secrets. New creatures are being discovered every day. Creatures like the barreleye fish with its transparent head, the glass octopus, the frilled shark and the oarfish - and larger species like the elusive giant squid, which was first discovered in 1873. Who knows what really lives in the dark unexplored regions?
Only time will tell.
And until it does - marvel on, my friends.
