"For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship,"
Author: Matthew 24 Verses #: 38
For years I was taught that Noah was able to save his family and all of creation on the earth in a 3 story boat from an earth destroying biblical flood and I believed it. I had a degree from a university, but I chose to not question reason and instead I believed the impossible. Why? Fear. Conformity. Acceptance in a group. I was well aware that religious groups do not approve of dissention. No one is allowed to question the authority of the bible, or the authority of the leader, or the authority of God, Jesus, and the biblical writers and prophets. Noah, if he existed at all was an ancient man, and the story is inspiring if you are Noah, but not if you are the rest of doomed mankind God chose to destroy. The bible loves to tell stories of men who believed and obeyed god against all the odds, but are they true? Could a billon or more species have survived a flood in a boat and repopulated every continent after Noah's flood? Of course not, but to doubt it is to ascribe to heresy and risk the condemnation of god and the church and who wants that? Questioning is strictly forbidden. Group think is the only approved discourse. In this verse Jesus is ascribing to the story of Noah and talking about Noah and telling his listeners that God is going to destroy the earth again someday. Jesus did not question the story of Noah but used it to remind his followers that god destroyed the earth once and he will do it again. New Testament readers are expected not to question the story of Noah and await a time when god destroys the world again and sends billions upon billions to an eternal hell of unending torture. Is a world destroying worldwide flood a provable fact? Could an ancient man spent 120 years building a boat that was capable of saving all of creation in a worldwide flood? I no longer have the faith to believe this story that is affirmed by Jesus and I am no longer awaiting doomsday. I do not understand why modern men need these ancient fables, nor do I understand why the god of hell and an apocolypse are appealing to the masses, but it took me 56 years to walk away from the fables, but they aren't going away anytime soon. Doomsday prophets are making a killing off their books like the "Left Behind" series. With america possessing enough weapons to destroy the earth a hundred times they might just get what they are wishing for! Boom! Doom! and Boom! It is now wihin mankind's grasp to end the world and blame god!
