Noah's flood -- worldwide?

John W. Burgeson (johnburgeson@juno.com)
Tue, 7 Dec 1999 15:17:51 -0700

I know -- I know -- the hypothesis that the flood was worldwide has been
rather completely disproved. At least to a 99.999% probability.

Sunday I sat in on a SS class in which the topic of faith was discussed.
The talk centered around the faith that Noah must have had, etc.

About 20 well-educated, literate, upper middle class men & women. The
possibility that the flood was anything else than worldwide was never
mentioned; the story, as a literal reading, was taken for granted.

I kept silent, for several reasons. One was just to immerse myself in a
cultural discussion where a literal reading of the Bible was taken for
granted. It was illuminating.

I kept asking myself -- maybe it could all be literally true?

If it is not -- then what is the meaning of the discussion I am listening
to? Does it have any meaning at all? When the NT speaks of Noah's faith,
are those empty words?

I don't have any answers to this -- shoot, I don't even have any good
questions. This I do know -- a literal reading does seem to teach lessons
in faith that a non-literal reading does not even come close to. What
does this mean? Beats me.

Burgy

___________________________________________________________________
Why pay more to get Web access?
Try Juno for FREE -- then it's just $9.95/month if you act NOW!
Get your free software today: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.