Noah's Ark

When I was a little girl attending Sunday school the teachers loved talking about the story of Noah and the ark as they could hand out coloring booklets and we would color in the cute animals. This worked for a while but as I grew older I'd ask more questions like how did they get the pandas from India, the kangaroos from Australia, the llamas from South America, the bison from North America etc and then return them once the flood was over. They'd pat me on the head, shush me so I wouldn't cause others to question the legend and tell me I'd understand when I'm older.

A bit older I'd ask if, since at the end of the flood, there were only 8 people on the planet did that mean the Chinese, the Indians, the Native Americans, the aborigines, the Africans etc. were Jewish? Again with the head patting and the rest.

Finally, shortly before I declared I did not believe in god at age 10, it occurred to me that though a few were allegedly saved, the vast majority of innocent kittens and puppies and bunnies and babies and pregnant women drowned just because god was peeved at some people. Why couldn't he just strike them down himself? Why did the innocent have to die so horribly? So much for the sanctity of life.

Now that I am older I understand that the flood myth was a common legend in the Middle East with the earliest versions being the Eridu Genesis with a hero named Ziudsura and the Epic of Gilgamesh with a hero named Utnapishtim. Traders and conquerors probably made the stories common among the various peoples in the region. I have little doubt that at some point in the history of the Middle East there was a devastating flood but it was NOT a worldwide one as the fundies are trying to prove these days. It's ironic that the story they feel is one of the most valid is the one that basically drove me to non-belief.

It's also ironic as they search Mt Ararat for the remains of the ark that they apparently have not read their Bible which says that Noah's ark came to rest among the mountains of Ararat. I have this picture in my mind of them going over Mt Ararat inch by inch while on a nearby mountain some shepherd is caught out on a cold night and burns some wood he found to keep warm.