The Great Flood — Myth, Memory, or Something In Between?

[3rdrockfrmsun]

…didn’t happen

You rattle off your list of “didn’t happens” like a census of disbelief, mistaking chronology for comprehension. You think you’ve disarmed faith by pointing out the absence of fossils — as though the infinite could ever be contained in an archaeological layer. How quaint. You wield skepticism like a child brandishing a butter knife, utterly convinced it’s a sword.
 
You call yourself Catholic, yet speak like a man baptized in Wikipedia. You confuse myth for falsehood, symbol for superstition, and mystery for error — as though truth must report to your clipboard. Gnostics at least had the decency to be haunted by their insight; you’re just comfortable in your vacancy.

The Flood, the Fall, Babel, Eden — none of these are meant to happen in time; they are time, replaying eternally in the human condition. But you, in your haste to feel clever, mistake the mirror for the myth and declare yourself enlightened while standing in the dark.

So by all means, keep cataloging “didn’t happens.” It’s the only liturgy left for those who mistake dissection for understanding.

The fool thinks myth is a lie that didn’t happen; the wise know it’s truth that keeps happening.

[UltraBudgie]

You call yourself Catholic, yet speak like a man baptized in Wikipedia. You confuse myth for falsehood, symbol for superstition, and mystery for error — as though truth must report to your clipboard. Gnostics at least had the decency to be haunted by their insight; you’re just comfortable in your vacancy.

Don't be so tough. She is a skeptic, and a Catholic is anyone the Church says is a Catholic.

[3rdrockfrmsun]

Don't be so tough. She is a skeptic, and a Catholic is anyone the Church says is a Catholic.

I don’t disagree — skepticism has its place, and she’s absolutely entitled to hers. My comment just comes with some history. If you’ve followed the Bible Versions thread, you’ll know we’ve already logged quite a few spirited exchanges. Nothing personal here — just continuing the conversation with that context in mind.

[FlyersFan]

You rattle off your list of “didn’t happens” like ....

.... like they didn't happen.   Because they didn't.  

That's just the truth of it.
The bible is full of allegory and myth, along with poetry and history ...
... biased history told from the perspective of the Hebrews.
The bible is NOT all literal history.   Deal with it.

[FlyersFan]

Don't be so tough. She is a skeptic, and a Catholic is anyone the Church says is a Catholic.

I'm a realist.  

I'm not going to sit here like a fool and claim that talking snakes or men living for three days inside the belly of a whale are a reality when in fact the stories are allegory and myth.     I'd look like a moron if I tried to claim that everyone spoke the same language before 2200BC when the Tower of Babel supposedly happened ... we have massive evidence showing how language evolved and that's not it, meaning the story is a creation myth.

Just because you believe in God doesn't mean that you have to turn your brain off and stop thinking.

Those that do give Christianity a bad name.    They make us all look like morons.

[UltraBudgie]

Yes, perhaps skeptic is the wrong word. I don't know. Sorry, I didn't mean to label.

[3rdrockfrmsun]

.... like they didn't happen.   Because they didn't.  

That's just the truth of it.
The bible is full of allegory and myth, along with poetry and history ...
... biased history told from the perspective of the Hebrews.
The bible is NOT all literal history.   Deal with it.

Look, I get where you’re coming from, and I respect that you see the Bible as a mix of allegory, myth, poetry, and history. I just want to be clear — I’ve never approached it as purely literal. My point has always been that reducing everything to “didn’t happen” misses the reason these stories endure. The ancients weren’t writing fairy tales; they were encoding morality, cosmology, and human experience in narrative form.

So while we may differ on how we read it, I hope you can see that acknowledging allegory and symbolism doesn’t mean dismissing the profound truth and meaning these stories carry. That’s all I’m trying to get across.

[FlyersFan]

 — I’ve never approached it as purely literal. 

and my statements are for those who do.

[rickymouse]

People can't read the bible like it's a single big history book.
It's 73 separate books under one cover. 
46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.
Some is myth.  Some is poetry.  Some is history.  Some is allegory.
And always gotta' keep in mind ... the history is told from the point
of view of the Hebrews so it's biased.

I like the phrase that says something like this in the bible.

"hell hath no fury like a woman scorn"

No wonder so many people believe in what the bible says. 

[andy06shake]

The ancients weren’t writing fairy tales; they were encoding morality, cosmology, and human experience in narrative form.

That's true.

But they also were not writing history books.

I think it's a safe bet, given all the flood myths around the globe that come from both oral and written tradition. 

That it happened time and time again.

It just did not happen in the manner they imagined.

Meaning regional floods, however large they may have seemed.

Simply did not equate to the global sorts, even if that's how it looked from their limited perspective.