Folkiedave, my guess is...and I emphasize that it's only a guess...

My guess is that there was some kind of worldwide inundation in a very ancient time....meaning that there were tremendous and sustained rains of an unusual nature over a very large part of the globe...perhaps over most of the globe. This could have occurred if there had been a planetwide change in the nature of the atmosphere, for instance, or a great climatic shift. Such things seem to have happened from time to time, according to the geological record...that is, there have been some radical climate shifts due to global warming and cooling. If such a phenomenon had occurred, a lot of people would have been flooded out and drowned, but many people would also have survived by getting to high ground, floating it out on boats and rafts, and so on. Their ancestors would have remembered their exploits in a herioc fashion, and would have passed on stories about it. With time the stories would have gotten better and better. I figure the Babylonian story is one of those, and the Noah story is a further variation on it.

I would prefer not to be lumped in with "you Christians", thanks. I'm not a Christian. I'm a human being, period. That's the only designation I want. Human being. I don't see "incest and rape as a form of moral guidance"! Nor would virtually anyone. I was simply pointing out that a story that doesn't make sense now might have made sense to a completely different culture of people several thousands years ago.

For instance, Aztecs thought it was perfectly okay to rip the hearts out of large numbers of people as a way of appeasing their gods. That was normal to them. Accordingly, a story that made sense to them might make no sense at all to you or me, right? Things change as the millennia roll by, and the fact that they do is one reason why so much of the Old Testament is unpalatable in modern terms.

I understand that Jerry Falwell thinks the Bible is " the inerrant... word of the living God", but how do I know Jerry Falwell is infallible? ;-) I seriously doubt that he is. He's welcome to his opinion, as are the rest of you human beings out there.

I don't mind a bit that there are other people who believe a variety of things I don't. It makes life more interesting. It would be one heck of a limited world if we all believed the same things...not even a place worth living in, as far as I'm concerned.

I do not see it as my sacred duty to persuade everyone else that they are wrong in their beliefs and I'm right in mine, and I would be very pleased if the rest of you would extend a similar courtesy toward all people who are different from yourselves...but I know better than to imagine that's going to happen! ;-) Ha! I know that many of you would much rather fight than get along.

So, if you really want to fight about it, here's my suggestion: We make an appointment to meet behind the barn at 3:00 tomorrow, and slug it out.

And if I'm not there.............................











Start without me!