Noah's Ark?Adam and Eve?

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I am a recent convert to catholicism, and in a recent RCIA class the subject of Noah’s ark, and Adam and Eve just being stories came up. I was shocked to hear one of the sponsors suggest that the whole Noah’s Ark story was just that a story. What are other’s experience with this type of talk? I’m having a hard time finding official church teaching.
 
That’s because the Church has left it up to us to bealive wheter we see it as literal or allegory. In either case, the meaning behind does not change.
 
I believe that I have read, on more than one account, that there is geological evidence that the world was covered in water during the same period. This evidence has been discovered in “digs” around the world, were at the same “depth of time”, as determine by scientific definitions due to the color, ingredients, carbon dating etc within the soil, that it indicates that many areas of the world were submerged at the same time.

As to Adam & Eve, I believe the Church teaches that you must believe that GOD began the human race, but that you are not required to believe those “two” were from “creation” or “evolution”, but that GOD’s design and plan and action were solely responsible for them.
 
This is a relatively new outlook that most “intelligent” catholics are assuming. If we return to our most trusted source the Douay Rheims (before revision) we find notes that the church fathers agree upon- all scripture is authored by one divine source, the Holy Ghost, therefore if the first 11 chapters of Genesis are figurative why should we not take the whole of scripture figurative. The word of God was written by man and inspired by one!! author that has no use of or reason to use figurative language. On a personal note why would a man with the gift of prophecy writting the inspired word of God, commanded by God, write paragraph after paragraph of geneological information if it was just to say a “story” of creation. There are plenty of fairy tales out there the Bible is not one.

Deo Gratias
 
This is a relatively new outlook that most “intelligent” catholics are assuming. If we return to our most trusted source the Douay Rheims (before revision) we find notes that the church fathers agree upon- all scripture is authored by one divine source, the Holy Ghost, therefore if the first 11 chapters of Genesis are figurative why should we not take the whole of scripture figurative. The word of God was written by man and inspired by one!! author that has no use of or reason to use figurative language. On a personal note why would a man with the gift of prophecy writting the inspired word of God, commanded by God, write paragraph after paragraph of geneological information if it was just to say a “story” of creation. There are plenty of fairy tales out there the Bible is not one.

Deo Gratias
So you really bealive the world was created in 24 hours? Well I guess if that works for you then no problem. I can see the flood being true story has the one poster pointed out that there are some evidene, and would probably explained grand canyon. But most evidence points out that the world took thousands of years for it to form the way we know it now, and it would make sence as God is myserious and would let things play out “naturally”.
 
This is a relatively new outlook that most “intelligent” catholics are assuming. If we return to our most trusted source the Douay Rheims
Most trusted source? Do you mean the arcane language and the mistranslations? The Douay Rheims is a translation of a translation; it can hardly be considered “most trusted.”
if the first 11 chapters of Genesis are figurative why should we not take the whole of scripture figurative.
Because not all of the Bible is meant to be taken either literally or figuratively. One could ask the question if snakes could speak in the beginning, then why can’t they speak now? The Church, in fact, teaches that some parts of the Bible are literal while others are not. Your position contradicts the position of the Church herself.
 
The Catholic Church teaches us that the Bible is not a historical or scientific set of books. It is a set of books that all have messages for us from God. There is no “proof” that Adam and Eve not Noah existed. With that said, absolutely nothing is impossible with God. In 11th grade religion class at a Catholic HS, it was shown geographically that a very large area of land around Turkey could have been flooded.

In every book of the Bible we need to look for God speaking to us - not a stack of facts.
 
This is a relatively new outlook that most “intelligent” catholics are assuming.
Because that is what the church teaches is ok - I guess “intelligent” catholics listen to the church.
…therefore if the first 11 chapters of Genesis are figurative why should we not take the whole of scripture figurative
The church dogmatically states that the bible is made up of many types of literary forms - some figurative - and even the catechism states that the creation stories use figurative language.
 
Good discussion points all. I guess I’m left wondering where do you draw the line between what is a story and what is fact. The book of Daniel is full of stories that I happen to believe actually occured, but there wouldn’t be any “evidence” to prove they occurred. Does a person need evidence, or do they more importantly need faith. It seems like a tricky line to walk to start dismissing some what seem important stories from the Bible. By the way, my wife and I used to teach an elementary sunday school class and we used the measurements from the bible to spray paint the dimensions of the ark on the grass so kids could get a feel for the size. We took those right from the bible. Seems like an awful lot of painstaking detail for “allegory”. Just a thought.
 
I am a recent convert to catholicism, and in a recent RCIA class the subject of Noah’s ark, and Adam and Eve just being stories came up. I was shocked to hear one of the sponsors suggest that the whole Noah’s Ark story was just that a story. What are other’s experience with this type of talk? I’m having a hard time finding official church teaching.
First, these two topics are brought up here often. It appears to me to remove God’s work from reality. To deny God’s ability to do things only God can do. This is selective denial. Jesus couldn’t walk on water, right? Or cleanse lepers or give sight to the blind, right? How about raising the dead? Was Jesus God?

Recently, Pope Benedict elevated a man to sainthood in England. Two miracles are required. That’s right. Two events that God can do, without technology.

Here is a good response to anyone who asks you about Adam and Eve:

catholic.com/library/Adam_Eve_and_Evolution.asp

The global flood of Noah finds support in stories held by ancient peoples.

God bless,
Ed
 
Good discussion points all. I guess I’m left wondering where do you draw the line between what is a story and what is fact. The book of Daniel is full of stories that I happen to believe actually occured, but there wouldn’t be any “evidence” to prove they occurred. Does a person need evidence, or do they more importantly need faith. It seems like a tricky line to walk to start dismissing some what seem important stories from the Bible. By the way, my wife and I used to teach an elementary sunday school class and we used the measurements from the bible to spray paint the dimensions of the ark on the grass so kids could get a feel for the size. We took those right from the bible. Seems like an awful lot of painstaking detail for “allegory”. Just a thought.
We understand the passages as to what the author intended to convey and what the Church has continuously understood them to mean.
 
One could ask the question if snakes could speak in the beginning, then why can’t they speak now?
Snakes have probably concluded that it’s just not worth talking to people these days. Why talk when you can bite?
 
I am a recent convert to catholicism, and in a recent RCIA class the subject of Noah’s ark, and Adam and Eve just being stories came up. I was shocked to hear one of the sponsors suggest that the whole Noah’s Ark story was just that a story. What are other’s experience with this type of talk? I’m having a hard time finding official church teaching.
When your civilization grows up on a flood plain, you tend to have folk stories about epic floods. Civilizations tend to spring up in places like that because the flooding rivers fertilize land used for crops. So universal stories of floods are hardly evidence of a Big Universal Noah-style Flood.

The Church does not require a belief in a literal ark, whether you do is a matter of conscience. So in debates over the ark, be sure to distinguish between someone who is asserting that the ark existed, as a matter of faith. There is no debating this. But a lot of ark believers make the mistake of asserting that it was physically a possibility, and that draws fire from everyone from marine architects to historians.

A literal Adam and Eve as first parents off all humanity, genetic bottlenecks notwithstanding, I understand to be required belief of your faith.
 
When your civilization grows up on a flood plain, you tend to have folk stories about epic floods. Civilizations tend to spring up in places like that because the flooding rivers fertilize land used for crops. So universal stories of floods are hardly evidence of a Big Universal Noah-style Flood.

The Church does not require a belief in a literal ark, whether you do is a matter of conscience. So in debates over the ark, be sure to distinguish between someone who is asserting that the ark existed, as a matter of faith. There is no debating this. But a lot of ark believers make the mistake of asserting that it was physically a possibility, and that draws fire from everyone from marine architects to historians.

A literal Adam and Eve as first parents off all humanity, genetic bottlenecks notwithstanding, I understand to be required belief of your faith.
500 Flood Legends from Around the World
 
So you really bealive the world was created in 24 hours? ".
Read the account carefully. It is decribing how things were created, not the process of how things were created.

There is a definite point in time when something that was not in existence becomes existent. We cannot live on an earth that isn’t here yet. Under the thousands of millions of billions of years theory, we would still waiting for the earth to be finished. That’s harder to believe than the one day described in Genesis.
 
Please beware of people who try to put you in the “faith is not real” category. Read your Bible. What did Paul tell the people? “If Christ be not raised your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” Got that? If Jesus did not ACTUALLY rise from the dead, you’ve got nothing. There’s no point for your faith if Jesus did not rise from the dead for real.

bible.cc/1_corinthians/15-17.htm

Who do you pray to? You pray to a person. A real person. The Same Jesus that will come again, bodily.

God bless,
Ed
 
Good discussion points all. I guess I’m left wondering where do you draw the line between what is a story and what is fact.
This is where you are erring. What is the purpose your “wondering”? Ultimately it should be to find God. We need to find God in everything. The stories were (and still are) used to relay a concept or message. Today, our ‘advanced’ minds have trouble seeing the message or concept in a story that is not “logical”. The important thing here is to know God created the world and man. Man was created to love and serve God. Also that anything is possible with God.
 
This is where you are erring. What is the purpose your “wondering”? Ultimately it should be to find God. We need to find God in everything. The stories were (and still are) used to relay a concept or message. Today, our ‘advanced’ minds have trouble seeing the message or concept in a story that is not “logical”. The important thing here is to know God created the world and man. Man was created to love and serve God. Also that anything is possible with God.
I do that without having to believe Noah built a wooden ship the size of a cruiser.
 
Please beware of people who try to put you in the “faith is not real” category. Read your Bible. What did Paul tell the people? “If Christ be not raised your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” Got that? If Jesus did not ACTUALLY rise from the dead, you’ve got nothing. There’s no point for your faith if Jesus did not rise from the dead for real.

bible.cc/1_corinthians/15-17.htm

Who do you pray to? You pray to a person. A real person. The Same Jesus that will come again, bodily.

God bless,
Ed
Who is trying to do this? No one is deniying the Christ ressurected from the dead, to deny this is to deny the central core of our beliefs. Noah’s ark,and the creation are not central compare to our Lord, but they are improtant, that is the meaning of the stories, and what God is explaining to us.
 
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