For The Noah Enthusiasts. (Not really.) A brief, humorous read.

by Open mind 25 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  skyking

  Why is it so difficult to refute the Flood story once and for all?

  Becuase they have faith, that is all that matter the bible say's it so it is so. The Society says it so it is true.
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  yourmomma

  if you want to take it from an absolute literal approach, i can see why, but based on the evidence, the flood was in one location and likely wiped out the "world" at the time, which was a part of the earth, not the whole earth. its not possible that those Scriptures are talking about the part of the earth that people are in? i mean, i understand why people would disagree, but i dont understand those who say that its impossible for those Scriptures to be referring to the part of the earth with people in it. thats not a reasonable position?
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  LtCmd.Lore

  if you want to take it from an absolute literal approach, i can see why, but based on the evidence, the flood was in one location and likely wiped out the "world" at the time, which was a part of the earth, not the whole earth. its not possible that those Scriptures are talking about the part of the earth that people are in? i mean, i understand why people would disagree, but i dont understand those who say that its impossible for those Scriptures to be referring to the part of the earth with people in it. thats not a reasonable position?

  What evidence are you reffering too? The Egyptians, Chinese and Sumerians are three big cultures that existed at the time the flood was supposed to have taken place, and they lived right through it. I'm not saying a local flood never happened, in fact that's probably what the biblical story is based on, but humans were all over the planet, so to flood 'the part of the earth that people are in' would almost be the entire earth. Right?
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  VM44

  Just because fish live in water does not mean they would survive the Flood.

  The sudden great increase in the depth of the waters would disrupt the ecosystem providing food for the fish.

  Not to mention the fresh water fish wouldn't survive at all!

  Has anyone tried to keep fish alive in an aquarium? Fish are very sensitive creatures!

  Again, the writer of the Flood story is obviously inspired by a very large local flood. He simply changed the scale so that it encompassed the entire world.

  --VM44
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  freeme

  the writer of the flood story didnt know about the world at all. if there was a flood in his area he assumed the "world" was drowned... his world...

  but since god tells us it happened it must have happened. and everything that seems impossible from a human viewpoint was possible because god cared for it.

  actually he had to do the following (at least):

  - save all the animals and species noah forgot and teleport some noah wasnt able to reach (polarbears! and where did noah store the galapagos animals?)

  - save all the plants and seeds of them.

  - clean the soil after the flood and repopulate all the plants fast.

  - teleport the animals back

  - do the birds and insect work for a lot of years until the birds and insects repopulated the earth again. or clone the animals.

  - caring for the fish while the flood, especially the fresh water ones

  - and much more i guess
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  Warning: The following is sarcasm, not to be taken seriously (unless you are a jdub).

  Regardless of YOUR problems with how plants survived or how certain animals got to
  certain isolated places after the flood or regardless of how many billions of insect species
  there are or regardless of how there is a need to separate salt and fresh water animals,
  regardless of all of that- it happened. God took care of the details. Genesis was written
  from what Moses could understand of God's information. Moses couldn't understand the
  miracles of protecting the plants and water animals and the other logistical problems.
  It is faith.
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  marmot

  I loved this quote from Voltaire:
  
  "We do not see the name of Noah or of Adam in any of the ancient dynasties of Egypt; they are not to be found among the Babylonians and Sumerians. We cannot comprehend how the father of all nations has so long been unknown, not until the time when the Jewish books began to be known in Alexandria and were translated into Greek under one of the Ptolemies. In the natural course of things Adam's name should have been carried from mouth to mouth to the farthest corners of the earth. I will venture to affirm that it has required a miracle thus to shut the eyes and ears of all nations - to destroy every monument, every memorial of their first father. What would the Roman philosopher and orator, Cicero, have thought, if a poor Jew, while selling him balm, had said, We are all descended from one father, named Adam. Cicero would doubtless have inquired about the great monuments, the indisputable testimonies which Noah and his children had left of our common father. After your so-called Deluge, he would have said, the whole world would have resounded with the names of Adam and Noah, one the father, the other the restorer of every race. These names would have been in every mouth as soon as men could speak, on every parchment as soon as they could write, on the door of every house as soon as they could build, on every temple, on every statue. You mean to tell us that you knew so great a secret, yet concealed it from us? Every people has attributed to itself some imaginary origin, yet none has approached the true one." - Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary, entry under Adam
  
  This is also the first time I've read Mark Twain's writings about the flood, I never knew he was a skeptic (maybe a closet atheist even?). I'll have to look up some more of his stuff at the library.
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  RunningMan

  Does anyone know where Isaac Asimov mentioned this?

  I checked "Asimov's guide to the Bible", but didn't find anything. (Of course, it's 1200 pages long).

  The most likely source would be "Asimov's New Guide to Science (1984)"
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  VM44

  Another important point....Who provided the food supply that was stored on the Ark?

  Food (and water) for all the animals to last one year.

  Plus, the food would have to have been harvested rather close to the time of the Flood, otherwise it would have gone bad.

  Noah and his sons and their wifes were busy building the Ark and did not have time to grow, collect, harvest and store the large quantity of food and water that would have been required.

  Again, a problem that does not arise when speaking about a local flood, but HAS to be considered when the flood is global.

  --VM44
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  VM44

  Thank you RunningMan for trying to find the Asimov reference.

  I think Asimov might have mentioned that the Hebrews viewed plants differently than animals in this book:

  Asimov, Isaac. 1981. In the Beginning . . . New York: Crown Publishers.

  This book might be hard to find.

  --VM44