Did The story of Noah's Ark happen literally as it is told in the Bible? Did two of every specie of animal, insect, plant, fresh water fish etc. in the world float around on ark for 40 days while the rest of the world perished? The story of Noah's Ark according to chapters 6 to 9 of the Book of Genesis begins with God observing man's evil behaviour and deciding to flood the earth and destroy all life. However, God found one good man, Noah, "a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time", and decided that he would carry forth the lineage of man. God told Noah to make an ark, and to bring with him his wife, and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. Additionally, he was to bring pairs of all living creatures, male and female, and in order to provide sustenance, he was told to bring and store food.[1] When Noah completed the Ark he and his family and the animals entered, and "the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights." The flood covered even the highest mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet, and all creatures on Earth died; only Noah and those with him on the Ark were left alive.[2] Finally, after about 220 days, the Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, and the waters receded for another forty days until the mountaintops emerged. Then Noah sent out a raven which "went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth". Next Noah sent a dove out, but it returned having found nowhere to land. After a further seven days, Noah again sent out the dove, and it returned with an olive leaf in its beak, and he knew that the waters had subsided. Noah waited seven days more and sent out the dove once more, and this time it did not return. Then he and his family and all the animals left the Ark, and Noah made a sacrifice to God, and God resolved that he would never again curse the Earth because of man, and never again would He destroy all life on it.[3] In order to remember this promise, God put a rainbow in the clouds, saying, “Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah's_Ark
In order to remember this promise, God put a rainbow in the clouds, saying, “Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." No rainbows until after the Great Hydraulic Mining? Works for me.
Was there a big flood many years ago? Probably. Did it cover the whole world? Probably not. Unless your "world" consisted of the Nile delta (or New Orleans). Did writers come up with some kind of cool story to teach some "big lesson" to the unbelievers? Probably. The bible is allegory, not history.
You guys should rent out the local community center and get together and have an "I hate Christians" rally... I'm sure it would be a booming success.
There is some interesting debate here that doesn't include hating or loving Christians. For those of you that are Christians what do you believe? A long time ago I decided I wasn't really going to care if the stories were literally true or not -- my faith does not depend upon Noah being in an ark, Jonah being in a whale or David killing a giant. My faith does depend upon the lessons learned from the stories -- the truths not the facts. If I had to guess I would say it wasn't true, but I don't know or really care.
I'm not going to discuss my beliefs on the issue when there are twelve year old non-believers eager and willing and getting their rocks off to showing flaws in my beliefs. I've brought up in the past here how like Muslims and other people of faith that Christians are constantly badgered and ridiculed for their beliefs... and this topic is just proof of that.
It ain't necessarily so It ain't necessarily so The t'ings dat yo' li'ble To read in de Bible, It ain't necessarily so. Oh Jonah, he lived in de whale, Oh Jonah, he lived in de whale, Fo' he made his home in Dat fish's abdomen. Oh Jonah, he lived in de whale. Well, it ain't necessarily so Well, it ain't necessarily so Dey tells all you chillun De debble's a villun, But it ain't necessarily so !
On a related note, my 3 y/o daughter asked the other day: "Is Satan real?" Mommy's response: "Not real in the sense that he can come in your room and hurt you, but he can get in your heart." Daddy's response: "Yes, and she's having a really bad hair day."
I respect that Svpernaut. It can seem sometimes that non-believers try hard to tear down your beliefs. I respect that you believe in JC as your personal savior, that you have a personal relationship with God, and that His words are found in the Bible. But this thread is interesting as it doesn't knock any of those beliefs. I am interested to know (if you do take the literalist approach), where you got that from: faith? supporting Bible verses? is it a logical outcome of your belief in Jesus as the risen one, or is it something else. Not meant to an attack. Just genuinely curious.
This thread would be a great topic and I have some insight about my beliefs that I would love to share, but the topic starter didn't start the topic as a general interest to know more... he started it because he is a jerk and wants to get the numbers behind him so he can say "looky there Christians, I'm not the only one who think your all idiots!" If you look at the tone of his and No Worries in the other Noah's Ark thread they have no interest in learning our beliefs, they only have an interest in ridiculing them.
The thing is not all Christians think like you do. MANY Chritstains do not think the ark myth is an actual event like told in the Bible.
I haven't said whether it is right or wrong, and I won't say that. Their beliefs are theres and mine are mine... believing in the story of the Ark is trivial when it comes down to being a Christian because God stated that he won't ever do it again anyway... so it's not like it was put in the Bible to "warn us" to be good.
