Does the fact that so many ancient Levantine cultures have a legend regarding a worldwide flood give credence to the Noah’s Ark story?
(Yes, for the astute among you, I am trying a different vein….)
2007-08-01 07:28:53 · 29 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Eh. Guess I should say, I don't believe the story. I was interested in hearing the Christian response. Thanks.
2007-08-01 07:41:19 · update #1
Sigh. Not a single person understood where I was going. Oh well. Back to Polls & Surveys.
2007-08-02 02:40:19 · update #2
The archaeological evidence gives credence to it as well.
2007-08-01 07:33:59 · answer #1 · answered by osborne_pkg 5 · 3⤊ 6⤋
No. Not at all. If anything, you might as well say that it "gives credence" to the Gilgamesh story, which antedated the Noah legend by many centuries. But of course, it does nothing of the sort. At best, these legends are possibly folkloric remembrances of one or more devastating local floods.
No "universal flood" ever occurred on this planet. There is nowhere near enough water on, in, or around the globe to even get close. Period, end of story. The most amazing thing about it is that grown adults in the 21st century still debate it.
2007-08-01 07:38:28 · answer #2 · answered by jonjon418 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Well, not only Levantine cultures, but cultures all over the world have some variation of the myth. The Maya believed that the last world was destroyed by raging water's.
If a concept is this universal, it has to have at least some credibility, even if some king's palace got flooded, there must be some truth to it. It's very unlikely that a story could have crossed over oceans, and still be well known if it wasn't, as Genesis said, a global flood.
2007-08-01 07:38:15 · answer #3 · answered by YouCannotKnowUnlessUAsk 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Many flood stories center around the fact that the one who is saved is a very righteous man. He is usually saved from a flood that "wipes away the sin of the world." It says that in the Bible's version of the story. It has probably been distorted or misinterpreted though, because the Hebrew word for world can also mean country or the surrounding area. Also, there was a flood back then that flooded the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where Mesopotamia was located, meaning that the story moght have originally been Babylonian.
2007-08-01 07:44:56 · answer #4 · answered by A Person 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A vapor canopy big enough to produce the flood would have caused the Earth to boil and would have changed the atomspheric pressure from 15 psi to 970 psi. A vapor canopy big enough to cause the flood existing outside the Earth's atmosphere would only be stable in a ice ring formation like that seen around Saturn. If that ring would have collapsed on the Earth, the enormous amount of energy it would have released would have caused all the ice to turn to water vapor, not rain.
It seems more likely that the Christian flood myth gives more credence to the fact that the story was adapted from other flood myths, not the fact that any one of them is true.
2007-08-01 07:38:59 · answer #5 · answered by the_way_of_the_turtle 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The fact that a huge flood is told as a part of the histories of so many cultures in so many different areas of the the globe is worth noting. It is also worth noting the Jesus had no doubt of the existence of Noah or the flood when he spoke the words at Matthew 24:37, 38.
2007-08-01 07:49:41 · answer #6 · answered by quaver 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
To me it just reinforces the idea that it was not actually worldwide - only affecting the "world" of the people advancing the story, i.e. a regional flood. People of the time had no idea what the entire world consisted of, so I can't see how their stating that a flood was "worldwide" could be accurate. Of course they would call it worldwide if it affected their entire personal world. The fact that many groups have done this just shows that it's common to overestimate the scope of a flood.
2007-08-01 07:37:44 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sorry but no, it just verifies and gives credence that many ancient Levantine cultures have legends regarding a worldwide flood. That's all, also, many ancient Levantine cultures thought that what they saw was the whole world (like many ancient cultures did) so when their whole world flooded, they thought that the entire world flooded. Not trying to pop anyone's bubble but there you go....
2007-08-01 07:34:34 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
NO!
There were probably a great many terrible floods all over the world. People knew about these floods from traveling peddlers. Of course, the writers of the bible knew they had to get a flood in there. They decided to use it to their advantage. Add a God that hated us for misbehaving so he destroyed the earth except for one goody two shoes and his family.
The purpose was to instill fear and collect the money of the ignorant sheeple.
Tell me, did the Asians have their own ark? How about the Incas?
I am not a sheeple. Are you?
2007-08-01 07:37:05 · answer #9 · answered by Gorgeoustxwoman2013 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
There have been many floods, but no global flood. There is not enough water on earth to flood the whole earth. Large floods have made there way into the legends of many ancient cultures.
atheist
2007-08-01 07:38:23 · answer #10 · answered by AuroraDawn 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
This is the Christian response. If you are an atheist you might
not have read the story in the bible, but if you have and if you haven't(you should). I do know that the earth was totally underwater at one time without asking any experts about it. All I have to do(I live in the Ozark Mtn. of Arkansas which is about 2200 ft. above sea level) is walk outside and look at all the fossil rocks that are laying around here. Noone planted these rocks here. I know that at least Arkansas was flooded at one time because of all the sea shells laying around. If you look at the earth and all of the places that are at least 2200ft
above sea level then you would know that the earth was flooded at one time.Thanks David
2007-08-01 17:45:08 · answer #11 · answered by David T 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋