Pondering the Flood...

by 2pink 11 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  2pink

  this is only my second thread here on this forum, so forgive me if i put this on the wrong board.

  i'm a JW on the way out....past few years and esp past few months of thinking have pretty much sealed the deal for me. i'm done.

  so anyway, as i allow myself to think more and more and question more and more of the bible, something i have ALWAYS wondered about is the flood. did god regret doing that, hence the rainbow promise?? if he regretted doing that, then that would lead one to believe it was a mistake, which could lead one to think all sorts of things. however, if the rainbow promise wasn't bcs he felt any remorse, but for some other reason, then i would like to know what y'all think that reason is. i've never been able to reconcile that story in my own head.

  thanks for reading!
• 

  bluecanary

  Best info ever on the flood: http://www.watchtowerletters.com/Home.html
• 

  Black Sheep

  When I realised the WT didn't have the Truth I threw out EVERYTHING I had been taught by them. EVERYTHING was suspect and up for review.

  Subject the Bible to the same level of scrutiny you would use for the Koran or the Torah or any other religious book. There is no point in speculating about what a God thought if that god was just an adaptation of a bedtime story from an ancient tribe in a distant country.

  Cheers

  Chris
• 

  Heaven

  Maybe your first question should be, did the flood really happen?

  hence the rainbow promise??

  And how do the JWs and anti-homosexual Christians (etc) feel now that the gay community has adopted the rainbow as their symbol of hope?

  I like B the X's question... why are kangaroos only in Australia (amongst other animals/species)?

  As Black Sheep said... once you discover you've been lied to, you question everything.
• 

  glenster

  There were people who figured it as meant as figurative for theological teach-
  ing a long time ago, what with two orders of appearance of things in the begin-
  ning, etc. The rainbow would be used by God in making a covenant with the sur-
  vivors in reassuring them He wasn't going to create a flood like that again.
  Homosexuality is debated.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegorical_interpretations_of_Genesis
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_according_to_Genesis
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbows_in_mythology
  
  "True, some individuals may very well be prone to homosexuality...a
  Christian cannot excuse immoral behavior by saying he was 'born that way.'
  Child molesters invoke the same pathetic excuse when they say their craving for
  children is 'innate.' But can anyone deny that their sexual appetite is per-
  verted? So is the desire for someone of the same sex." ("Awake!" Feb.8, 1995)
  
  The Watchtower stance is that homosexuality is a sin like child molestation.
  http://www.watchtower.org/e/20020601a/article_01.htm
  http://www.watchtower.org/e/20050408a/article_01.htm
  
  Some defenses of interpretations of scriptures to not ban homosexuality:
  http://escapefromwatchtower.com/homo.html
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bible_and_homosexuality
• 

  Narkissos

  Perhaps you could start by reading the main literary background for the Genesis flood story: http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab11.htm

  The adaptation of the story from a polytheistic setting to a henotheistic or monotheistic one implies a number of changes: the actions which were ascribed to different gods concentrate on one, who is henceforth responsible for both destruction and salvation. This makes the flood story "much ado about nothing" as it were; or, more subtly, a dialectical play on creation: "God" destroys what he has created to create it again. This is particularly clear in the extant Genesis story where the same motive is ascribed to God's decision and renunciation to destroy.

  Compare 6:5ff

  Yhwh saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And Yhwh was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So Yhwh said, "I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created--people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them."

  with 8:20f:

  And when Yhwh smelled the pleasing odor, Yhwh said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done."

  I tend to read it as a parable of grace -- the flip side of which is nonsense.
• 

  marmot

  As others have already mentioned, take a deeper look at the sheer impossibility of a global flood and you'll find that the flood story is just another myth with no more truth in it than the exploits of the ancient Greek gods.

  Purely in terms of the "rainbow promise", do you think God magically altered the laws of physics to allow light refraction only after the flood? Silly. It's just a tale invented by people from long ago trying to make sense of the world around them without the benefit of science.

  A great resource for information regarding the flood is located here: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-noahs-ark.html

  This was what led to me losing my faith in the god of the bible, because if there's one false myth what's to say that the other outlandish stuff (talking snakes, sun standing still, people rising from the dead) is true?
• 

  Farkel

  bluecanary,

  :Best info ever on the flood:

  Not even close! Check out this one by my good friend AlanF. Scroll down to the heading on The Flood. Alan is a scientist and graduate of MIT and a former JW. He did the original research on the flood while at MIT and while still a JW. His research on the subject was what caused him to see how wrong the religion was on the matter.

  This series of articles covers virtually every scientific and historical aspect of the flood conceivable. I doubt you will find any better or more thorough information on the subject of the Flood than this:

  http://corior.blogspot.com/

  Farkel
• 

  Spook

  You cannot reconcile it because it did not occur. The story itself makes no sense because it was co-opted from other prior religions and inserted into Jewish theology.
• 

  wantstoleave

  The more I read on this site, the more I question myself and all I've ever known. For instance, the flood has been a question for me too. But, then I think of other religions/cultures and all of their religious stories. Take Australian Aboriginal people and their 'dreaming stories'. Just like other religions, they have a reason for how things come about, were created or designed. Just in a different manner to the more christian religions.

  In fact before reading this, I today asked my dad about the animals going into the ark and how other religions have their take on this and my mom said that's because most religions date back to the basics of the bible, but over time it's kind of ben distorted, much like chinese whispers. You know, when something starts out as truth, but the more it gets passed along, things change.

  I've always thought that with Jehovah God, anything is possible. Thus the nature of physics in the way we understand it today, was not even a point of contention for me. I just believed that Jehovah was the grand creator, so he could have changed the laws of physics (at that time) if he so wished.

  Bluecanary, thanks for that link. Was a great read!