patrolwagon Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 (edited) I saw this video recently, explaining how there are older flood stories than Noah's Ark. I won't spoil it, but its basically like Noah's ark is deliberately referencing other flood myths. Which got me wondering, do you think it matters for Christianity if the flood didn't happen? Because a lot of my conservative friends think you might not be a christian if you don't believe Noah's ark happened (that's a slight exaggeration). VIDEO (5 mins long, entertaining) https://www.youtube.com/embed/fXTxOOIVE6k Edited July 22, 2020 by patrolwagon Redo link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulS Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 2 hours ago, patrolwagon said: I saw this video recently, explaining how there are older flood stories than Noah's Ark. I won't spoil it, but its basically like Noah's ark is deliberately referencing other flood myths. Which got me wondering, do you think it matters for Christianity if the flood didn't happen? Because a lot of my conservative friends think you might not be a christian if you don't believe Noah's ark happened (that's a slight exaggeration). VIDEO (5 mins long, entertaining) https://www.youtube.com/embed/fXTxOOIVE6k Well, I don't think it matters myself, but I do know Christians who feel threatened by any suggestion that the Noah's Ark story is a myth. Humans lived in the middle east for nearly 100,000 years before biblical stories were written. I have no doubt the various tribal and cultural stories were shared and built upon throughout the region over the decades. There is zero evidence of any worldwide flood only several thousand years ago, so clearly it didn't happen on a scale your conservative friends may want you to believe, but I expect on some local scale there was one or several significant floods that helped form these sort of stories and myths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elen1107 Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 (edited) I tend to look at the Noah's Ark story as a Jewish folk story that had been carried on for centuries before being written down, in this time it changed and morphed a bit to suit the Jewish outlook and perspective(s). It is very, very likely that it was borrowed or adopted, (or stolen if one chooses to use that word/outlook) from other cultures and traditions. These too probably go back before being written down and were changed and adapted to suit those people's perspectives. All these stories/adaptations seem to have their meanings. One might be; don't be lousy people or their might be a flood and that would be even more lousy and even worse. Like Paul says, there is some evidence of major floods in the area way back in near east history. Flooding the entire earth is another subject. Some more scientific people have tried to outline what that would take, and it really doesn't seem at all possible. For myself, I can believe that God and Christ still exist, even if some of the stories in the bible are folk stories or not really focused on literal events. I think I am more faith based than bible based in my thinking and understanding of Christ and Christianity. Thanks for reading Edited July 22, 2020 by Elen1107 for better wording Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burl Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 Flood stories exist worldwide, so it is likely it was on a global scale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephM Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 18 hours ago, Burl said: Flood stories exist worldwide, so it is likely it was on a global scale. I would agree with that. I don't think it is a myth but the Bible version in my opinion may contain some past down confabulations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elen1107 Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 John Shelby Spong is on of the leading and more celebrated figures in Progressive Christianity. He's a Bishop, a writer of many, many books at least one of which was a New York Times bestseller. He was a teacher at Harvard, and quite the biblical scholar. He's said time and time again that one can still be a Christian, and still truly believe, which he does himself, and still not take all the ideas in the bible literally or believe that all its ideas are the absolute word of God. He has written and spoken on this subject; Noah's Ark. He also tends to mix with some of the scientific types, who actually figure out what some of the things mentioned in the bible would actually mean. I've tried to find a video of him talking about it, and haven't found it yet but as I remember it it was quite extraordinary. If we are talking about the amount of water that it would take to cover the entire earth to the height and depth of Mt. Everest, we are talking about something that is beyond phenomenal and scientifically and meteorologically impossible. It would like double the water volume contained on this earth. Also the possibility of getting 2 of each animal species that exist on this earth on one single boat is quite frankly an impossible undertaking. I couldn't find the video that I mentioned, but I did find this one. It's called: John Shelby Spong - The Judeo-Christian Faith Story: How Much is History? This or some other of his lectures and writing may help answer your questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.