RE: Why build an Ark?
March 21, 2023 at 9:41 am
(This post was last modified: March 21, 2023 at 10:00 am by Anomalocaris.)
(March 21, 2023 at 9:16 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: Why did God require Noah to build an Ark, instead of just saying, "Let there be an Ark" or "Let everyone but Noah's family be dead?"
Most likely because mythology about some lucky chosen family surviving a flood using a home built boat had already been in wide circulation in the ancient Middle East since Sumarian times more than two millennia before anyone has ever heard of genesis, before even the times when Noah was alleged to have been told to build the ark. See the epic of Atra-Hasis
hijacking and repurposing existing fables with cultural resonance is a far quicker and more reliable way to overawe a broad swath of the gullible. Why seek to invent an airtight fable that may still be treated skeptically because it is unheard of before, when a somewhat dubious fable would serve that had already gained adequate credibility amongst the uncritical through centuries of retelling?