Scott,

Yale University would seem to disagree with your interpretation of the fossil record. I think you would have to agree that it is one of the foremost centers of higher learning in the nation, if not the world. Yale has its own museum complete with a hall of evolution containing fossilized dinosaur skeletons which are dated by Yale at many millions of years BC. So what are we saying? ...Yale is wrong and Scott is right?   Hmmmm, I have some difficulty with that.

In so far as your dates for the great flood (if it ever occurred), this  is argument not evidence nor proof. I have heard proponents of the flood epic place it at a much earlerlier date. I also find the story suspect in its plan to repopulate by breeding two of each species. The gene pool would be to small to accomplish this.

With respect to my tolerance, I do not think that I have done anything more than question your position...as I question all authority. If it works for you, all well and good. I, on the other hand, find it a bit restrictive in its thought process. Although, I do not ascribe to any particular religion, and have studied many, I find the teachings of  The Buddha as further exemplified by the Dalai Lama to be more inclusive and tolerant.

By the way, my upstairs neighbors were fundmentalists...not Jehova's Witnesses. I know the difference. A good friend of mine is a Jehovah's withness. I was invited to his wedding ten years ago, and made the mistake of introducing myself to some of the wedding guests. Consequently, they have been at my door every few months for the past ten years leaving literature, and trying to save the heathen. I had a slow day several years ago, and invited them in to debate the difference between their philosophy and Buddhism. They seemed to be at a loss.