Spirituality Guide

by Seeker

As one looks into the past, over and over we find ‘religious’ views. The Ancients were like you and I, pragmatic people, quite capable of reasoning, (even if a lot of us don’t now indulge in the practice) and oriented towards survival. Why would they hold things spiritual so close to their lives? Was it really just a need for a security blanket or a wish to believe in fairy tales?

In the bible we have some rather mysterious stories – the Old Testament contains things that don’t sit easily within the Christian churches. We have people living for hundreds of years – Noah was supposed to be six hundred years old when he started to build the ark. There are giants, and strange beings who come down to Earth and find human women attractive and breed with them. And there’s the flood.

There’s a problem about the Flood – several actually. One is that there’s no evidence that, around the time Noah was supposed to be extant, there was anything like a flood that could be considered big enough to wipe out the known world – and let’s leave out the idea it was the whole physical world.

There is however, evidence of at least one flood and deluge event, and fairly good evidence of more, but the timing is wrong. These floods predate even the Sumerians – we’re talking about events that occurred because of the ending of the last Ice Age.

Another problem is that, across the world, many cultures talk about a flood and deluge event. For all of them it seems to have been a pivotal time. They tell in myth and history of how their civilization got its start after the Flood. Over and again there is a tale of strangers coming from the sea, teaching them the rudiments (and sometimes more) of how to live in a civilized way, and then leaving – usually back to the sea.

If the Noah story is so unique to the bible, (after all, God wiped out all mankind because of the evil in Men) then why do we find essentially the same story across the world? And in tribes and nations which have had literally no connection with the Middle East as far as we can show? And in tribes and nations which clearly predate that of the Hebrews?