Christians: did you know the flood myth (Noah) is common to many earlier cultures?

Question

The earliest version of the flood myth preserved fragmentarily is in the Sumerian language, dating to ca. 2600 BC, and is thus among the oldest literature known.

The god Enki (lord of the underworld ocean of fresh water and Sumerian equivalent of Ea) warns Ziusudra of Shuruppak to build a large boat - the passage describing the directions for the boat is also lost. When the tablet resumes it is describing the flood. A terrible storm raged for seven days, "the huge boat had been tossed about on the great waters," then Utu (the Sun) appears and Ziusudra opens a window, prostrates himself, and sacrifices an ox and a sheep. After another break the text resumes, the flood is apparently over, and Ziusudra is prostrating himself before An (sky-god) and Enlil (chief of the gods), who give him "breath eternal" and take him to dwell in Dilmun. The remainder of the poem is lost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziusudra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth

Mahjong Mama: my point would be that there was a flood in that region, not on a world scale, that would be ludicrous. And the Christians co-opted this myth and incorporated it in their own mythology.

Fruitcake: that was a really disappointing answer but sadly par for the course for many christians.

Truth6: The flood told of in the flood myths happened nowhere near the american continent. Fossilized seashells found in your state reveal clues to the ancient Western Interior Seaway, which once split North America. It covered much of the western interior of the continent between 69 and 80 million years ago. It stretched from the Artic southward to the Gulf of Mexico and from central Utah eastward to the western Appalachians.

Over time, the Western Interior Seaway receded, leaving the floor exposed. Vast rock and sediment layers remain along with fossils from creatures that once lived in the sea.

Meg Michaels: Unless you want to state your christian god is actually Enki, no. It means you stole the story and tried to shoehorn God in there.

Answer 1

Oh noes!! Say it isn't so! Teh books that the Christian faith were based on were just plagiarised stories!!!

Answer 2

The thing about scripture is that Moses actually recieved the story first hand from God Himself. The bible also tells us that the mountains were made after the flood, or as a result of the flood. The earth was pretty much flat until the floods of the deep or the springs of the earth burst forth. When I say flat I mean a hill of two modern storys tall would be the highest point on the planet. The explosiveness of the springs of the earth opening up is what pushed land masses away from the point of explosion, sending land sliding away and buckling against each other forming mountains. These massinve sections of land that smashed against each other then began to settle and as the newly formed mountains began to sink into the soft earth their mass caused huge pieces of land nearby to rise up making our modern steppe land areas. If you look at a map of the earth yourself you can see that near almost all mountain ranges there is a huge steppe effect caused by the mountain sinking! This is what also explains things like sea shells found in texas and on the top of mountains!

One more interesting historical account from russia one hundred years ago. A mining company dug the deepest hole at the time, strip mining near a mountain. They were also conducting experiments with some scientists to study the earth as they dug away. At 7 miles deep...7 miles, they found the earth cooling rapidly, and their efforts were halted after they came across salt water, sea water, sitting under the mountain. Some have a theory that the earths plates don't float on magma, that the earth doesn't have plates, that earthquakes are the earth still settling from a flood 6000 years ago, as all our land rests on water.

Answer 3

Yes I read about that before. It does seem that almost every culture has some kind of great flood story. I found fossilized sea life high up in the Rocky Mountains when I worked construction in Colorado. At some earlier time much more of the Earth was under water. It does not seem too surprising that other people also have a great flood story.

Answer 4

The flood isn't a myth, after the flood the people continued together as one, having the same language. God then confused their language, and scattered them all over the earth. That is why, everwhere has stories about the flood, because it actually happened (Genesis 11:1-9)

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Answer 5

There are oral traditions of a world wide flood that persists throughout many cultures.

You can create a hypothesis for why this is true and try to justify your own preexisting presuppositions. However, you should also see that it is completely consistent with the Biblical account, and therefore is not evidence that damages the Christian's presupposition.

Answer 6

The flood was not a myth, but a fact. I was in a huge valley between the Tigress and Euphrates rivers. In those days to those people, that was the world!

Answer 7

Yes, and it is not a myth---it is supported by scientific evidence. After the Middle East began to be repopulated people began to disperse and they carried the account of the flood with them as part of their culture.

Answer 8

The flood is not a myth, & you need to get your sceincetic equations corrected, since you claim to be so much smarter, & yet you can't add 2+2

Answer 9

Interesting how the most important part where God promises to never flood the earth like that again was lost

Answer 10

Just proves the flood was common knowledge in the ancient world. I prefer the true version--the Biblical one.