Did the flood really occur?

[The Grand Nudger]

Probably more like 200 pages of complaining about science, ending with the godditit default. Good enough for some people.

[Epimethean]

"I bought an old book called The Bible As History by Werner Keller (New York, 1981). Yes, it's old ..."

Would you be interested in a vintage private plane? I mean, since it doesn't have to work for you to find it valuable and all ...

http://www.unmuseum.org/flystrange.htm

[Minimalist]

or...

[BloodyHeretic]

Obviously there was no global flood, it's physically and logistically impossible. Go with the theory you brought up, the one about a local flood inspiring such writings as we find about the flood in Genesis. It still mightn't be right, but it's so much more plausible. You know, I know it, everybody knows it and so the idea that the bible is the literal word of god disintegrates. A question for you Salty, does that change your faith?

I do think it is more plausible for it to be local, but then I think of the ark and the animals, there would be no need for the ark if it was just a restricted thing...then again, what if God wanted to only flood Africa, then that could be considered local and the animals would still need saving....etc

All in all, I think the account can be seen from different angles, the information that I read over certainly did have me thinking, "Wow, I never really considered if history could show the flood. I wonder what else history can show about the stories in the Bible." So, I definitely felt like I should know more history, thank you all my atheist friends for getting me out of the shopping malls and into the books, but my faith is rooted in the visible changes in my personality, my mindset, my actions and in my responses. I have reason to believe that Christ is real because after accepting him I changed in ways that I was incapable of doing on my own. As you can see, that kind of reasoning isn't effected by what history tells me.

I'm not going to argue about your personal experiences, I'll just point out that if you're catholic you can pray to St. Anthony, and he helps you find lost things, and I know many people that have prayed to St. Anthony and found things they were incapable of finding on their own. Or so I'm told. I tend to tell them to not underestimate their own ability, so I'm going to say the same to you. The human psyche is a powerful thing.

God seems to have departed from the tangible signs and miracles of old to a warm fuzzy feeling of confirmation. Telling isn't it?

Edit: Grammar.

[Erinome]

As a former catholic child I can say that I found many lost barbie shoes by reciting the following prayer while I looked:

Saint Anthony, Saint Anthony, look around. Something's lost that must be found.

And he helped me find them because he works for Jesus and Jesus knows that hardly anything is more important than missing barbie shoes.

[ElDinero]

Wait...am I to believe that there is a patron saint of finding your arbitrary shit? I'd kick myself if that was my shitty job.

[Erinome]

Oh yes, ElD. Jesus is busy answering the prayers for important shit like money and making the people we hate die, so Saint Anthony is glad to assist us with finding our lost bullshit.

[Minimalist]

God seems to have departed from the tangible signs and miracles of old to a warm fuzzy feeling of confirmation.

Fixed that for ya!

[Epimethean]

I think we could cut even that down:

"God seems."

[Minimalist]

The shitwits start out with a 'god' who can create the whole fucking universe in 6 days...and then, a little later is still powerful enough to drown the whole fucking planet - including animals who apparently did nothing. Then we see him allegedly blasting two cities with "fire and brimstone" because xtians think they were fags and we also find him fucking with "Abraham" to kill his kid and then claiming "hey, man - I was just joking."

Then he lets his whole people get enslaved before going all passive-aggressive on the pharaoh and killing everyone around him to let his people go who he allowed to be enslaved in the first place!

Then we see him no longer able to do much of anything....just hiring hitmen from Assyria and Babylonia like some aging mafia don and then he makes oil burn for 7 more days than it should! Whoopty-fucking doo - some miracle there.

Then in the New Testament this supposedly all powerful god is reduced to complete ineptitude and all he can do is punish people for all eternity.

Talk about diminished capacity. I envision this "god" as an Alzheimer's patient sitting in a wet diaper in a wheel chair staring at the fucking ceiling.