As Donald DeYoung sees it, the world didn't always have the climates it does today. The flood of the Bible, he says, signaled the start of weather as we know it.

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And DeYoung says science not only explains how the Bible's flood could happen, it shows that it did.

DeYoung, a physics professor at Grace College in northern Indiana's Winona Lake, is the author of "Weather and the Bible," a book that examines scientific questions and provides Bible-based answers.

"I (wrote) that book kind of as an encouragement to look around and realize that this whole earth and all the components didn't come by chance, some accidental process -- there's a creator behind it," DeYoung told RTV6 Chief Meteorologist Kevin Gregory.

DeYoung believes the whole world was once tropical, lacking seasons and having an ideal climate. He points to Alaska and the Middle East -- places with very different climates today. Both places, he says, contain fossil fuels formed from tropical vegetation.

"The early earth, from the time of Adam to Noah, had a layer of moisture in the sky -- it can be called a vapor canopy," DeYoung said. "This was not liquid drops of water, but it was humidity, just like we have in a classroom or in the air."

The vapor canopy, he said, allowed for a worldwide tropical climate. He said the canopy held the equivalent of many feet of water, suspended in the upper atmosphere during the Earth's early centuries.

This moisture would become the source of the flood, and its release would signal the start of new kinds of weather conditions across the globe, according to DeYoung.

"It was this canopy which collapsed and became the source of this unique flood, this rainstorm that lasted 40 days and 40 nights on the Earth," he said.

DeYoung says limestone found in Indiana and elsewhere around the globe was formed underwater. He believes part of this can be traced back to the flood.

He says scripture and science go together. Critics say DeYoung's beliefs fly in the face of mainstream science.

DeYoung acknowledges that he walks a fine line between creationism and science. But he believes that science needs to be challenged.

"I like to bring balance to it and say there is someone behind this whole system that we live in," he said.

DeYoung says people who have questions or want to know more can e-mail him. He can be reached at dbdeyoung@grace.edu.