Is the story of Noah's Ark true?

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I should start off here by saying that I am a new Catholic so I am of very little knowledge as to what the Church believes and teaches. I apologise in advance if anything I have said in this post is out of line.

I’ve watched several videos on analyses of Noah’s Ark and there has been no historical records of a flood occurring in countries like Egypt or China in the year 2348 BC (some people say this is the year of the Great Flood). Historical records from before and after 2348 BC show no disruption of civilisation in countries outside of the Middle East. I don’t even know if there are historical records that show a disruption of civilisation of countries in the Middle East. A flood that would have killed everyone on Earth except for those on the ark would have caused a disruption in civilisation.

There are also other problems like how Noah brought two animals of each kind on the ark and somehow had enough food and water for one year.

I asked a priest this and they said that it could have been a localised flood. The thing is with that is why would God make a flood in one part of the world for the reason of people turning away from God? Wouldn’t there have been a greater number of heretics in countries like China and elsewhere where Judaism wasn’t known?

Also why would Noah build an ark if the flood was localised to one part of the world? Why not just leave that part of the world until the flood is over?

So, given that there is little evidence except Scripture of the Great Flood happening. How are we as Catholic’s meant to believe in Noah’s Ark. What are we supposed to believe?
 
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Although some speak of it as allegory, our Lord spoke specifically of it to the Apostles, and He can neither deceive nor be deceived.
Ref. Matthew 24, Luke 17.

As to technicalities, the author may have generalized or used euphemisms.
 
The first rule of storytelling: All stories are true…some of them actually happened.
 
Yes. And as an aside, the people that tried to say that it’s a rip-off of the Epic of Gilgamesh, clearly have not read the Epic of Gilgamesh. The main thing they have in common, is the fact there was a flood.
 
@Tryingtobecatholic1

In the sense of investigative journalism, there’s not a good reason to believe the story of Noah’s Ark to be factual, no. Scientifically and logistically the story isn’t tenable at all. Ancient authors wrote things in order to teach people something.

This article doesn’t specifically talk about the historicity of what happened but it talks about the ways the Ark prefigures the Church:


Also, here’s a good primer video for reading Genesis:


Peace.
 
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There is no doubt that Noah’s flood was real. Jesus quoted it. The debate is whether it was global or regional.
 
While not a Catholic, this speaker shows that Chinese Language is evidence of a knowing about Noah’s Ark, about the Tower of Babel beginning the spread of humanity, and even the Genesis understanding of Adam and Eve.
: this is very interesting that Language came so far, many millennia, before all the other religious events in Asia. And it helps to see how other religions were not “evolving of religious sensitivity over time” but they were “DE-Volution of the knowledge of the One God over time (forgetting and replacing)”
 
Dan_Defender said:
The debate is whether it was global or regional.
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My take is it would be regional, yet be the “whole world (of humanity)” since the dispersal of humanity had not happened yet (until the Tower of Babel). Humanity was at this point a “regional phenomenon” on the planet - if the flood were after the Tower, then it would need to be a planet wide flood, I believe.
 
John_Martin said:
My take is it would be regional, yet be the “whole world (of humanity)” since the dispersal of humanity had not happened yet
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That makes sense. To me, it doesn’t matter either way, regional or global. I don’t need to know.
 
Tryingtobecatholic1 said:
So, given that there is little evidence except Scripture of the Great Flood happening. How are we as Catholic’s meant to believe in Noah’s Ark. What are we supposed to believe?
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It really really makes no sense to take the narrative literally as it simply doesn’t fit into what we know from the evidence. However, many theologians tend to think that the Flood narrative was written in response to the much more widespread and earlier written Babylonian flood narrative that was polytheistic.

Therefore, taken as being allegorical, the Flood narrative is “true”.
 
👍 I was just wondering if it was the original Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
 
I was shocked recently about two things, Noah’s flooding happened and their is strong evidence to it.

Darwin’s theory is absolutely false and their is evidence for it.

I was shattered how unfaithful I was. Yes, it’s TRUE.
 
Yjjr said:
Darwin’s theory is absolutely false and their is evidence for it.
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Where can I find evidence that the Theory of Evolution (in it’s many, many forms) is false? I’ve looked every where and all I can find are wrong interpretations of geologic record and art.
 



This is a Catholic perspective that we should be informed with

 
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po18guy said:
“Darwin’s theory” not the general theory.
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I agree. There are actually several competing theories but they all do involve some type of evolution. Personally I believe there was some version of Evolution. As God has made the world knowable I see no reason why we can’t discover the nature of creation in the natural world.

I see no conflict between a theory of evolution and sacred scripture. The bible is not a book of science but a book of faith. The message in the Bible is that God created everything. That isn’t contradicted by evolution.
 
David Berlinski has no degrees in geology, biology, or paleontology. You might as well ask a plumb to give a discourse on electrical work.
 
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