10 questions for your pastor

[Pete]

I know you're not one of them, but many people still believe in Noah's ark.

To be honest I don't know what to make of that story. I certainly don't believe that God flooded the entire planet. I know of one place in the Bible where the term "world" was used to refer to where Paul has gone and preached about Jesus. That certainly couldn't have meant the entire planet. Seems to me that it may have meant that God flooded a certain region of Earth which corresponded the known world at that time, i.e. known to those who were in the middle east (or where ever the story originated from). That many cultrures, quite numerous in act, have stories of a great flood suggests that one might have actually occured. I recall reading that there was physical evidence of a great flood too. This is one of those things I'm trying to learn (so many things to learn, so little time to learn them). Where Genesis says that two of all the animals on earth were taken into the ark that too might have meant that a large number of animals from that region were taken into the ark. I've heard in several places that such an ark could have been built with the technology of the time.

But what makes you decide those messages are the right one?

Can you give me an example of one which couldn't be right in your opinion?

I'm getting the impression that a lot of people here believe that a theist is someone who isn't that bright, not very logical and perhaps very ignorant. Is that true to any extent? Do you folks believe that one has to be pretty stupid to believe that God exists? Do you believe that one has to be dumb to believe in the Bible?

Thanks

Pete