To ask a stupid question? Noah's Ark

[Besttimelftheyear]

So I am not religious, but I would say I was brought up Christian. I would say my parents were non practicing Christians, but I was taught bible stories as truth and facts. The logical adult in me now says that most of the events can be explained quite simply.

Onto the question. Noah's Ark, is there any evidence of a global flood? Noah was supposed to have taken two of each animals onto the boat while the earth was flooded and wiped out everything else.

Surely this was simply a regular flood like we see today?

What are peoples beliefs or knowledge on this?

Don’t forget murdering all the first born of Egypt

The phrase "every kind" doesn't have the same meaning as "every species". Not every living thing was on Noah's Ark according to the Bible.

Not the fish, obviously.....

.....For them there was the multi-storey carp ark

(I did that one properly on another thread this evening)

I took Religion and Philosophy A-Level and it was honestly fascinating. It was 12 years ago so my memory is sketchy, but I recall that there were several scientific explanations for the ten plagues and a theory that the parting of the Red Sea could be put down to an ancient typo (reed, not Red, so essentially marshland!)

Wish I’d kept my notes because as an atheist and science lover, it made so much sense to me!

You’re all taking it too literally. Noah’s ark was a spaceship, Noah was a Martian. He stole the DNA of all the animals, flooded the world and flew away home giggling to himself despite the huge bollocking he got from his mum. God is the name of the Martian thug gang and they told him to do it. Hth.

Many animals that are now extinct and their bones found (including giant humans) are said to be from the time of a huge flood, I believe the story.

I don't think this is a stupid question at all op. More a keep learning one.

I do have to quote Owen Newitt Vicar of Dibley though..

In my.opinion Noah was a complete prick.. here he has a chance to get rid of all the useless animals and what does he do? Takes the lot!

what was the point of that flood, if the humanity didn't learn and now is as bad if not worse? Just killed everyone, including innocent babies, for nothing
PS: I don't believe in that ancient fairy tale

I mean, the flood is he most believable part of the story

I understood most of the stories in the Bible to be allegorical. Was there flooding, almost certainly. The rest almost certainly did not happen, David Attenborough would struggle there, so what is it you’re trying to understand?

Carp ark.

Genius.

Dinosaurs being wiped out by the flood is my favourite bit of young earth nonsense - completing overlooking the aquatic ones

Have a read of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Wonderful story and the bit about his his friendship with Enkidu is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read.

Also bookmarking this thread as a Christian with a love of Ancient History so a shameless placemark to find the links

Of course that gets sticky when you think that the only reason to think Jesus was a god is the Old Testament.

Once that becomes just stories it undermines the whole thing.

As an aside, for those who’ve mentioned the plagues/parting of the Red Sea, there’s a museum on Santorini with the Akrotiri ruins. It’s known as the ‘Greek Pompei’ but is much older, and our guide there talked about the eruption which buried it, the associated earthquake and tsunami, and how the timing and location of it could link with the plagues and possible darkness covering the earth (from the ash), parting of the Red Sea (tsunami) - he mentioned others too but I can’t remember them now. It was really interesting!

Ricky Gervais is funny on the Noah’s Ark story “God was having a hissy fit! He’s angry with the people… Straight to genocide!” 😂 Find it in YouTube

What a story to tell children 🙄

This!

Yes, providing we accept that gods message about the flood lied about it being world wide and killing all the sinners and that it was just a natural event then we can assume it was just a local flood and no need to save Lions, Tigers and Bears

Floods happen frequently so that is fairly certain always have always will. The rest is a fairy story imho

GingerLiberalFeminist
I'm more dubious about 2 of every animal given that they tend to eat each other!

It would have been a logistical nightmare! Like that puzzle about getting grain, a hen and a fox across a river. Only so much harder!

Highonthehillsisalonelygoatherd But if you believe it was literally true then you must accept that there would be dead babies floating in the water. How can you justify that? Is that what a loving god does?

It's because of that many Christians have declared it a metaphor even though that undermines other things. Surely no one would celebrate that would they or read it to children.

Didn't they find some sort of evidence on top of Mount Ararat? A bit of wood or something.

How were the Australian Aboriginals witnessing the sea level rise if everyone but Noah drowned in the flood?

And if you don't believe the bible story (who would really) then there is no evidence of a worldwide flood

Not to mention you have the continental plates scooting around after the flood like they were on skates.

What does the bit about drowning everyone else on earth except Noah and his family - drowing the old, the sick, the babies, the children, the animals who were surplus to requirement on the ark - what does that represent? God's penchant for genocide?

"Lucy Cousins, who made the Maisy Mouse children’s books, made a beautiful one about Noah’s Ark". Did it mention all the drowned people?

No - it was a false. "the boat-like structure is not the remnants of petrified wood from Noah's ark but a geological stone structure commonly found in the area.
The claim has been further scrutinized by Lorence G. Collins, Professor Emeritus in Geology at California State University Northridge, in an article from 2016. In the article, Collins debunks the research done by Ron Wyatt, David Fasold, John Baumgardner, and Salih Bayraktutan during the 1970s and 1980s. Collins concluded that the boat-like structure was formed by the erosion of the bedrock by landslide debris. According to Collins, the pieces of stone interpreted to be petrified wood were basalt rock, probably transported by mudflows during floods."

I read a book by the geneticist Steve Jones, from memory, something like ‘the serpents promise - the bible retold as science’ - it was fascinating, and took a number of themes / concepts within the bible, and explored what might be the basis of them, from a scientific standpoint.