(September 25, 2015 at 3:57 pm)drfuzzy Wrote: There was a flood. Actually, there were a lot of floods in southern Mesopotamia approx. 3500 - 2800 BCE. Archeologists find flood strata at Ur and Kish and Shurrupak. It's widely accepted that these floods were the most likely origin for the Ut-napashtim story. They were pretty massive - they weren't global, that's not even possible by the planet's own ecology - but they put a good chunk of land underwater. Any trader, carrying family and livestock on the Tigris or Euphrates rivers could have floated around for quite a while - - possibly even lost in the Persian Gulf.
I don't believe the bible is a credible historical document. But I do like the thought that some of these old fables probably had a basis in fact.
Who knows? There could even have been an Exodus. A small group of Hebrews in Egypt could have pissed off their neighbors, and packed up their toys and left. They got lost and forgot which way was north for a while. Or something. And the tale gets told generation after generation, and the next thing you know they're being led by a minor Egyptian prince who was born a Hebrew (which actually started as the birth story of Horus) and their God was a pillar of fire who parted the sea and killed the Egyptian army and . . . yeah. Stories get embellished.
It's kind of like the difference between Santa Claus and St. Nicolaus.
Sure. And no reader not absolutely committed to the idea that the Bible is a completely accurate historical document would have any problem with what you've written. I'm just hoping to get GC or any other Biblical literalist reading this thread to simply acknowledge that their approach to the Bible is untenable and can't stand up to rational scrutiny. Hell, I don't even really care if he or others remain Christian. I'd just like them to abandon the ridiculous assumption that the Bible is 100% factually accurate as it's written.
The Noah story a memory and retelling of a devastating regional flood (or series of such floods)? I don't doubt it for a moment.
