B
Bandit
Guest
To treat the Bible like a history or science text degrades it as mythology, and cheapens it. The purpose of myth is not accuracy, so I fail to see why accuracy should be a concern.
I think the earth also undergoes literal different ages with changes and the elments act differently during different times. Perhaps more like a perfect terrariam type of atmosphere prior to any flooding or rain? It is a nice thought for a perfect earth upon its initial arrival. Someone recording a real flood during that time would have a different persepctive than we do today and they would never have seen it coming. According to the story, they did not have a clue as to what real rain or a literal flood even was and according to the story a flood that big would also never happen again. But could it? or maybe scientifically it could only happen once? It does not mean it is not possible, it just means if it did happen they perceived it differently according to what they knew at that time and we would perceive it differently because we have never witnessed it during that time.
When I think of myth I think of the goose laying golden eggs and the wizard of oz type of story and of course the many godmen who raise from the dead with many lessons to teach that there is no place like home and the grass is not always greener. I am confident though, that when the sherriff knocks on my door and tells me we are going to flood, that there will be a literal flood and he is not telling me a myth. That also comes from experience, not just because someone says so or because someone in the past wrote down a story that they flooded. I do not remember ever being so frightened until after the I saw how fast the water came and surrounded us all, leaving only one way out for many days.
When I think of it as a myth but a rather accurate myth with implications maybe not so much accuracy. According to the myth, those who did not prepare for a real flood because they did not believe it was possible, all died. Of course a mythical death in a mythical flood but the implications are the same in a real flood. As for accuracy, I must agree that it was not necessary for the koala bear in Australia to make the boat on time
I must agree that I would not bring literal science into an age or a story that we cannot be certain of from that POV as a pro or a con in history, nor science into something with a supernatural context. I also think we take things more serious the next time around after we have survived the first one, and until after we survive & experience the first one, it will always be a myth or something that happens to someone else. That is a human condition that I have been guilty of many times in my youth.