The story of Noah' s Ark - or - God is dumber than you.

[Angrboda]

What else are you gonna do when they start fucking things not even of their own species?

[Fireball]

What else are you gonna do when they start fucking things not even of their own species?

<people skitter away> RUN, HE'S BOINKING THE QAID'S GOAT!

[The Grand Nudger]

We've gone from "people would've known better" to "it's a good story". Sure, great story, that's why they incorporated it into their foundational myths. It was a good version of a thing they already believed and proto-judaism couldn't be fully de-paganized then for all of the reasons that christianity couldn't be fully de-paganized later.

What's interesting, is that we know it's not a cultural memory of prehistoric tragedy for the people involved in old magic books creation, even if it were for the people who they got it from..which...again, it wasn't in point of mere fact. Never..happened...and the people relating it in this case didn't come up with it. It was baggage. Like people's contemporary beliefs in all sorts of other silly shit. The same relationship repeats itself with christians and old magic book. Myths about things that never happened asserted by a group of people not found in that book as the certifying documents and events of their own religion.

Borrowed ladders.

[Angrboda]

Much of the old testament never happened and quite possibly wasn't consolidated until during or after the exile. As such, it makes more sense to see these stories in the old testament as foundation stories, mythical tales of the beginnings of their people which helped to give them an identity that was eye-catching enough to stick in the mind and hold them together as a people, even though many lived scattered in foreign lands. They believed it literally because the intent was for it to be believed literally and the stories were promoted by the culture and its leaders as literally true because that addressed the pressing need for cohesiveness among exile and post-exile Jews. This idea that it was seen as allegory, and that only the simple schmucks took it literally is a later invention intended to try to remove some of the egg off the face of believers. Much like reformed Islam, which consists of a bunch of retconning to try to deny that Mohammed was a murderous and lawless asshole, the Jewish myths served a social purpose, and that purpose required that they be believed to have happened.

[The Grand Nudger]

Which, ofc, doesn't detract from whatever a person might take from the story today. We're endlessly creative not just in coming up with stories but in understanding them and fitting them to our own needs. That's how it ended up in magic book, too. The notable revision there was that people weren't slaughtered by the flood on the whims of a capricius god - but by a fair god for their own evils.

It contextualizes suffering as deserved - and post exile communities culturally descended from the last holdouts of judah had every reason to make this revision. The version they took it from had the gods killing people for being too loud down here on earth. Not so in magic book. Deliverance from evil and suffering, as Neo put it. Their own, the evil of other cultures, other gods. Their revisions weren't meant to turn the tale to allegory, it was a claim that the other guys had gotten the cause of that very real flood very wrong....even more importantly, those people, themselves, were very wrong. Their gods were weak poopsauce, their cultures were condemnable, judahs god was the one that dun really didit, the culture of the returning exiles..ascendant.

None of that was true either, hilariously. Old magic book is very much a version of history based on how then contemporary people wished it had gone down. A list of items useful to them in the immediate sense as they attempted to reassert control over a region that had never been depopulated.

"Hi, we're the rightful rulers of this land!"
Natives. - who the fuck are you?
"Sit down, I'll tell ya"

[onlinebiker]

Shit!

Wrong thread..

[ronedee]

Noone who believes the story of Noah' ark understands logistics.

Here's why.

God' s problem -  too many "wicked people".

So - he enlists an old guy and his kids to build this really, really big boat out of wood. With nothing but hand tools. Bear in mind it would take days just to fell one tree and saw it into planks or beams. It would take many, many years to cut this wood - and they will need a place to cure the wood - so a building to put it in.... When they finally get all the wood cut, stored and cured - they get to lay the keel of the boat. But first - you need to build a building in which to build the boat. You can' t take years building a boat out in the weather. The wood would begin to rot before your boat was completed.

In the meantime - you have to go start collecting the animals and a habit big enough to house them. You can' t simply stick them in the boat. Their waste would rot the wood in short order - and it would take YEARS to collect all these animals. Don' t forget to feed and water them too...

So your God is going to have to get involved on all sorts of levels - keeping basic biological needs and chemical reactions in check.


Then when ready - God needs to conjure up 40 days and nights worth of heavy rain - and then un- conjure it back away....

Or -

If he was really this omnipotent bastard he is supposed to be - he could simply wisk a couple thousand wicked people off into deep space....


Which seems more a more efficient method?

It's comical how atheists acknowledge scripture & God, with their reasoning (like the devil tempting Jesus in the desert). So, IF you don't believe in God, why entertain any "scenarios" bible or otherwise?

Just laugh it off, and talk about atheist "things"!

Reminds me of a notorious atheist, Starlin. Who reportedly, shook his fist at God, on his deathbed! Why, comes immediately to mind?

It actually is unbecoming and ridiculous..... stupid even. I think the phrase, "I will not serve." is more appropriate in many of these cases. 

"Atheist", just sounds/plays better.

[arewethereyet]

Starlin has always been my favorite atheist.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Starlin has always been my favorite atheist.

More that Hilter?

Boru

[arewethereyet]

Starlin has always been my favorite atheist.

More that Hilter?

Boru

Yeah...even more than Po Pot.