10 Questions Every Christian Needs To Answer.

[The Grand Nudger]

@ Rhythm

I'm in need of some clarifications here.

Are you asserting that you can definitively prove that there were rainbows 4000 years ago?

Nothing is ever "proven" in science, but I can lead you to some information which would suggest that light has not had a change of heart in the past 4k years.,...and also the sorts of things we might see if it had.

What reasons do you have to suggest that it is "reasonable to suggest that people had never observed a rainbow at any point since homo sapiens were on this earth until whatever timeframe you care put this flood myth in"?

I'm suggesting that it's unreasonable, because human beings have eyes. Suggesting that they had never observed a rainbow in the 46k years minimum -just since full modernity- stretches credulity to point break. And that span of time is just a drop in the bucket.

With respect to "Yes, a god would have to make changes, either to light or the human eye. That's the -how-, that's thinking "more deeply about how certain miracles could have been achieved through natural laws". Why would God have had to make changes either to light or the human eye in order to use a naturally occurring event as a sign of a covenant?

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt here - I'm referring to why we might have "never observed a rainbow" or why there may have never been one. Both of -those- postulates can be addressed fairly easily. The "sign" bit is just low hanging fruit, easy to snipe at as irrelevant and devoid of value or meaning. Like Noah's daily deuce. Why indeed would god be referenced at all when it comes to a naturally occurring rainbow? He was too lazy to make a proper sign...so he just went with the stuff that happens regardless of whether or not he;s involved? In any case, that's not what the narrative suggests.

What is the 'liberal-turn' I am taking, and what do you mean by a 'just-so story'?

The "just-so" element of this story is that in the misty dreamtime god put his bow in the sky as a sign. It "explains" the origin of rainbows (which are salient to a flood narrative) while tying them to some theological proposition. Common for this sort of literature.