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

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

[ambrose]

To be or not to be... THAT is the question!

[ambrose]

What's the copyright date?

Hmmm... can't seem to find one.

When someone invents a time machine, wake me up. Until that time, BOTH evolutionists and creationists are speculating as to what occurred thousands of years ago.

[KC_for_Freedom]

How 'bout them beer jugs, eh?!

The Bible relates that Noah had a problem with the fruit of the vine.

[billbears]

Could this story have provided the inspiration for the holy men who wrote the Book of Genesis 2,000 years later?

No it couldn't have. This is just another example of the world trying to explain away the glory of God. It happened as it is stated in Genesis to Noah and is not some restated Babylonian myth.

[ErnBatavia]

[RightWhale]

There are many problems with the story.

The Deluge was the official beginning of modern property rights law and governmental bureaucracy--the recorder's office.

[Light Speed]

Shoemaker Levy 9's 21 fragments augering into Jupiter pretty much ended the academics uniformity model and opened the books again on the ident of Catastrophism shaping planets.

Its to be noted that the Ancient Hebrews mark 2 mechanisms in their flood account.

1- Waters errupting from vaults [The Earths crustal region]
2-Then it rained afterwards.

Nasa/JPL has regressed some Near Earth orbitors..and hypothesised that they may be remnants of a Moon which broke apart from some tidal force.

Clube and Napier forward the theme of supercomet break up..over periods of 20,000yrs..the fragments simply hamering into worlds as they are vacumned up in gravametric cycles.
The 4 known streams of the Taurid complex..which the Earth transits thru for a full quarter of a year..have been regressed via computer to a singular ident.
Comet Encke part of this debrie stream.

Other candidates exist to cause the Earth to fault under gravametrics...Velikovsky Mythological detective study concerning a wandering Venus..and Mars.

Could their have been another moon..before the one we presently see today?
could there have been 2 or more of varied size?

The records of Emporer Yahu of China record an event where waters were pulled up into the sky..and towered above the mountains..then there was an electric discharge....and the waters collapsed to inundate China for over 100 yrs.

But ya..maybe Opium was the national passtime of the early Dynastic kings...and Confuscious's validation of the event.....some reflection after a pull on the Opium pipe : )

[af_vet_rr]

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.

I don't speak Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Arabic, etc., and I don't have original copies of what was originally written to be included in the Bible, nor do I have copies of the oral histories that existed before people began to put them down in writing, and so I may not be able to back up everything in the Bible to the satisfaction of you and others like you. I do, however, have my faith and I see nothing disapproving that much of it didn't happen the way it was written.

Before you point out that we are reading a translation of translation when reading the Bible in English, or that it was written over several years by multiple authors, save it, I've heard it before. It maybe true, but in no way does it diminish the lessons to be learned.

[onedoug]

"If I knew Him, I'd be Him."

But I suspect that rather than its myriad details from various creation accounts, God's hope in us to do good is by the Biblical story's moral.

Please excuse another "non-thinker".

[TheDon]

"Blind faith or reason?"

Perhaps "Faith or Blind Reason?"

[HHFi]

The saddest part of the Noah's Ark story was when the Dallas Police shot the male gorilla.

[twigs]

All of these stories remained in the oral tradition for centuries before they were written down, so it's impossible to tell which is "oldest." I agree that the proliferation of stories about a flood provides evidence that there was a flood. Personally, I see no reason to not believe what the Bible says about it. The Bible has a better track record for truth than any other source I've ever come across. At least in my life.

[CDHart]

I've often wondered if maybe Noah took the DNA of all the creatures, not the creatures themselves.

Carolyn

[Chewbacca]

According to the Bible the great flood happened about 1657 years after the world was created if you follow the lineage from Adam to Noah.

The interesting thing is Noah's father dies about 5 years before he finishes his ark and the flood happens, and Noah was 500 years old.

[aShepard]

"It happened as it is stated in Genesis to Noah and is not some restated Babylonian myth".......

But, when the Bible tells us that the forty days of rain covered the entire earth in 15 cubits of water, and the ark landed on Mt. Ararat until the water receded, I've got a problem with literal interpretation.

Fifteen cubits is about 23 feet of water, and for that amount of water to cover all the earth, even Mt. Ararat- that existed before the flood, isn't plausible, unless it was some kind of special water that clings to slopes and mountains.

I guess that I'm just supposed to believe, but I can't. That's why there is tension between my born again Baptist grown son and myself, 'cause I just can't get into his life and beliefs.

[Chewbacca]

I've often wondered if maybe Noah took the DNA of all the creatures, not the creatures themselves.



No, but what he did take on the ark were infant animals, which included dinosaurs.
Which is easier and feed and care for, a baby elephant or a full grown one? More room also for extra animals.

[LiteKeeper]

First, there is strong evidence that the Book of Genesis was written by eye witnesses, including the sons of Noah. It clearly pre-dates the Epic of Gilgamesh...and is much more credible, given that the "Epic" is mythology, and Genesis 6-8 appear to be eye-witness accounts.

I am willing to provide evidence later to my assertion above.

[Chewbacca]

Ask yourself this: According to historians there was a large land mass called Gondwanaland, or maybe Pangea. The Bible states that after the flood the world was changed. Geologists say that the mountain ranges of the world were formed by the earths seperate plates pushing against each other.

So, the question is "Were there any mountains before the flood?"

[dartuser]

The book of Genesis was not written by eyewitnesses ... Moses wrote Genesis ... and he was not there ...

now ... perhaphs Moses had eyewitness SOURCES ...

THAT is a different issue ...

[dartuser]

Yes, there were mountains before the flood, the text affirms this ...

The waters covered the highest mountains ...

The real question ... How high were they back then ???