Noah is a mythical character. He never existed.
One word. Metaphor.
The Catholic Church recognized on the Second Vatican Council that teh Bible is NOT a historical source.
so you dont really base your religion on the bible do you? it sounds like your putting your faith in the catholic church more than the Bible... which in my opinion is a much more reliable source as it was inspired by God (who you says knows everything about scicence and physics) than a bunch of humans sitting around trying to decide whats historical and whats not.
why would God get a human to write something false for him just for the sake of being metaphorical... and then continue the book later with information you says is historical and NOT metaphorical?
Gee, I'm sorry, what about the combined 92 million people who didn't get a second chance because of them. If your willing to sympathize with mass-murderers it makes you look like a terrible person.
im sure all of the people in this discussion, "combined" have sinned over 92 million times.
and in the Bible it says that God sees all sins as the same.
God gives everyone the same chance... its our job (those who are perhaps better people than mass-murderers and other such persons) to not judge them and give them a another chance. Also God says we have to Love everyone. That doesnt mean i have to like what Hitler did, or even like him at all, but on the basis that love is an action, if i happened to encounter hitler injured on the roadside... God would command me to help him out.
God isnt looking at what weve done... because in his eyes were ALL sinners. basically were all equal.. and he loves us all the same amount.
So on that basis he loved Hitler just as much as me or you.
As I said, the flood legend in Sumerian mythology took place before Gilgamesh was king. Both the Biblical flood and the Sumerian one took place before recorded history, in that same general 'long long time ago, in a not yet flooded world' period.
Again, it's logical the two cultures simply shared a mythos because of their close proximity to each other. Abraham was from reportedly from Ur, a Sumerian city, after all. They've mingled. It's not an outrageous idea. As for which came 'first,' it depends on when the first book fo the Bible was written, or when the Genesis tales were, at the very least, told orally.
There is also many legends of a global flood in many other cultures such as china, and the americas.
coincidence?
I think were just seeing different accounts of the
same event, which actually occured.
different stories of the event probably evolved after the tower of Babel.. when everyone split into different language groups.
Are you telling me Noah's Ark happened at roughly 13,000,000,000 BC?
He was obviously saying that on a completely different basis... you cant just suddenly challenge the foundation of the argument with
your belief. he was trying to prove a completely different point, not when the beginning of time was.
its the same as me suddenly saying, "but I believe that the beginning of time was after the flood! how can this be true then?"
The Greeks never claimed that. Jesus is a historical figure, if your going to rule out his existence because he was considered a diety and thats the supposed way any religion gets started, I suppose we should rule out the existence of figures such as Julius Ceasar and Hirohito?
Which means either
A ) God isn't omnipotent and can't do anything about it.
or
B ) God is not Omnibenevolent because he really doesn't care that we're suffering.
according to christianity, I dont think God is Omnibenevelont at all.
If he loved everything, he would love sin.
He just loves every person.
but thats besides the point your making i guess.
As steel said: If i threw you a line when your drowning, of course i would care if you didnt take the line and drowned. But could i force you to take the line?
no. thats what Gods all about, he doesnt want to force us to do anything. So he
can do it, if he wants to. But he wants us to accept the gift.
Edited by Ransom, 11 December 2006 - 03:15 AM.
