Sai

Well, I do want to see him rationalize the fact that there was no flood with the bible saying that there was.

Like this one guy, he told me that there is no geological evidence simply because god cleaned up the mess, and sent all the extra water to Neptune, where it is a warning beacon to incoming evil angels.

Who could forget that? I want to see what IB says.

Johnny Skeptic

Yes, most fundamentalists can rationalize anything, but as you know, some of them give up Christianity because of logical arguments. In addition, converting a fundamentalist Christian into a moderate or liberal Christian is an improvement.

IBelieveInHymn

I've been a Christian for about 5 years, I'm still studying. I'm not too sure about the Global Flood yet. Some scholars claim the mountains hold clues to a global flood, and others say it was a local flood..

The Bible says the whole world was flooded, but the bible says "the whole world" to alot of issues. Like for instance, Jesus and Satan standing on top of the mountain, and they viewed 'all of the world's' Kingdoms. This verse could mean "the Kingdoms in Israel", which at that time was considered the Kingdoms of the world to the Jews.

graymouser

There's another thread about a book, called The Bible Unearthed, that is an excellent popular introduction to modern Biblical archaeology. It lays out what modern archaeology shows about the pre-exilic history of Israel - the short version is, not much of the stuff in the OT happened as described, at least for the pre-exile period. The most compelling evidence is the Exodus and the conquest of Canaan - both events that didn't happen like in the Bible. But that should be in another thread.

Sai

No geologist says that the mountains hold clues to a global flood.
No other "scholar" has a qualified opinion. So that is of zero value.

There is no evidence of a "local" flood that would qualify, either.

Supernatural beings could see anything anywhere they want.

The bible says all the animals were put in an ark and that there was a world wide flood, and only people and animals that were on the ark survived.

There were people in Australia and the Americas in those days. So
they would have to have all drowned or the story is false.

you cant find one detail of the story that is true.

Why is there no geological evidence that there was a flood, why did people and animals survive when the bible says they didnt?

Huon

Jesus and Satan standing on top of the mountain are not ordinary people with an ordinary eyesight. They can view all of the world's kingdoms...
There is no need to find a rational explanation, if the event is supernatural.

Dark Virtue

That explains a lot.

You do realize that there are those here, including me, that were Christians much longer than you have been and have done much more studying than you have. Right?

semiopen

There are no scholars that support a global flood, unless we each have a different understanding of what scholar means.

Everything in the bible before the Patriarchs has to be unhistorical; someone can believe this is historical without being confined to a mental institution but that isn't really a convincing argument for an inerrantist view to be considered the intellectual equal of a skeptical one.

It's also possible to twist the biblical verses into meanngs that in some context makes sense.

I mentioned previously in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Blondie (Clint Eastwood) says:

I submit this statement can be interpreted with the same profundity that you show with the Jesus/Satan/Mountain meaning.

Sai

I dont really see a reason to study ALL of it.

Pick up a book that is supposed to be all important facts, and the first thing you see is something impossible. Maybe its about how jet airplanes were used by the Union army to defeat the confederacy.

Who is going to read or trust the rest of the book? Who is going to believe anything it says after that.

The Noah story is very straightforward. And not a word of it could possibly be true.

Why study the rest of the book looking for something that IS true?

bacht

Well, we don't read Shakespeare to learn about geology or astronomy, and the Bible is the same. At its best there may be observations about human nature that can be helpful (not saying there is, just that reading either as textbooks is going to be unproductive)