John the Non-Baptist

I think Noah's sons had signed those virginity pledge cards in high school.

Mageth

There are far more compelling reasons than the ones expressed in this thread that tell us the Noah story is a fable.

Nope.

We certainly do. We now live in a time and culture when continued belief in the literal truth of such myths is inexcusable. (Oddly enough, the belief among some in the necessity of the literal truth of such religious myths is a relatively recent phenomenon).

Doesn't matter, though, because the story is not true.

True. There's plenty of other indications from the story that tell us it's a myth; whether or not Noah had grandkids is merely a semi-interesting observation about the myth.

I find it interesting that you remind us above that "we are living in a different time and culture", yet here you make an argument that is based on the lifestyle of our current time and culture. "Waiting a while to have children to get settled in careers, make money and the like" is a modern, largely Western/American, cultural phenomenon. A goatherder/farmer from that time and culture, like one of Noah's sons, would find additional children useful, not a burden. I doubt Noah's sons were training up to be lawyers, physicians or politicians.

Magdlyn

What I want to know is, if most people back then got married and had kids at the onset of puberty, say age 13-18, what was wrong with Noah and his sons? How would it be possible to be alive for 500 yrs and only have 3 kids? Were they also ancient by that time?

500 yo Noah and his 480 yr old celibate sons mucking out the stalls of 10,000 animals for 100 days. Nice image.

JTurtle

Well if you say so, then it MUST be right!!

Okkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk, if you say so! Hi, this is me over HERE with my argument! :wave: What are you doing over THERE???

When I said, "Waiting a while to have children to get settled in careers, make money and the like", I thought it was clear that I was joking. Apparently not so clear.....but to sort that out, I was only joking! :thumbs:

Amlodhi

I think I once saw a TV show like that called "Bonanza".

Mageth

What I said is correct, but not just because I say so. And I'm not going to bother rehashing all the arguments against the Noah story being literal history and for the story being a myth; that's been done on many other threads.

As for the relatively recent phenomenon of the insistence on the necessity of the literal interpretation of Biblical myths like the Genesis creation and flood accounts by some sects of Christianity, I'll refer you to Karen Armstrong's book The Battle For God.

What argument did you provide for the truth of the Noah account, exactly? I didn't see one. Hint: "The Noah story may still be true even if Noah didn't have grandsons" isn't an "argument" in support of the historicity of the Flood account. And, BTW, I agree with that statement in principle; it's not the fact that the account doesn't mention Noah's grandkids that exposes the account as a myth; it's all the other claims it does make!

No, it was not clear that you were joking.

Too bad; what you're now claiming was a "joke" was the closest thing to an actual argument in your entire post.

Mageth

:notworthy

Asha'man

The other sons, daughters, and grandchildren all drowned by the thousands.

Oh, and you are missing a strange characteristic of the ancient Jews: their firstborn were always male. Somehow they could control their sperm to produce only boy children until sufficient heirs were produced, at which point useless girls could be generated.

funinspace

It's not false because one person says so, nor because 1 billion say so, it's false because it contradicts history, archeology, geology, and a dozen other *ologies. If you really believe it's true you can always jump in and address whats wrong with the logic/information in this thread:
http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=90188

So far ALL True Believers here have shied away from even attempting to addressing the obvious contradictions of the Genesis Flood verses historical reality...maybe you will venture where none of the faithful here have dared to go...but probably not if the pattern holds true...as I've said before, it sure appears as if the True Believers fear the truth :devil3:

spin

. . . We give you permission to screw our minds . . .