why should we take the story of noah as literal?

Author: linate

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linate
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just because the bible says so, and God can do anything?

when miracles occur, i believe there is evidence for it. with the story of noah, it's not just the lack of evidence, but evidence exists that actively discredits the story. 

if the story of noah occurred within recent history or thousands of years, how are there so many cultures who look like they evolved over hundreds of thousands of years, when supposedly they were all wiped out recently?

how did all the fresh water fish and life survive when all the water combined with the ocean?

how did kangaroos and island animals get to the ark? 

why isn't there any fossils of the mass casualties of life on earth?

why wasn't there any imbreeding with only one of each animal?

how did they fit so many animals on one boat?

is it all just because the bible says it, and God can do anything, that we should take it as true? the new testament does talk about noah as if it was a literal story, so at least if you believe the bible is the word of God, you can't just say the story was a metaphor. 

i believe when miracles occur, there is evidence for them. it's understandable when a christian doesn't think much about these things and takes the story as true. but for those who have studied or should know better, it stands as contemptable the disdain for truth that those literalist christians have.
linate
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why is there no evidence of a flood everywhere, when there would be if it actually happened?

i could go on and on with the holes in the story. 
janesix
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So what is the story's allegorical or metaphorical meaning then?
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@janesix

i guess you could say the moral of the story is bad things happen when you don't obey god. i dont know if the story has a meaning though. 

the point i'm making in this thread is that it's obvious this is a glaring error in the bible. the bible treated the story as literal when it's obvious it's not literal and false. if you strive for truth at all costs, it's contemptable to say the bible has no errors in it. 
janesix
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@linate
It isn't a glaring error. It is a copied story from the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Mopac
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We call the Orthodox Church Noah's arc.

Considering it is the only institution that is 2000 years old(arguably older too if you respect our claims as the continuation of Israel), that seems appropriate.

And just like all the nations from that time are gone, Orthodoxy will remain long after all your governments collapse, and your societies destroy themselves.


Lord have mercy.


janesix
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@Mopac
There are religions much older than your church.
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@janesix
Religion =/= institution


We have a continuity of governance.

Goldtop
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@Mopac
Orthodoxy will remain long after all your governments collapse, and your societies destroy themselves.
Hopefully, the Christian Orthodox child sexual abuse scandals will stop long before then. Probably not.

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@Goldtop
That is The Roman Catholic Church, and they have not been Orthodox for over a thousand years.


In fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to call them heretics. The church has never accepted their doctrine that The Pope is King of all Christians. They have altered the faith quite a bit.

disgusted
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@Mopac
We call the Orthodox Church Noah's arc.
Because it's as fake as a $3 bill.

Deb-8-a-bull
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When considering the arc story one must keep in mind the fact that Noah died in his early 900's


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@Deb-8-a-bull

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@Mopac
Nope, that's the Christian Orthodox Church, your church that ALSO has pedophilia running rampant within.
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@Goldtop
All the priests at my parish are married. I don't think pedophilia is an issue.
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@Mopac
Of course, YOU don't think pedophilia is an issue in the Church, same as the others who commit the act.
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@Mopac
The owner / operator priest
The securing old folks wills priest.
The getting great members priest. Aka back round check priest. 

Was your church built by a bloke that said god told him to sell everything he owned and build a church ?





Mopac
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@Goldtop
The sexual abuse of children is obviously not accepted in The Orthodox Church. And I don't know any pedophile priests. This is not an issue in The Orthodox Church.


You are simply spreading mindless libel.






Goldtop
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@Mopac
The sexual abuse of children is obviously not accepted in The Orthodox Church. And I don't know any pedophile priests. This is not an issue in The Orthodox Church.
Correction, you are currently unaware who is and who is not a pedophile in your Church. You could just read the headlines when they get caught.

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@linate
It's truly amazing....how some Comic Book Boat farce of a long gone era has any relevance at all !  

Not one of YOU (totally lackluster mindless .....) seems to have a clue about other civilizations that existed long before this Comic Book Boat farce

..........look at GOOGLE EARTH YOU IDIOT MORONS........at the so called time of this BOZO NOAH's boat farce...there were many advanced 
and thriving civilizations all over this PLANET.... 

Middle East...India...China...South America....Africa....how STUPID....really..how utterly pathetic that YOU imbeciles even consider something as
idiotic as a wooden boat filled with....forget it....this is BEYOND RETARDED...

There are many writings, artifacts, architecture, of Civilizations that never heard or knew of the MOSES garbage..let alone the JESUS and ALLAH 
crap....

YOU idiots never discuss Ancient Mesopotamia..and the HALAF civilization that was around 6000 years before the JESUS hoax...4500 years before 
the MOSES joke...and 3500 years before the ARK Comic Book trash was invented...

The Middle East Jesus-Jew-Allah stories were played out long before they existed by these other civilizations..LOOK UP GILGAMESH from the 
Sumerians......


This is WHY the Middle East  #1 JEW GOD....followed by #2 JESUS...followed by #3 ALLAH...are total GARBAGE...

What of INDIA with its amazing history of NON INVASIVE...NON VIOLENT spiritualities...Jainism-Hindu-Krishna- +++ never discussed..yet existed long before the JEW garbage..followed by the Jesus hoax followed by the Allah trash...like all 7 billion humans have to acknowledge this garbage and not even consider the other perspectives on spirituality

NO DOUBT the Abrahamic "GOD" hoaxes are truly a load of CRAP...all 3 that are left are knockoffs..sadly off of each other !    

NOAH ?  who give a crap about this absurd fantasy....like most religious propaganda used to dumb down and brainwash already stupid humans into ZOMBIES....the Middle East is the absolute TOP of the GARBAGE HEAP...the far East is light years ahead ..not only in it's sophistication but also
it's simplicity without using FEAR-INTIMIDATION-VIOLENCE...

All 3 remaining Middle East "Gods"   JEW-JESUS-ALLAH were and still are built on FEAR-INTIMIDATION-VIOLENCE..they are the greatest DISGRACE in human history....and have NOTHING to do with SPIRITUALITY.....all are VIOLENT POWER PLAY games....used as scapegoats for POWER and CONTROL....the essence of PARASITE VAMPIRE PSYCHOPATHS

Look up how many different CHURCH spins on the Jesus boy joke there are...all disagree all are at war over who is right...Jehovah's Witness retards,
Roman catholic Concentration camp vampires, 7th day asses, Latter Day Bozo's, Protestant Pathetics, Baptist Bozos, Orthodox Oxymorons, +++
hundreds more....JESUS would pass out over all of these FAKE CHURCH RETARDS....that abuse the HELL out of his name...

At least the ALLAH God hoax keeps there groups limited...nothing like the Christian LYING SCUM...and finally the JEWS have very few spins...
no doubt the CHRISTIAN LIARS are the greatest HOAX PREDATORS of them all...

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@Mopac

do the orthodox take the bible as inerrant? i think i heard once they take the bible and at least some of the councils as 'inspired' but not necessarily inerrant. is that correct? 
why do you or don't you acknowledge that the story of noah is an error in the bible?
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I'm excited about what the answer to this is going to be.

I'm hoping for a yes or a no.
I suspect the ultimate truth might play a part but. 

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@Deb-8-a-bull
When considering the arc story one must keep in mind the fact that Noah died in his early 900's

Lol

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@EtrnlVw
One of gods reight hand mans. 


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@linate
the point i'm making in this thread is that it's obvious this is a glaring error in the bible. the bible treated the story as literal when it's obvious it's not literal and false. if you strive for truth at all costs, it's contemptable to say the bible has no errors in it. 

It's not uncommon for spiritual texts to illustrate spiritual principles or some message using what seems like a literal account or an actual story. But some people don't get figurative language anyways, like the mess people make of the teachings of Jesus and His parables. 
I'm not arguing for a literal interpretation or a figurative one here, but do you have an issue if it were figurative? or, do you have a problem with both figurative and literal, literary styles being used in spiritual scriptures? 

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@linate
If you are talking about what you see in certain protestant churches by "inerrency", we have a technical word for that called "biblialotry".

The story of Noah is certainly intended to be in the bible, so I will not call it an error.



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@Mopac
The fact that other cultures - such as the babylonians - also had a similar legend implies a great flood was something everybody believed had happened in the past.   The writers of the bible could not ignore such a famous event so turned it into an episode of their telling of Hebrew history.

Being priests of YWWH they naturally made the story centre on YHWH and a Hebrew patriarch.  I don't know if the writers of genesis believed its literal truth, but I strongly suspect they wanted their lay audience to believe it, especially its claim that it was YHWH who was responsible for the famous flood, not some foreign god as the babylonians et al claimed.
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@Mopac
So that's a clear yes no. 


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@linate
Because the evidence we see is consistent with what the results of a worldwide flood would be
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@linate
I think that in a world where belief in powerful gods was unquestionable but knowledge of the world was limited the Noah story would be accepted as simple fact.   I don't think it was meant as an alegory or metaphor but as an example of YWH's power.