# People raised Christian: what were you taught about Noah's Flood as a child? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 20, 2020, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700 "2020-01-20T13:57:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/61 "2020-01-21T07:08:15Z")
Okay, someone has to post this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4bc9UwZsYs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4bc9UwZsYs) ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/62 "2020-01-21T07:26:03Z")
P-Man: > [@](#): > > Are there any sects of Judaism that take the story literally? Definitely no one in the family I married into does (except for maybe the ones who became evangelical Christians). What about Orthodox Jews, or various Hasidic sects? Most Orthodox Jews do believe the Noah story (and all of Genesis) was meant literally, although there are some who have attempted to read some wiggle room for allegorical interpretation into classical Rabbinic sources, namely [Rabbi Natan Slifkin](https://www.amazon.com/Challenge-Creation-Encounter-Cosmology-Evolution/dp/9652295949). Unsurprisingly, he has come under fire from most Orthodox Rabbinic groups for this. Far from being blindly dogmatic, there have been written [some very learned and cogent rebuttals of this idea](https://www.amazon.com/Torah-Chazal-Science-Rabbi-Meiselman/dp/1600912435). That said, the idea that G-d hoped that people would repent and that Noah tried to convince them to but was rebuffed (i.e., the people were too stubborn) comes from a Midrash. But their having refused to repent, G-d certainly brought the flood deliberately to destroy them. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/63 "2020-01-21T13:51:44Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > That said, the idea that G-d hoped that people would repent and that Noah tried to convince them to but was rebuffed (i.e., the people were too stubborn) comes from a Midrash. But their having refused to repent, G-d certainly brought the flood deliberately to destroy them. Ah, so the OP “alternate take” is partly _reversed_ from a longer-held noncanonical version, where _ **first** _ Noah fights a losing battle to get people straightened out, and \*then \* the Big Guy says OK, that’ll be enough of this. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/64 "2020-01-21T15:09:08Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > He’s certainly not consistent. The people of Babel tried to build a tower a little to high and he confused their langauage and dispersed them throughout creation. > > Here we are building tall skyscrapers and flying to the Moon and not a peep from him. I can’t agree. Surely you don’t think Donald Trump ascendency is a coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/65 "2020-01-21T15:15:44Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > And it didn’t even work. Does this cat think _anything_ through? God never said it would _permanently_ rid the world of evil. It’s more like deciding that nothing in your weed-choked garden is worth saving so you spray the whole thing down with Round-Up. Sure, weeds will grow next season but you made a clean sweep of it for now. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/66 "2020-01-21T17:47:29Z")
> [@Esprise\_Me](#): > > I wasn’t exactly raised Christian but I did attend Sunday School (Presbyterian) for a few years. My memory, which may be inaccurate, is that we were taught that God caused the flood on purpose to wipe out everyone but Noah and his family, that the other people laughed at him for building an ark at first, but when the rains came they begged Noah to save them. Presumably he didn’t because that wasn’t God’s plan? Did anyone else get the version with that last detail? Mormon here - they told us that the neighbors scoffed while he was building it, and by the time the waters were rising enough to inspire them to change their minds about the boat the door was already shut and couldn’t be re-opened. Most pictures of the Ark I’ve seen have their entry be a giant opening right in the side of the boat, extending quite low on its side, which on reflection seems like a pretty stupid way to make a boat. So one can imagine that there would be a point when the ‘door’ was shut and couldn’t be opened - they’d have to _build it shut_, finishing the boat side and caulking and tarring and otherwise sealing it all so that water wouldn’t just pour in the giant hole and sink it instantly. Of course this didn’t explain why Noah didn’t just toss a rope over the side and let them climb up. Perhaps he was too tired after that last-moment fix of the boat’s terrible design. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/67 "2020-01-21T18:08:27Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > … > Anyway, I never heard anything about anyone being given the opportunity to get it together before drowning. I’ve heard this version of it, I think it’s from a movie or perhaps a TV show, that Noah tried to help others who laughed at him. Finally as Noah was on the ark and the population realized that Noah was right as the waters were rising, Noah shut the window on them and ignored there shots for mercy. With that said we have this: > [@2 Peter 2:5](#): > > if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; If Noah was preaching righteousness it is reasonable that he may have invited others on his ark once he knew what was going to happen. However: > [@Hebrews 11: 7](#): > > By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. This would seem to indicate that Noah perhaps did not offer a free world cruise to anyone but his immediate family. Interestingly it appears that Noah is being somehow blamed for condemning the world. Or at least hinting there had to be a man of faith remaining for this flood to happen. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/68 "2020-01-21T18:11:48Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > IIRC, there isn’t anywhere in Scripture that it is mentioned that anyone mocked Noah for building the Ark, or suddenly plead with him to let them into the boat once the water started hitting in earnest - that’s probably artistic license - but it is certainly what you would expect people to do in that situation. > … Yes it does not say that, but it does say that "By his faith he (Noah) condemned the world " which could mean people were pleading. (Heb 11:7) ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/69 "2020-01-21T18:14:53Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > What I found interesting about my friend’s story is that she was taught that God only foretold the deluge, rather than actively starting it. that lets God off the hook for genocide, but reduces God’s omnipotence sense, in this really sanitize version, God is unable to avert the catastrophe. Yes, sort of hard to biblically justify that one considering: > [@](#): > > Gen 6:6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” and > [@2 Peter 2:5](#): > > if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people And other places. Either you didn’t get the correct story or it seems to wildly contradict scripture to make a point one wishes to be true. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/70 "2020-01-21T18:39:43Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > Anyway, I never heard anything about anyone being given the opportunity to get it together before drowning. The version in [Atra-Hasis](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/104-106-the-epic-of-atrahasis/) mentions him talking to “elders”, “his people”, “his family”. It doesn’t say he went to other cities to try to pick up as many people as possible, but it doesn’t say he ditched any locals, either. ---
**Author:** ![bizerta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@bizerta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizerta)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/71 "2020-01-21T23:54:07Z")
I was taught that God’s actions were deliberate to rid the world of the evil humans. We were led to believe that that Yahweh was making the world a better place for the future. As an adult, I learned the following: > [@](#): > > The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. ? Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/72 "2020-01-22T00:28:51Z")
Not Christian, Jewish, but I might remind Skald who wrote the damn book. I never learned anything but that God did it. However, in Hebrew school the flood was not taught as history, which started with Abram. As for people making fun of Noah, that must have come from the Book of Cosby. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/73 "2020-01-22T00:53:27Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > As for people making fun of Noah, that must have come from the Book of Cosby. Right! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/74 "2020-01-22T02:12:17Z")
[aside] I just want to add how much I enjoy the gymnastics Young Earth Creationists subject their bodies to when reconciling the limited space on the Ark and their conviction that evolution does not exist. [/aside] ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/75 "2020-01-22T06:33:03Z")
The idea that Noah tried to get others on board had so permeated popular culture that, in the movie Evan Almighty (sequel to Bruce Almighty), the Noah parallel story had Evan save everyone in the town from a flood. He was ridiculed by the locals for building his arc, but he was repudiated in the end when the rains came and he had enough space for everyone. I never saw the more recent Noah movie, but I seem to remember that at least some of the complaints were that Noah was insistent that no one else be allowed aboard. It was considered important for “accuracy” for the righteous Noah to be offering to let them onboard until the end. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/76 "2020-01-22T06:37:45Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > [aside] I just want to add how much I enjoy the gymnastics Young Earth Creationists subject their bodies to when reconciling the limited space on the Ark and their conviction that evolution does not exist. [/aside] I’m confused here. How does evolution enable, or preclude, animals being put aboard the Ark? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/77 "2020-01-22T07:04:27Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I’m confused here. How does evolution enable, or preclude, animals being put aboard the Ark? It is not about animals getting put aboard the ark. It is that, considering the diversity of life today, evolution would have happened at double warp speed to turn the limited number of animals on the ark to all the animals we see today. Creationists will justify this by being “microevolution” which they are forced to acknowledge, but can’t explain how it happened so fast. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/78 "2020-01-22T12:50:51Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > [aside] I just want to add how much I enjoy the gymnastics Young Earth Creationists subject their bodies to when reconciling the limited space on the Ark and their conviction that evolution does not exist. [/aside] To be fair that’s how science works too. We have observed something find it provable and then have to do mental gymnastics to figure out how it might fit in. As such we have ‘cosmic inflation’ in science where things for a very short time get to go much faster then the current speed of light, which helps 'plains things along. The one I love is that the story of Noah was really a rescue by aliens and the arc was a spaceship used to transport Noah and terreform and starseed a different planet (our earth). This is also why life span was shortened, conditions of this planet or just the period of revolution of the earth around the sun is different) In some tellings Noah just thought he built a boat, others have Noah knowing it was a spaceship, and in a highly advanced civilization (but very corrupt), but the story was intentionally set for primitive society. Again the animals were what was needed for evolution to present day, and a animal kind was a set variety of animals that would help diversify things nicely. ---
**Author:** ![justanothermike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@justanothermike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justanothermike)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/79 "2020-01-22T13:31:09Z")
Both. I was taught that he tried to save them and then killed them because they didn’t listen to Noah’s outlandish claims of rain and flood and boats. But ultimately that god killed everyone by means a flood and that “evil” people were basically anyone not listening to Noah. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700/80 "2020-01-22T15:50:54Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > It is not about animals getting put aboard the ark. It is that, considering the diversity of life today, evolution would have happened at double warp speed to turn the limited number of animals on the ark to all the animals we see today. > Creationists will justify this by being “microevolution” which they are forced to acknowledge, but can’t explain how it happened so fast. Creationists [use](https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/11/18/the-science-of-antediluvian-plushies/) [baraminology](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Baraminology). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-raised-christian-what-were-you-taught-about-noahs-flood-as-a-child/846700.md?page=5)