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Joe · #3 (**permalink**) 03-August-2003, 05:05 AM

bmiles,
I think that the general consensus is that, yes, the Earth was formed with it's axis of rotation perpendicular to the plane of it's orbit. It's sort of hard to conceive of a planet forming out of a spinning ball of gas coming out any other way.
It's generally thought that the one of the effects of the collisions of planetoids, the precursors to planets, is to knock the main body off kilter. Another effect is to create large moons like the Earths.
Did you see the news this week? It's been suggested (and now there's a little evidence) that Mars' small moons (Phobos and Demos) could be the remnents of a much larger body that broke up (basically, it was too close to the planet). This large body presumably would also account for the fact that Mars' axis is tilted almost exactly as much as the Earths.

Like you, I believe that none of this is inconsistent with my (traditional) religious beliefs. The flood, however, seems to be a different event from whatever caused the the tilt of the Earth's axis and the seasons. I too find it interesting that almost every culture has it's own flood myth (and btw, did you know that it's a myth that myths are myths? ;>)

That being said, I understand that ideas of planetary formation are really, really suspect. They're definately different than when I was a student (in the '60s), and definately changing rapidly. I'd bet money that there's going to be a big breakthrough and revisions in our understanding of how planets are formed real soon now!
Joe