Was The story of Noah real?

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Of course it was! Haven’t you ever listened to Bill Cosby’s routine about Noah?

Absolutely hilarious, and family friendly.

Best line, “Noah, how long can you tread water?!”
 
Of which dogma is set apart as essential. Nothing about Noah’s Ark has been dogmatically defined (I dont think even at a lower level, like sententia probabilis). That seems clear that the Church does not require a literal reading.
 
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VanitasVanitatum said:
Why would God need a flood if he’s all powerful? (i.e. Is God less efficient than Thanos?)
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When your not feeling well the body reacts and tries to fight internally to the sickness. This is a typical reaction. When you do something wrong the soul reacts in the same way its affects outwardly. Everything corresponds with it.

Nature reacts the same way as if to repudiates the illness or the things that doesn’t belong. Nature is throwing out what it doesn’t need. If we talk about the cycle of seasons we know that they can be thrown off course. So nature was created by God an just like us has biorhythm. Much like humans nature has its resting periods (winter) and when nature begin life again. Interesting that everything works together as one! As the apostle paul said, 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time. 2

BIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS​

CONCEPT​

People frequently talk about body clocks, a term that refers to the patterns of energy and exhaustion, functioning and resting, and wakefulness and sleep that characterize everyday life. In fact, the concept of the body clock, or circadian rhythm, is part of a larger picture of biological cycles.

Nature during that era - was reacting, " for the earth is filled with lawlessness." God had designed creation perfectly! Read Genesis and then the fall of mankind. Noah was sent in response to father’s prayer, "This one will provide us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands, out of the very soil which Yhwh placed under a curse.”

Nature was under the punishment for the sin of Adam and Eve. This next verse should be taken internally (spiritually- when we sin) Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field .
Genesis 3:18

Again, Once God pronounced his curse, though, the ground—from which comes all material wealth and produce—turned uncooperative. Instead of man and nature united in productive labor, the situation became man versus nature, a competition for dominance. Now, man would have to use all his physical and mental powers to subdue the earth.
https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/2202/Curse-on-Ground.htm
 
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Neithan said:
Of which dogma is set apart as essential. Nothing about Noah’s Ark has been dogmatically defined (I dont think even at a lower level, like sententia probabilis). That seems clear that the Church does not require a literal reading.
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Matthew 24: 37 'As it was in Noah’s day, so [will] it be when the Son of [man]) comes.

38 For in those days before the Flood people were eating, drinking, taking wives, taking husbands, up to the day [Noah] went into the ark,

39 and they suspected nothing till the Flood came and swept them all away. This is what it [will be like when the Son of [man] comes.
 
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Christ taught with parables. Noah’s Ark could be like a parable. Christ also compared his Resurrection to Jonah and the Whale (Matthew 12:40). He is speaking to Jews about teachings and stories they are familiar with. We are not required to believe literally that Jonah survived inside a whale for three days and three nights. Also, Christ did not literally remain in the tomb for 72 hours. Real people, real events, figurative language to enhance the message of redemption for Jews.
 
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Neithan said:
Christ taught with parables. Noah’s Ark could be like a parable. Christ also compared his Resurrection to Jonah and the Whale (Matthew 12:14). He is speaking to Jews about teachings and stories they are familiar with. We are not required to believe literally that Jonah survived inside a whale for three days and three nights. Also, Christ did not literally remain in the tomb for that amount of time. Figurative language.
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Ahhh, it was just a parable…
 
Imagine being someone outside the Church, or even someone inside the Church, that did not accept the Flood as literal history. How is it you propose to square the circle? If I was thinking of becoming Catholic, and this Sola Scriptura notion that every word in the OT must have literally happened (a Global Flood so high it covered even the highest mountain, the sun frozen in place, the Earth only 6,000 years old, Jonah being swallowed by the whale, etc.) Is it actually true that you insist that I abandon everything that I know about reality otherwise risk not being a true convert?

St. Augustine warned against interpretations so foolish and deluded that it would bring scripture into discredit to the Unbeliever? Certainly the Church has long been rather pragmatic, and the few instances where it has stood against the wisdom of any given age has not ended well for the Church.

If your faith is reliant on literal interpretations of accounts of a Bronze Age people, then it does two things. First, it makes the Bible look ridiculous, and second it raises the question of why anyone should accept Christianity over, say, Hinduism. If one ancient text must be taken as literally true, then why not all?
 
There is overwhelming scientific evidence for a worldwide flood that occurred.
 
Sorry, I don’t have time. It is way beyond the scope of this forum. It is difficult and mostly involves geology and oceanography. You might start looking on the internet by looking up the guy who discovered the location of the Titanic. Here is one article , “Evidence Noah’s Biblical Flood Happened, Says Robert Ballard.” He discovered evidence for the flood, if I recall correctly, in the black sea. There have been several other scientific discoveries all over the world.
 
niceatheist said:
and the few instances where it has stood against the wisdom of any given age has not ended well for the Church.
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Yeah… because you know, the Church isn’t around any more… after continually standing against the “conventional wisdom” of this or that sinful age…

The Catholic Church has outlived every institution that has tried to get it to “get with the times” on this or that dogmatic teaching.

As for the realms of the sciences, there’s a reason the Church doesn’t make dogmatic proclamations on various scientific theories. That’s not her purpose.
Sundiver said:
There is overwhelming scientific evidence for a worldwide flood that occurred.
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Could you please reference this evidence? I’d be interested, as I personally believe that Genesis is recounting a devastating, but “local” flood, probably in connection to the end of the last ice age or some other massive geological event.
Sorry, I don’t have time. It is way beyond the scope of this forum. It is difficult and mostly involves geology and oceanography. You might start looking on the internet by looking up the guy who discovered the location of the Titanic. Here is one article , “Evidence Noah’s Biblical Flood Happened, Says Robert Ballard.” He discovered evidence for the flood, if I recall correctly, in the black sea. There have been several other scientific discoveries all over the world.
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"I’m not willing to support my claim, but here, you go look for the answers…’

I have a fondness for Dr. Ballard, as I was a big Titanic aficionado as a child. But to claim a worldwide flood from evidence from a single body of water is… well, I’ll go read the article first, but it seems like a bit of a leap.
 
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niceatheist said:
Imagine being someone outside the Church, or even someone inside the Church, that did not accept the Flood as literal history. How is it you propose to square the circle? If I was thinking of becoming Catholic, and this Sola Scriptura notion that every word in the OT must have literally happened (a Global Flood so high it covered even the highest mountain, the sun frozen in place, the Earth only 6,000 years old, Jonah being swallowed by the whale, etc.) Is it actually true that you insist that I abandon everything that I know about reality otherwise risk not being a true convert?
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Faith is taking a leap beyond and opening one’s heart and mind to God.

I figure it this way - If God could create the universe and time, He can control what is in it. If He wanted Jonah to survive the whale, I have no problem with it or the flood. Yes, these things bothered me at first as to what science was claiming. Remember, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. In the case of the flood both sides are looking at the same evidence and reasoning different conclusions. I have no problem letting Scripture enlighten me so I can discern more clearly.

I have looked at both sides claims. We know there was a catastrophic event that happened.

I was looking for a comprehensive view and found this.

[Evidence for a Global Flood and Its Importance for Our Times]​

 
We know there have been many catastrophic events, but none of them, on a global scale, was a flood. And I won’t surrender reason and, if I choose to believe in God, turn Him into little more than a magician.
 
The Church has changed mightily over its two thousand year history. It has hardly gone unscathed from various kinds of controversies, and Rome, at least, has learned the wisdom not to go head to head against science. It has chosen the wiser course of not setting Scripture up against science.
 
niceatheist said:
And I won’t surrender reason and, if I choose to believe in God, turn Him into little more than a magician.
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I won’t surrender reason either. What I recognize is human reasoning can be faulty. Science by its own definition is provisional.

My reason tells me that God can act in His Creation supernaturally. That does not make Him a magician. A magician creates illusions with intent to deceive. God cannot/willnot do that.

Imagine you are walking down the beach and see only left footprints at the edge of the water for as far as you can see. What should you conclude? Is a deceiver at work? Further down, you see the person who walked at the waters edge. He tells you why you see only left footprints.
 
Keep in mind the scientists who study the ark are going outside mainstream science and they are putting their credibility at risk. Many are independent researchers. You might want to look into creationist science.
Here is a Youtube video,“Noah’s Ark and the Flood with Dr. Georgia Purdom.”
I saw a video on the ark and nautical engineers did tests on a scale model of the ark and it was very stable on rough seas.
They have found seashells on mountain tops.

The more you research the more questions you will have. I will try to find some of the information I have studied and list it here.
 
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The analogy seems pretty half baked. Modern geology has existed for two centuries, and from its very inception, it has found far more plausible explanations for the locations of fossils, and signs of global and local events, than Genesis can provide. I am left simply with one conclusion; that the Noahaic Flood did not happen. There may very well have been a regional flood (possibly in Mesopotamia) that could have left its imprint on later Middle Eastern myths and legends, but no, there was no global flood. It’s simply impossible. If you’re just going to essentially invoke magic to make the physical impossibilities of the account for the lack of physical evidence, then you have left behind reason completely. What you say may be true, but at that point you set God up as a great deceiver.
 
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