The story of Noah's Ark, fiction?

[david_x]

Meaning?????

 

[ebia]

You know i'm getting my evidence from Genesis and common sence, were are you guys getting this info. In saying i do not directly mean it's false, i was just wandering.

You could try a bit of history, geology, biology, zoology, palentology, geography, archeology, etc, combined with a bit of logic and thinking things through. Call it education.

 

[PlanetTraveller]

(Just wondering?) How did the plant life manage to exist after the flood? Noah didn't have a huge botantical garden on the ark as well right?....

 

[ebia]

(Just wondering?) How did the plant life manage to exist after the flood? Noah didn't have a huge botantical garden on the ark as well right?....

You mean apart from the one necessary to feed the various animals?

 

[artybloke]

You know i'm getting my evidence from Genesis and common sence, were are you guys getting this info. In saying i do not directly mean it's false, i was just wandering.

a) the Genesis stories - written and compiled thousands of years after any possible flood event on which the stories might be based - are not evidence that even the laxest of courts could admit.

b) Common sense is not a good guide to scientific fact. "Common sense" told people for years that the sun moved round the earth. Unfortunately, "common sense" (combined with a literalist interpretation of the Bible) was wrong.

You could try a bit of history, geology, biology, zoology, palentology, geography, archeology, etc, combined with a bit of logic and thinking things through.

Add to that a good knowledge of literary forms and genres, and knowledge of the ancient world's way of thinking, that make it fairly clear that the Genesis accounts were never intended to be taken as modernistic (post-Enlightenment) scientific descriptions of the world. They were intended to be stories which told spiritual truths (the real meaning of myth.)

 

[david_x]

They were intended to be stories which told spiritual truths (the real meaning of myth.)

The Bibles a myth now. (am i not in the Christian only section???)

(Just wondering?) How did the plant life manage to exist after the flood? Noah didn't have a huge botantical garden on the ark as well right?....

The Bible says that only the things on land were destroyed, one could exspect plants to be durable enough.

 

[PaladinValer]

The Bibles a myth now. (am i not in the Christian only section???)

Could you please read what he said?

What did he say the "real meaning" of "myth" is?

They were intended to be stories which told spiritual truths (the real meaning of myth.)

What part of this do you not understand? Just because something is a myth doesn't mean it is false or that it is worthless.

The Bible says that only the things on land were destroyed, one could exspect plants to be durable enough.

A Deluge of that massive scale would have wiped all plants away.

Again: stop assuming you know everything and learn biology.

 

[david_x]

A Deluge of that massive scale would have wiped all plants away.

Again: stop assuming you know everything and learn biology.</FONT>

I would never! no one does. Except of cource God.
Plus i think you underestimate him.

What part of this do you not understand? Just because something is a myth doesn't mean it is false or that it is worthless.

Oh yes it does and i quote "ANY FICTISIOUS STORY, PERSON, OR THING."
-Webster's dictionary
If that doesn't settle that: story- fictisious narritive shorter than a novel.
2- a falsehood!

Don't assume you know everything about english!

 

[ebia]

The Bibles a myth now. (am i not in the Christian only section???)

Some of it, definitely.

That isn't a bad thing - myths are stories that carry vital truths. Genesis is true, it just isn't fact.

The Bible says that only the things on land were destroyed, one could exspect plants to be durable enough.

Try sticking a selection of plants underwater for a few months, and see how many survive. Or just try massively overwatering your mother's pot plants and garden every day for a month.

Plus i think you underestimate him.

If God is going to miraculouly keep the plants alive, why didn't he do the same for all the animals? If you have to keep appealing to more and more miracles, any idea that you are logically supporting a simple reading of the text is out the window and half way to Timbuctoo.

Webster's dictionary

Try buying a decent dictionary. Or accept that dictionary definitions are not the whole picture when technical words are used correctly (yes, myth IS a technical word). Better still, do both.

 

[david_x]

Try sticking a selection of plants underwater for a few months, and see how many survive. Or just try massively overwatering your mother's pot plants and garden every day for a month.

ha ha, i'm not saying the plants survived, but seeds perhaps.

Try buying a decent dictionary. Or accept that dictionary definitions are not the whole picture when technical words are used correctly (yes, myth IS a technical word). Better still, do both.

yes, but most often a myth implys falese

That isn't a bad thing - myths are stories that carry vital truths. Genesis is true, it just isn't fact.

virtual truths yes, but if the any part of the Bible is fabricated than the whole thing falls apart. self destruct mechenism if you would.

 

[The Lady Kate]

virtual truths yes, but if the any part of the Bible is fabricated than the whole thing falls apart. self destruct mechenism if you would.

Why would you think the recorded Word of God is so fragile?

 

[david_x]

fragile?

no, not fragile. It is strong and true threw and threw but if the bible says that its-self is true than if it-self was not true then the whole thing can not be reguarded as true.

 

[KerrMetric]

no, not fragile. It is strong and true threw and threw but if the bible says that its-self is true than if it-self was not true then the whole thing can not be reguarded as true.

David you are in real trouble. If you truly believe what I quoted the people who have told you this have performed a great disservice on you. And it will lead to you having serious reconciliation problems later.

There are errors in the text of the Bible I'm afraid.

 

[david_x]

David you are in real trouble. If you truly believe what I quoted the people who have told you this have performed a great disservice on you. And it will lead to you having serious reconciliation problems later.

not at all, i simply ment that you had an image of your enemy in your head.

There are errors in the text of the Bible I'm afraid.

I hope you mean in translation or somthing logical and not that God lied!

 

[KerrMetric]

I hope you mean in translation or somthing logical and not that God lied!

Of course I mean tranlsational errors or just plain mistakes of the writers.

 

[david_x]

Of course I mean tranlsational errors or just plain mistakes of the writers.

Thank GOD, had me worried there. No, there is a book called The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict. The author has many crediable sources that say, somehow, that the Bible is the most well translated/ copied down book ever. I'll figure out who. (ahhh it's 1:45 gota go.)

 

[ebia]

Thank GOD, had me worried there. No, there is a book called The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict.

Sorry, but Josh McDowell's arguments are rather superficial.

The author has many crediable sources that say, somehow, that the Bible is the most well translated/ copied down book ever. I'll figure out who. (ahhh it's 1:45 gota go.)

It may be that, but is not error free and it doesn't need to be for God to speak through it.

God works through the imperfect all the time. Flaws in the bible no more make God a liar than flaws in your local minister do.

 

[ebia]

ha ha, i'm not saying the plants survived, but seeds perhaps.

An awful lot of plant seeds can't survive those conditions either. Not to mention the long wait for the forests and whatnot to regrow.

yes, but most often a myth implys falese

Only in common, ill-informed, parlance.

virtual truths yes, but if the any part of the Bible is fabricated than the whole thing falls apart. self destruct mechenism if you would.

Only if you insist that it should be all factually true in the first place. The idea that facts are more true than any other sort of truth is a daft and very recent idea. It's not a particularly Christian idea, but it is a major problem for the Christian church. We aren't called to believe that everything the bible says is fact, we are called to allow God to speak through it to us, and through us to the world.

 

[artybloke]

yes, but most often a myth implys falese

No it does not. Neither, actually, does fiction. Fiction is "made-up", sometimes set in imaginary worlds etc; but that does not mean that what it says about human relationships, or, in the case of myth, about human relationships with God (or gods, if you want to include all world mythologies), is false.

You're making the common positivist assumption that only fact = equals truth. But "facts" as far as scientists are concerned are things and events that can be observed and verified using scientific method. Spiritual knowledge and wisdom is not of this nature; and neither, actually, is the vexed question of the existence of God. As an object or event that can be observed using scientific method, God doesn't strictly "exist." But please reread that sentence very carefully before you dash off a reply. By the scientific definition of fact we cannot prove or disprove the existence of God. But we know God exists by faith; we have experience of God's love and power in our lives. This is a spiritual truth, that goes much deeper than mere fact.

Thus it is with the spiritual truths of creation: the story is not factual, but the truth it tells us is so much more deeper than fact, and is the true purpose of the story. I do not believe that the writers of Genesis, who had no knowledge of scientific method, and were a thousand years at least earlier than Gallileo, would have been interested in the science. Even considering the fact that the practical impossibility of doing real science without the ability of measuring things accurately, they were mainly interesting in the meaning of the story. They were, in effect, doing the same thing as Jesus when he told his parables.

 

[higgs2]

The Bibles a myth now. (am i not in the Christian only section???)

I think your time on this forum might be really good for you. Get ready.