The Importance of Biblical detail being exact

[Thomas123]

This Bible stuff is old.
I personally engage with Biblical detail. I enjoy it!
It does not constrain me within it's literal boundaries.
You might well, be critical of this approach to the Bible.

I love when Noah releases the dove!

Let's use this example of detail to express our opinions on this contentious issue.

Is the 'Noah and the Dove ' detail important to the Biblical Flood discussion.

The importance of Biblical detail being exact!
Is this a 'Deal Breaker' issue for you?

[benchwarmer]

Some might argue that the olive leaf the dove found was the result of new growth. This is problematic in light of the details in the dove story:

• Genesis 8:8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.
  
  <bolding mine>

Apparently God can do anything in 7 days. I hear there is a story where he created everything in 6 and had time to rest on the 7th. Surely he had enough time to sprout an olive tree with branches. I mean, he just flooded the entire planet with ~1 billion cubic miles of water, surely sprouting a tree is child's play. Maybe he got Jesus to do it.

Let's face it, if one accepts the premise that a god is involved and this god can do anything, there's little point in trying to reconcile these tales with modern scientific knowledge. Either a god performed these ridiculous, seemingly pointless feats or it didn't. Trying to persuade Bible literalists with reality is not going to get very far.

[brunumb]

[Replying to post 11 by benchwarmer]

Let's face it, if one accepts the premise that a god is involved and this god can do anything, there's little point in trying to reconcile these tales with modern scientific knowledge. Either a god performed these ridiculous, seemingly pointless feats or it didn't.

Every time science highlights a plot hole in the flood story, a believer plugs it up with a miracle. After a truck load of these miracles you have to wonder why God didn't just miraculously disappear the evil humans and let everything else continue in peace.

Ancient people were ignorant of the workings of nature and attributed catastrophic events to angry gods. It's not hard to see how such events captured their imagination and got incorporated into their folklore. Over generations of retelling the stories, like the fish that got away, they got exaggerated to ultimately produce epics like the Noachian flood tale. No God necessary.