Part 3: Is the Biblical Account of the Great Flood and Noah’s Ark True and Accurate?

This article concludes the review of Noah’s Arc and the Great flood story that has been reviewed under two previous articles on Ghanaweb. Readers are encouraged to comment and provide explanations or testable evidence to confirm or refute any questions raised in this review.

Chapter 8
We shall fast forward to verse 14

014 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. 015 And God spake unto Noah, saying, 016 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. 017 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. 018 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him: 019 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark. 020 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

COMMENT: OK, this makes no sense. So the animals (at least the clean ones) that survived the flood were then rounded up and sacrificed? So how did they survive and become fruitfull and multiply? Or the animals went forth from the arc and multiplied and then Noah re-collected one of each kind all over again but his time sacrificed them. But that is not what is says and makes no sense at all. Mind you by the time they came off the ark all edible vegetation had been destroyed so it is highly likely there was not enough food sources for them except for them to start attacking and eating each other as for example lions and crocodiles do all the time. But if that happened the numerous different animals would not have survived to this day.

021 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

COMMENT: What? The Lord smelled what? So god also eats the same food that humans eat? Else why would roasting meat smell good to him? This god is getting too human to be serious. Also here, there is a claim that all species were smited. That is false. The sea creatures were not included in the flood killings according to Chapter 6.

Also why is the imagination of man’s heart evil from his youth. Is this a design flaw by the omnipotent god when he created the first human? How come. Imagination has been the pillar of human advancement. Without imagination there would be no writing including the bible, no technology, no medicine, no water supply, no constant food and many more. Or is this referring to sexual acts? But without it we would not be able to propagate our species? So if a designer knows all this why can he not come up with a better design to eliminate the problems to begin with. If I was an engineer and I designed a vehicle and certain problems came up during testing would I simply eliminate the problem or come up with more and more unpassable tests and expect my vehicle to somehow pass the tests by itself?

022 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

COMMENT: Wrong. The New testament states clearly there will be an end to the world. Maybe this is why Judaism does not believe in afterlife and posit that the earth will exist forever. But anyway either they are all wrong. Modern cosmology tells us in a few billion years our sun will run out fuel and extinguish. Before it finally dies it will expand and contract. This process will bring the hot surface closer to earth and possibly consume it. If it does not the heat alone will kill all life as we know it. So actually the earth will not remaineth, and day and night will actually one day come to an end. It is interesting how an omniscient author appears to not have any knowledge of astrophysics. It is this same process that leads to elements heavier than helium to be forged in stars, scattered into the cosmos when the star dies and recombines with other scattered material to form new planets and their contents. That is exactly how our earth formed and exactly how all the different elements we see on earth came about for example carbon, the most important element necessary for life as we know it. Remember, not a single atom of carbon was formed in the big bang. None. It all came from stars.

Also there is no summer and winter in tropical regions of the world for example West Africa. So why is this statement being made? Is the bible representing some areas and not others? Is the bible tied to specific geographic regions? But this goes back to the question of why religions are consistent with geography? Arab areas and areas with high contact with Arabs over the years tend to be Islam, Europe and areas with ties to Europe such as US (migration), or Africa (colonialism) tend to be overwhelmingly Christian, but regions where there has been little interference from other cultures maintain their own age old ancestral beliefs for example India, China, or Japan. This is positive evidence that religions are man-made, based on geography, politics, and specific socio-economic circumstances in those places.

Chapter 9
We shall fast forward once again. The genealogy of Noah will be discussed in a separate essay.

008 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, 009 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; 010 And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. 011 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 012 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 013 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 014 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 015 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 016 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. 017 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

COMMENT: So this is the origin of the rainbow? False. Today we know the cause of rainbow. Isaac Newton demonstrated it in the 17th century. Light passing though a prism undergoes refraction and the constituent rays separate out because they travel at different speeds through the medium. They travel at different speeds because different colors have different wavelengths. When it rains the water droplets serve as the prism and the same effect occurs. Notice that rainbows are most visible only when the sun shines and it rains at the same time. So we see why. Also why is the rainbow always circular in nature? Yes because the earth itself is circular. How come this passage did not mention this and gave us a lesson in unfounded gibberish? Any secondary school science student knows this material so how can an omnipotent being be so illiterate?

So why is the author so weak in college level physics and yet claims divine inspiration? No it is not true. The account about the rainbow formation in Genesis is false and with no merit whatsoever. Rainbow does not represent any covenant with any deity, it is a purely natural process and will repeat regardless of how much we pray about it or attribute it to a repentant yet divine creator/ destroyer being. Next time I would suggest they get authors who have some education and understand the world for what it is and not based on blind faith. Because to have faith you don’t have to know anything. But to be factual and consistent you have to dedicate serious effort to education and research. It is interesting that the all knowing creator could not predict that at some point his book would be seen as illiterate statements by future generations.

As for the reasoning behind creating stuff, destroying it all because one species erred and then letting some of them survive only to be reprimanded over and over again in later books of the bible, I will leave that for another day. But the question remains, why can this omnipotent god simply not stamp out evil? But rather seems to be outwitted each time and come up with a new scheme which he already knows will fail. Is he not able to defeat evil or is he unwilling?

So to the original question of this post. Is the bible true and accurate? Well, from the passages reviewed today the bible is in serious trouble.

In my next post I will review the Book of Revelations and expose more fraud and drug-induced idiocy that some have taken as the literal words of the living creator being.

Peace and Love

kwaku ba © July 2010