BBC Report: Noah's Ark "...more credible version based on Babylonian sources."

BBC On Line ^ | Friday, 19 March, 2004 | Jeremy Bowen

[Arkinsaw]

I like the story of the flood being when the Black Sea was formed.

[muawiyah]

How 'bout them beer jugs, eh?!

[wildwood]

there are LOTS of stories in LOTS of cultures about a great flood. they only serve to affirm the biblical account.

ah, the bbc....ever reaching to discredit anything western, Christian or conservative.

[Defiant]

I like the story of the flood being when the Black Sea was formed.

I agree with that as being a possible source of the flood story, especially when you consider that countless tribes and villages in that region would have been inundated when (if) the waters from the Mediterranean flooded over the natural barriers when the ice melt raised the sea level. It would have been an initial rush, and then a gradual rising until the water level stabilized. The survivors would migrate south into Sumeria, and there would be all kinds of tales about the event, including the one about the prescient guy who built a boat and saved his livestock.

Over thousands of years, the story gained elements, the notion that the flood was brought by God and that Noah rounded up all the animals in the world, etc. The Jews, a Semitic tribe originating in that region, carried the story with them when Abraham migrated west, changing the names and details to suit their own cultural needs.

[Servant of the 9]

there are LOTS of stories in LOTS of cultures about a great flood. they only serve to affirm the biblical account.

Which they do very nicely, since they are thousands of years older than the bible.

Which one copied which?
Blind faith or reason?

So9

[TomServo]

A 'return the favor' ping!

[ambrose]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think anyone "knows" how old the bible is.

[wildwood]

well, i dunno. i will ASK God when i GET there... you find out wherever YOU are going and don't let me know.

[keithtoo]

You are right. It is amazing, though predictable, for non-believers to use the presence of many ancient legends of a worldwide flood to DISPROVE???? the bible account.

The fact that nearly all ancient cultures have flood legends - even if they disagree on the details - is PROOF to my mind that the flood took place.

Counter to this article, their is geological proof that a worldwide flood took place. The presence of fossils worldwide is evidence that animals died and were covered rapidly by sediment. The sedimentary layers themselves are proof.

Non-believers are incredibly creative in trying to justigy there non-belief, but they are not convincing.

[Servant of the 9]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think anyone "knows" how old the bible is.

There is no indication that the written version is over 3,000 years old. What language and script would it have been written in? There was no Hebrew, there was no arabic script.

To have a large body of history passed orally for thousands of years without error in transcription or translation is preposterous. Epic stories get seriously distorted in a few hundred years. Oh, I forgot, God Did It. The universal answer for the non thinker.

So9

[blam]

There's a one hour documentary that covers this very story. This article nor the documentary mentions a flood story like this that is at least 500 years older than the Gilgamesh story.

[pkjeff]

...widely regarded as a myth... There are many problems with the story...

Just highlighting the different conclusions that come from a different world-view

[Ignatz]

The universal answer for the non thinker

Hmph! To have faith does not automatically mean one is devoid of all reason. Some of humanity's greatest thinkers were also people of faith.

[dartuser]

Leave it to the BBC (probably should rename themselves the BBS!!) to be ignorant of current thinking in Creation Science. Some of the stupidest arguments are still perpetrated in the name of bashing creationism.

"it would have taken 35 years for Noah and his family to load two of every animal on earth."

The text doesnt say that Noah and his family went out and loaded the animals ... perhaps the author of this nonsense should read the text ... (hint for author: try the Old Testament first)

"And a flood that engulfed the Earth would have left a signature for geologists - yet none has been found."

LOL! ... what would you expect to find if the whole world were covered in water. You would expect to find a whole bunch of dead things in the mud layers that eventually turned to rock. What do we find? A whole bunch of dead things in the rocks ...

"there are about 30 million species of animals in the world. For so many creatures, a fleet of enormous arks would have been needed."

How many species were there at the time of Noah? THAT is the question ... not how many there are today. And how many species can be generated from an example of each animal? We would need some kind of canine to make wolves, cocker spaniels, german shepards ...

"Geologists have also proved that there is not enough water in the world to cover all the continents, then or now."

And naturally geologists know exactly what the topology of the earth was long ago. Creation scientists believe that during and after the time of the flood, there was alot of volcanism. I.e. formation of mountains, formation of deep ocean trenches ... take away the highest mountatins and the deepest trenches and there is plenty of water to cover the earth.

"We have to forget the idea that such a huge boat carrying all known animals existed, that it came to rest on Mount Ararat in modern-day Turkey, and that a flood covered the entire Earth."

Yes, whatever you say.

"Could this story have provided the inspiration for the Book of Genesis 2,000 years later?"

Of course it could never be that the actual events were handed down orally and were spun into stories fitting each cultures needs. Christians believe that Moses took his oral and written sources, whatever those might have been, and his direct communication with the Almighty to produce a story reflecting the actual events.

"And behind that story we can just glimpse a real man, a real boat and a real adventure."

ZZZZzzzz....

"Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child ..."

[ambrose]

In other words, you don't "know"... you're using speculation and supposition, which is fine.. just wanted to be clear on that.

[Southron Patriot]

NOTHING is beyond God's power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If He said there was a flood then there was a flood.

As for the Ark, the Bible says that God caused the animals to come to Noah Two by Two, Noah did not have to gather the animals at all. As for the number of animals God sent to the Ark, that number is a lot less than you would think.
Go to http://www.creationmoments.com/resources/article.asp?art_id=33 and here http://www.creationmoments.com/resources/article.asp?art_id=87 and here http://www.icr.org/pubs/btg-a/btg-116a.htm


To flood the world while preserving Noah and his family is nothing to the one who created the Universe. God is real and he cared enough for mankind to send His only Son to die for our sins so that we could have ever lasting life with Him!

[Old Professer]

And it wasn't really clay from which Adam was made, but silly putty, right?

[Old Professer]

What's the copyright date?

[Old Professer]

How many species were there at the time of Noah? THAT is the question

Nay, "What is a species?"; now, that's the real question.