Noah’s Ark seems like a myth

[dbasra99]

Hello. I am new here. Trying to find a place to openly discuss my faith issues without being attacked.

I had a total faith deconstruction that led me to severe depression. My faith has been somewhat been rebuilt but I still struggle with many issues.

For example, for many years I have not been able to believe the story of Noah. This is both from science and theology standpoints.

I have listened to many models by numerous apologists but no one brings me closure on this.

I see nothing more than a story of a great natural catastrophe that is blamed on God and is expressed in various ancient religions. However the references in the New Testament trouble me.

I am interested in what others think.

Thanks.

[Diogenes]

I find it curious that he couldn't rid the world of all the evil people just as easily. Instead, [god] has Noah and family purge the Earth of such people, and everything else, by going through the laborious processes and events outlined in the flood story. All of which never worked out anyway.

Exactly! As soon as 'god' gets rid of the so-called corrupt people by drowning them, Noah gets naked and drunk and his son ridicules Noah telling his brothers about their drunk and naked old man.*
All that drowning of kittens et al. and nothing was accomplished. Men are still corrupt, not to mention drunk, naked and disrespectful.

But that is the way of myths they often make no sense... they are not real.

__________________________
*Genesis 9:21-25

[1213]

...The Bible, particularly if you consider the myths of Genesis to be factual accounts, is wrong about so very much. The Bible clearly describes a flat, immovable Earth, the center of the universe with no explanation for the dinosaurs and other extinct species which comprise 99% of all life that has lived on this planet.
...

Sorry, I have no reason to believe your claims.

...There is no point in attempting a rational, logical discussion with anyone who claims his own inner beliefs provide the only guide for reality.

But isn't that the same with everyone? Everything you "know" is based on that you believe it is true.

[boatsnguitars]

Hello. I am new here. Trying to find a place to openly discuss my faith issues without being attacked.

I had a total faith deconstruction that led me to severe depression. My faith has been somewhat been rebuilt but I still struggle with many issues.

For example, for many years I have not been able to believe the story of Noah. This is both from science and theology standpoints.

I have listened to many models by numerous apologists but no one brings me closure on this.

I see nothing more than a story of a great natural catastrophe that is blamed on God and is expressed in various ancient religions. However the references in the New Testament trouble me.

I am interested in what others think.

Thanks.

It's a shame religions ask their adherents to believe such rigid and ridiculous things. There is always the option of leaving the religion and freeing yourself from the angst and trouble.

[The Nice Centurion]

Hello. I am new here. Trying to find a place to openly discuss my faith issues without being attacked.

I had a total faith deconstruction that led me to severe depression. My faith has been somewhat been rebuilt but I still struggle with many issues.

For example, for many years I have not been able to believe the story of Noah. This is both from science and theology standpoints.

I have listened to many models by numerous apologists but no one brings me closure on this.

I see nothing more than a story of a great natural catastrophe that is blamed on God and is expressed in various ancient religions. However the references in the New Testament trouble me.

I am interested in what others think.

Thanks.

It's a shame religions ask their adherents to believe such rigid and ridiculous things. There is always the option of leaving the religion and freeing yourself from the angst and trouble.

And risk hell ?

[dbasra99]

Hello. I am new here. Trying to find a place to openly discuss my faith issues without being attacked.

I had a total faith deconstruction that led me to severe depression. My faith has been somewhat been rebuilt but I still struggle with many issues.

For example, for many years I have not been able to believe the story of Noah. This is both from science and theology standpoints.

I have listened to many models by numerous apologists but no one brings me closure on this.

I see nothing more than a story of a great natural catastrophe that is blamed on God and is expressed in various ancient religions. However the references in the New Testament trouble me.

I am interested in what others think.

Thanks.

It's a shame religions ask their adherents to believe such rigid and ridiculous things. There is always the option of leaving the religion and freeing yourself from the angst and trouble.

And risk hell ?

Many Christians do not believe in Hell.

[dbasra99]

Can you share your current beliefs related to a creator?

Sure! Tho' I see no evidence of it, I can only hope for some force/entity, 'X' (it's beyond my ability to find the right term; perhaps there is none) that is beneficent and unifying. A further hope, and one less likely, is that this X has a personality we can relate to. So, I am open to the idea of a 'God,' despite the exceedingly poor approximations, 'gods', that hundreds, thousands of cultures have suggested.

So, I do not claim to know there is a God, but the obviously and insistently anthropomorphic versions of tribal gods heretofore invented by men are most certainly nonexistent. They are all ludicrously and ineptly drawn figures invented by people who wanted to understand nature (or control others, or both). One example comes from the Bible. It's 'god' demands we both love 'him' and fear 'him.' That god sounds sadomasochistic.

My central view is that I simply want to understand what is. What is the truth? What is the ultimate reality? My central mantra is that none of the ideological mindsets are designed to find that truth... except science. And even 'science' can by misused or misapplied by bigots with some ideologic bias.
I am willing to accept that, without evidence, there is no God or gods and no purpose to a universe that has always existed in one form or another and did not need to be created by some agent.

Just curious. Did your faith deconstruct over time or was it more of a sudden realization and was there anything specific that caused your change in beliefs?

Thanks.

[boatsnguitars]

Hello. I am new here. Trying to find a place to openly discuss my faith issues without being attacked.

I had a total faith deconstruction that led me to severe depression. My faith has been somewhat been rebuilt but I still struggle with many issues.

For example, for many years I have not been able to believe the story of Noah. This is both from science and theology standpoints.

I have listened to many models by numerous apologists but no one brings me closure on this.

I see nothing more than a story of a great natural catastrophe that is blamed on God and is expressed in various ancient religions. However the references in the New Testament trouble me.

I am interested in what others think.

Thanks.

It's a shame religions ask their adherents to believe such rigid and ridiculous things. There is always the option of leaving the religion and freeing yourself from the angst and trouble.

And risk hell ?

If they leave now, they can claim they didn't hear a good enough reason to believe, so they can't be responsible for not believing. It's their God's fault that he can't make a good case for his perferred religion.
And, certainly, we all shouldn't have to rely on other humans to to speak for God. That's just a pathetic system.

[TRANSPONDER]

Hello. I am new here. Trying to find a place to openly discuss my faith issues without being attacked.

I had a total faith deconstruction that led me to severe depression. My faith has been somewhat been rebuilt but I still struggle with many issues.

For example, for many years I have not been able to believe the story of Noah. This is both from science and theology standpoints.

I have listened to many models by numerous apologists but no one brings me closure on this.

I see nothing more than a story of a great natural catastrophe that is blamed on God and is expressed in various ancient religions. However the references in the New Testament trouble me.

I am interested in what others think.

Thanks.

It's a shame religions ask their adherents to believe such rigid and ridiculous things. There is always the option of leaving the religion and freeing yourself from the angst and trouble.

And risk hell ?

Many Christians do not believe in Hell.

That may merit a dedicated thread 'Christians, do you believe in Hell? If so, where is the evidence?'

Cue, deep Russian hole in the ground. However, credit to our pal 1213, he (I guess) is the only or one of the few to try to argue for the Flood and Ark, and even he has ended up with no more than denial of the way the evidence and logical reasoning actually points, with a dose of faithbased science - denial.

[Diogenes]

Just curious. Did your faith deconstruct over time or was it more of a sudden realization and was there anything specific that caused your change in beliefs?

Thanks.

Excellent question and one that requires some thought and recollection. I don't have a simple answer, but can give examples of memories:

I loved (love) my parents. My mother was a Minnesota Lutheran when she married my evangelical protestant father, who was a Preacher's kid. Both were devout, but not in a dogmatic way. My dad and his best friend founded a small protestant church of the Nazarene or Free Methodist type. That 'best friend' was a college president (small Christian college) who, like my grandfather was in demand as an evangelist nationally.

I recall at the age of 5 being at a church service (my grandfather may have been the pastor). I remember vividly, answering answering an 'altar call' knowing it would please my father... and that it just seemed the right thing to do.

At about seven I remember meeting with our home church pastor in the parsonage. He was imploring me to search for that small voice or presence of God 'deep in my heart.' I didn't really sense it, but tried to... wanted to and without true conviction agreed I felt it. We attended church twice on Sunday and often one day midweek. We were encouraged to read the Bible, to question, but trust the Bible. My father would read a Bible story from the Old Testament at breakfast. I attended Youth For Christ meetings at our local public high school.

Thru college I suppose I was typical of this cohort, questioning yet mainly believing (with reservations... doubts). I loved Jesus but it seemed very odd and hard to believe that he was a god, but that was part of 'faith.' So I suppose thru HS and college I was 'double-minded' as James says.
“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”
__ James 1:7-8.

I became a lay missionary to Japan in the 70s and that spurred further study with the thought of possibly preaching. It was that further study that threw further doubt on those beliefs. I think part of what made it difficult to leave the church was that there were so many good people there, people whose views I cared about. Eventually with study came knowledge and the beliefs I was taught and truly believed became more and more absurd... coupled with the fact that despite the many good Christians I knew, they all seemed oblivious to the idea that Christ's messages to the hypocrites was directed at them as well as the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Books like Thomas Sheehan's The First Coming : How the Kingdom of God Became Christianity were enlightening as well as Paul Erdman's, Elton Trueblood, and others', plus the fundamentalist authors' logic and analysis was deeply flawed.

In the end I decided seeking truth was more important than shoring up my beliefs (confirmation bias).

I suppose that covers it. I'll add a pet peeve for this list. We are constantly bombarded by posts by people who appear to have a very shallow understanding of the Bible, its background, quality apologetics; yet they preach to others who understand the Bible and the history of the church much better than they do (or so it appears)... along with being fairly ignorant of comparative religion study and complete and willful ignorance of science and history.

One can certainly be a Christian and not take the myths of Genesis as serious history. This is bad Christian scholarship and yields a faith that can be not only thin, but dogmatic and even hateful: the antithesis of the message of Jesus of Nazareth.

[TRANSPONDER]

Thank you. I'll only add this: if one does not believe Genesis, then Eden, Adam and original sin goes by the board. There is no reason for it, other than we were made that way, and given a brain to question and (as discussed elsewhere) it is not about Deeds but belief, when the brains we have are supposed to be put to idle and we accept what we are told like 'little children'. This has got to be a system designed to fool people on the basis of a basic myth that only the unreasonable can believe anyway.

I can only say, I thank our Lady Athe, who madest beer and Pizza, that I am not a Believer and do not have to reconcile or dismiss this stuff. daily.