The "godly folk" never cease to give examples of their lunacy and extreme need to cling to mythical writings found within the Old Testament. Never mind that the authors of the myths are unknown and had a level of knowledge of science and the universe lower than that of most middle school students nowadays. Indoctrination - and I believe psychological problems - make it absolutely essential to these folks that nothing be allowed to challenge the fantasy world in which they live. One of the latest targets of their wrath is the movie Noah which is being condemned for not being sufficiently "biblical." It goes without saying that most of the hyperventilating "godly folk" do not know that the story of Noah is either (i) a complete myth or (ii) a regurgitation of older flood myths. A piece in Religion Dispatches looks at the possible real basis for the Noah myth. Here are excerpts:
Noah did its job. It brought an ancient biblical story about a cataclysmic flood to life for audiences today. Was it biblical? Was it the least biblical Bible movie ever made? These questions flare up in what is frankly a flat and over-rehearsed debate about the Bible in American life. Honestly, does it matter whether a movie is biblical? Do the spiritual-but-not-religious care? Do those evangelicals who grow tired of the stereotype made of them in the media care? Do secular liberals who have no use for the Bible really care about these questions?Long before the Bible was written, The Flood was a blockbuster of the ancient Mesopotamian and Mediterranean worlds. It originated in Sumer over 4000 years ago. New versions were deposited in the greatest imperial libraries of the Mesopotamian empires (Babylonia and Assyria). The Biblical authors fashioned their own versions of the tale, and post-biblical authors continued to ruminate on its potential for meaning-making. The Flood found its proper place in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and flood stories crop up in Hindu, American Indian, and African story-telling as well.The first known flood story comes from Sumer in the tale of Atra-hasis (19th century, BCE). This story sets the basic elements of the ancient genre: gods try to eradicate humanity, while a flood hero builds a boat to save the animals. A tragicomedy about polytheism starring petty gods who complain like tired parents annoyed by their noisy children. With plans to destroy a boisterous humanity, they are thwarted not once but three times by the flood hero’s personal god and eminent trickster, Enki. With each divine attempt at total genocide, Enki gives the flood hero secret knowledge about which god to appease with a sacrifice. This worked against the first two rounds of disease and drought. However, Enki had to get creative for the third and final attempt. For the deluge, Enki instructs the flood hero to build a boat for family and fauna.[T]he Epic of Gilgamesh shines a light on the flood hero’s excruciating experience. Dated somewhere between 1200-900 BCE, the Mesopotamian epic says little about the divine drama. We only hear that “the hearts of the gods were moved to inflict the flood.” The rest of the tale focuses on the flood hero, who builds an ark in a brave abandonment of his wealth: “tear down the house and build a boat; abandon wealth and seek living beings; spurn possessions and keep alive living beings.” He not only rescues his family and the animals from the deluge, he saves his workers, the craftsmen, who helped him build his boat. The moral suppleness of the flood hero crescendos with his first reaction to the post-flood world. Stepping into a sun beam, looking out the window of his ark, he sees that all humanity returned to clay, and with tears streaming down the lines of his face, he slumps down weeping.The biblical account owes much to the Gilgamesh version . . . While Islamic tradition focuses on the character of Noah, the Genesis Flood is entirely about God, about a new monotheistic construal of both divine judgment and the pro-human reversal of that judgment.The biblical Flood emphasizes the unique role humans played in corrupting the earth. In contrast, the post-biblical tradition of Enochic Judaism lays blame on a human civilization that was corrupted by supernatural forces. Society is shot through with war, industry, and vainglory, all of which were taught by fallen angels.If the story of Enoch’s Watchers cleanses society, the Hindu flood myth cleanses the mind. The ancient Hindu scriptures emphasize a novel feature of The Flood: enlightenment. In the Mahabharata (and later in the Puranas), the flood hero rides out the deluge in a boat with animals just like Noah.
One has to wonder how many of the cretins and spittle flecked preachers understand that the story of The Flood in the Bible is really just a recycled pagan story. As noted above, I truly cannot grasp the mindset of these folks who are so terrified of having to think and understand that there is uncertainty in life and in the world that cling to an invisible friend in the sky that, if a creator of the universe exists, bears no resemblance to reality. Once upon a time such ignorance could be excused given the lack of education and scientific knowledge. But in today's world this mindset represents nothing less than the deliberate embrace of ignorance.
