| From: kim | 18/01/00
9:05:25 |
| Subject: The Great Floods | post id:
27203 |
| When people say the forty days
and forty-night flood did not happen, are they dating the flood from
Christian times? For the Sumairns* talk of these floods and they pre date the bible by thousands of years and since it was in the past for them it may connect back to near ice age times. Could the instability of the environment at those times? * I think that's how its spelt, they are from Iran which use to be known as Sumer. Sumairnism is where Babylonism branched from (there was another religion in between the Aireans I think) | |
| From: kim | 18/01/00
9:06:48 |
| Subject: re: The Great Floods | post id:
27204 |
| "Could the instability of the
environment at those times caused such floods?"
| |
| From: steve(primus) | 18/01/00
9:51:42 |
| Subject: re: The Great Floods | post id:
27215 |
| There have been plenty of floods
in different parts of the world but a global flood within the last 50,000
years covering all the land to the tops of the mountains produced by forty
days and nights of rain is impossible. | |
| From: kim | 18/01/00
10:17:31 |
| Subject: re: The Great Floods | post id:
27223 |
| Maybe the forty days and nights
thing was an exaggeration but the story may have some
basses. | |
| From: Tim H(Numpty) | 18/01/00
11:04:08 |
| Subject: re: The Great Floods | post id:
27233 |
| Speculation here, in the interest
of a intelegent discussion. What if the rains occurred for forty days and night over the whole world as it was known to those who told the story. It would seem unlikely that someone living in those times would know very much about what was outside there walking radius. :-) | |
| From: steve(primus) | 18/01/00
11:05:20 |
| Subject: re: The Great Floods | post id:
27234 |
| Stories always have some basis
and the most likely basis for the great flood stories which are common to
many civilisations in the region is the flooding of the Black Sea about
10-15000 years ago when the water poured in from the Mediterranean. This
type of flooding is the most likely cause of the stories. The stories then
got exaggerated in the telling - Genesis was oral history for a very long
time before it was written down. As for a global flood to the tops of the highest mountains, it is still impossible whether you give it forty days, forty months or forty years. | |
| From: Trevor Wilson (Avatar) | 18/01/00
13:14:05 |
| Subject: re: The Great Floods | post id:
27276 |
| Picture the following
scenario: A farmer and his family are living somewhere near the Tigris and Eurphrates rivers. His great gandfather used to tell him stories about how sometimes a great flood would happen along and unundate the farm and all the surrounding lands. Many people would die and many would lose their livelihoods. Remembering this story, he decided to build a big raft. One big enough to hold all his family and all his farm animals and some provisions, for a few days. At the coming of a 1 in 100 year flood, he packed his family, animals and provisions onto his raft and waited. After a few days of floating about, the farmer and his family settled on a new patch of land and started his life all over again. Through the years, this story was blown out of all proportion to reality (as is often the way, with verbally transmitted stories). When it was finally written down, the whole Noah fairytale was exposed in all it's glory. There are so many impossibilities in the Noah story, that is is hardly worth bothering with. Some facts worth considering are: 1) 40 days and 40 nights of rain, translates to about 12 Metres of rain, per HOUR! (Assuming the final resting place of the Ark was about 5,500 Metres above sea level) 2) There have several civilizations, which flourished, before, after and DURING the alleged Great Flood. One of them (the Egyptian civilisation), had excellent written records, of the period cited, by the Bible. No mention of a World wide flood (except for periodic Nile floods) has ever been recorded. 3) Australian Aborigines have a history which can be reliably traced back at least 50,000 years (and possibly much more). There is no evidence of any flood wiping out the Aboriginals. 4)The problems and inconsistencies of loading and feeding (and disposing of waste) of two of every type of animal on this planet, pales into insignificance, when one considers the very real problems in actually finding them all. I wonder how Noah managed to find and keep safe, all 25,000 varieties of Orchids, none of which can survive any length of time, under water? Treat the Noah's Ark story, as just that: A story. It was designed as a parable, for primitive peoples. We know better (well, most of do, anyway). Trevor | |
| From: Kirsten | 18/01/00
15:36:25 |
| Subject: re: The Great Floods | post id:
27305 |
| My favourite problem with the ark
was the question of where to put a pair of each of the 20,000 or so
species of termites, and what they were expected to eat during that
time... Kirsten. | |