The book "Walking, Going Out, Scripture" written by Yun is really incisive. The following is a copy of Chapter 3 Noah's Ark.
Chapter III Noah's Ark
Since most ancient human civilizations originated from rivers and lakes, many of them suffered from floods, so many early civilizations had myths or legends about floods, such as China's myth of "Goddess mending the sky". Due to the backward transportation and geographical restrictions, the ancients thought that the whole world was only the size of the area where they lived, so whenever their homes were flooded by endless floods, they easily regarded it as God's anger and evil. But now some scholars have proved that there was a global flood in history according to irrelevant flood legends around the world, and claimed that it was the world flood described in Genesis.
/kloc-In the middle of the 9th century, when the archaeological team led by archaeologist Layard was excavating the ruins of the palace library in Nineveh, the capital of ancient Assyria, they found twelve large clay tablets, the contents of which were interpreted by experts as the Epic of Gilgamesh. Later, archaeologists found many clay tablets containing Gilgamesh's epic in different periods in different places, so that their contents can be explained more reliably [1]. To the surprise of the world, there are nearly 20 similarities between the Chaldean flood myth told in the epic and the great flood story told in Genesis:
Humans have too many children, no children, and excessive sexual life, so they have angered the gods.
So (many) gods decided to use the world flood to destroy all men, women, babies and all land animals and birds.
God chose just Noah or Ut-Napishtim.
God ordered the righteous to build multi-storey and square boats.
This boat should be coated with rosin.
The ship is divided into many small rooms.
This boat has only one door.
A ship must have at least one window.
In order to save lives, the ship should be loaded with honest people, other people and all kinds of land animals.
The flood caused by heavy rain flooded the land.
The great flood flooded the mountains.
After the flood receded, the Zhou Fang anchored on a mountain in the Middle East.
Every once in a while, Yi Nan sends a bird out to find out if the surrounding land has retreated. All the birds in front flew back, and the last one didn't come back, which proved that it had found the land where the water retreated.
When the righteous and their families landed, they killed God.
God loves the smell of burnt offerings.
God bless the righteous.
God regrets the recent extinction.
The earliest Sumerian version of Gilgamesh epic was written in 2000 BC or earlier, and it is considered as one of the oldest story records of mankind. The legend of the great flood in Historical Records may reflect the great flood in Mesopotamia around 2800 BC or the great flood in the Black Sea around 5500 BC. Most biblical scholars believe that the story of the great flood in The Story of the Great Flood was learned from Assyrians or Babylonians during their slavery, and was formed after adaptation. The mainstream religious school of Heaven also believes that; The story of the great flood is borrowed from the main content of the great flood myth in Gilgamesh epic [3].
First, two different versions of the story
Many people are always at a loss when they read the story about the great flood in the Old Testament, and feel that they can't connect before and after. Professor Richard E. Friedman told us in Who wrote the Bible that, like many other stories in the Bible, this story consists of two different versions. Gen 6: 5-8; 7∶ 1-5，7， 10， 12， 16b， 17-20，22-23； 8: 6, 8- 12, 13b, and 20-22 belong to one version, which comes from Yeh. He ... China sent us to introduce it earlier; The rest of the story belongs to another version, from the factions of God [4]. There are some repetitions and inconsistencies between the two versions, such as:
1. When did the flood spread on the ground?
In the first edition, the flood flooded the ground (7 ∶ 10) seven days after Noah's family entered the weekly release. However, the second edition said that on Noah's 600th birthday, that is, the day when his family entered Zhou Fang, the flood had already flooded the ground (7 ∶ 6, 1 1, 13).
2. How many animals did God command Noah to choose?
In the first edition, God ordered Noah: "All clean animals, you should bring seven males and seven females. You must take a male and a female with you for unclean animals. " (Answer 7: 2); In the second edition, God ordered him to say, "All living creatures, two of each kind, a male and a female, should be brought to the boat so that they can save their lives with you." (Gen 6: 19)
3. How long did the flood last?
The first edition was flooded for 40 days (7 ∶ 4, 12,17); The second version of the flood lasted 150 days (7 ∶11; 7∶24-8∶4)。
4. When did the ground dry?
On the first day of the first month of the first edition (8 ∶ 13), the water on the ground dried up; The second edition, available on the ground on February 27th (recorded at 8: 14).
(Reference: 1.2.3.4).
Second, is the Genesis Flood a historical fact?
According to the origin, rough writing form and contradictory contents of the mythical story of the Genesis Flood in the Bible, we can doubt its historical, historical and factual nature. The Encyclopedia of New Paradise, Christianity and Religion is being introduced; Flood theory: There is no scientific, geographical or historical evidence that a flood completely destroyed the civilization of ancient Mesopotamia, let alone the whole mankind [5]. However, many conservative Christian teachers are still preaching that the whole Bible is a historical fact, thinking that myth can be a part of history, or that history was once full of miracles. They will not hesitate to think that burning incense and worshiping Buddha is a mystery, and it is a historical fact. Oh. Hua likes to smell the burnt offering. They think that ancient snakes can talk, and Yahya once separated the Red Sea from the danger of Israel, but they can't explain why modern snakes no longer talk, and why Yahya no longer saves the victims of natural disasters.
(A) the story of modern Noah's Ark
On the evening of February 17, 2000, Luo Yamin was playing the computer game "List of Gods" in his study. Suddenly, Nezha suddenly jumped out of the screen and turned into a shining angel standing on his desk. Luo Yamin was too scared to move on the ground. Then I heard the angel say, "Don't be afraid of Yi Luo Yamin, I am sent by God, and God has an important will to convey to you." Luo Yamin nodded. The angel went on to say, "human beings are addicted to morality and material desires, and God is determined to give up these hopeless scum on earth." God thinks you are just, so you are forgiven. From now on, you should be ready to build a 10,000-ton spaceship. On this day in 2077, take your whole family, select 700 children, boys and girls, 7 pairs of seeds of animals and various plants, prepare 7 supercomputers containing all human knowledge and bring them into the spaceship. At that time, God will bury the whole life on earth in the flame of nuclear war. You should lead the spacecraft to land on the' Xinjushan' on Mars, where a new era of mankind will be restarted. Remember, it is very, very close to heaven. " With these words, the angel suddenly returned to the computer and returned to Nezha. It was a long time before Luo Yamin came to his senses, as if he had had a dream, but he swore that it was not an illusion.
Generally speaking, people won't believe Luo Yamin's story just because he promises. First of all, since the Enlightenment, no one has ever proved to have seen an angel. Secondly, at present, even many developed countries have no strength to send people into space. How is it possible with Luo Yamin's personal strength? What's more, it is to build a 10,000-ton spacecraft! Finally, most people don't believe that God wants to destroy mankind and all life on the earth with nuclear weapons. However, in the story of the Great Flood in the Old Testament, there are such incredible things.
(2) How did the Noah family make, build and operate a 10,000-ton ship?
The largest wooden boat recognized in human history is Zheng He's treasure ship of Ming Dynasty in China, and it is also the flagship of Zheng He's famous fleet of voyages to the West. The bag is about125m long and 50m wide (length 44cm, width18cm, height unknown), and comprehensive tenoning techniques such as shovel nails, shovel nails and leech nails are adopted [6]. At that time, the shipbuilding level in China was much higher than that in the West. Eighty-seven years after Zheng He's voyage to the West, the ship Columbus used to discover the new American continent was like the ratio of newly hatched chicks to big hens compared with Zheng He's treasure ship. Noah's Ark recorded in the Bible is about 150m long, 25m wide and 15m high, and its plane size is 60% of Zheng He's treasure ship. More than 4000 years ago, it was a hundred times more difficult to build such a big ship than a modern man-made aircraft carrier. How can Noah achieve it alone?
Even if Noah built a square boat, could his family of eight open it? According to the Travel Notes of Marco Polo, it takes 200 to 300 sailors to sail a big ship in Yuan Dynasty, and three sailors to row a paddle more than ten meters long. So it is impossible for Noah's family to push and control a big ship full of animals and with a displacement of nearly 10,000 tons.
According to the Bible, after they entered Zhou Fang, no one was in charge of steering and rowing, but Zhou Fang was completely allowed to drift in the flood 150 days, and finally docked at alala Mountain (a record 8: 3-4). Zhou Fang wandered blindly in the huge flood for nearly half a year, but still stayed near the original starting point, that is, the Middle East.
(3) How did the Noah family arrange countless animals?
According to dаVid m. Raup, a famous paleontologist and academician of the American Academy of Sciences, in his book "Species Extinction-Bad Genes or Bad Luck", there used to be 5-50 billion species on the earth, but at present there are only about 40 million species left on the earth, that is to say, only about one thousandth of species still live on land [7]. According to Maldi, an entomologist, and Dr. Michael S. Engel, a paleontologist, entomologist and curator of the American Museum of Natural History, in the book Evolution of Insects, there are at least 5 million species of insects on the earth [8]. According to these data, we conservatively estimate that there are at least 654.38 billion kinds of animals on the earth. It took biologists all over the world centuries to name about 6.5438+0.5 million animals, so how could Noah know all kinds of animals in the world more than 4,000 years ago? However, from; Judging from the records, God ordered Noah to choose a male and a female from all kinds of animals to board the ship. Tairen Gu Yu knew nothing about asexual animals and social animals. Besides, how did Noah collect and transport all kinds of animals from all over the world to the Middle East in a short time? According to; It is recorded that they put all the animals on the boat on the day of the flood, that is to say, even if they don't eat or sleep, everyone must put an animal in 0.04 seconds. However, even if they are allowed to walk back and forth from the square boat more than ten meters high empty-handed, it will take at least a few minutes.
In addition, the size of Noah's Ark alone cannot provide basic living space for 654.38 billion species of animals. As we all know, many animals have very high requirements for the environment and food. For example, giant pandas in China only eat bamboo. Penguins and polar bears only live in extremely cold areas; If the relative humidity of the environment is less than 100%, some terrestrial insects may die because of water loss. Animals such as ants and bees depend on social groups to survive, and so on. Obviously, Noah and others could not provide these basic conditions for such animals.
There are many animals that only live on certain land. After the flood subsided, how did they cross the ocean and return to their original land? For example, due to the high mountains and high water risks, it took hundreds of thousands of years for early human beings to migrate to all parts of the world, but how could earthworms and snails climb all the way from the top of Ararat to all parts of the world in a few thousand years?
(4) party. How can a ship dock at Mount alala?
In order to drown all the animals on the land, the flood flooded all the mountains in the world (7∶ 19). 150 days later, the flood began to subside, and Zhou Fang stopped at alala Mountain, from which it can be concluded that the height of alala Mountain should be close to that of the highest mountain in the world. At present, the highest mountain in the world is Mount Everest in the Himalayas. According to the survey of scientists in China in 2005, its altitude is 8848 meters, while the current height of Mount alala is about 5000 meters.
Scientists pointed out that about 60 million years ago, the Indian plate drifted northward and collided with the Eurasian plate, and the Indian plate was later inserted into the mantle. The Indian mainland is wedged under western Tibet. Because its northward movement was blocked by western Tibet, it slowly squeezed, squeezed and lifted western Tibet, forming the Himalayas [9]. At present, the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate are still squeezing each other at a speed of 5. Mount Everest is still increasing by about 1.27 cm [10] every year.
We can reasonably guess that in the past 5000 years, the Himalayas basically grew at this extremely slow speed. It can be estimated that during the legendary Noah flood, the height of Mount Qomolangma will not be more than 200 meters different from the present height. At the same time, there is no evidence that there has been a fierce geological collapse in Mount Ararat in Turkey in the past 5000 years, so we can be sure that Mount Ararat at that time was as low as it is now, at least several thousand meters lower than Mount Everest at that time. Then when the flood began to subside, the peak where Noah's boat docked could not be Mount Ararat.
(5) How to increase the amount of water on the earth several times?
If the flood was higher than Mount Everest at that time, according to the calculation, the amount of water added by the flood to the earth is about 3.3 times of the total water of the earth and the ocean now. According to Genesis 7: 12, it rained heavily for 40 days and nights. In other words, for nearly a month and a half, the global average hourly rainfall reached 9.2 meters, which was really turned upside down. So, where did so much water come from and where did it disappear?
Genesis 7: 1 1 says, "When Noah was six hundred years old, on February 17th, all the fountains in the abyss were cracked, and all the windows in the sky were opened." . However, as we all know, there is no skylight in the sky. Rain falls from clouds, which are formed by evaporation of water on the surface of the earth. "Great depth" refers to the sea, but there is no huge "spring" under the sea floor.
Scientists have a more detailed understanding of the internal structure and composition of the earth by using the comprehensive research results of land, seismic waves, geological drilling, volcanic sampling, high temperature high voltage test, cosmic dust composition analysis, geomagnetic field and celestial gravity. The earth consists of three layers: the top layer is called the crust, which is mainly composed of calcium, sodium and aluminosilicate; The middle layer is called mantle, which is mainly composed of magnesium, iron, aluminum, silicon, oxygen and other elements. Its bottom layer is solid, and it slowly turns into gel. The innermost layer is called the core, and its center is mainly solid iron with extremely high pressure. About 90% of its outer layer is molten iron, and the rest is mainly molten sulfur (see Figure 3). Obviously, there is not a lot of hydrogen under the earth's crust, so there can't be a lot of water.
(Figure 3. The outline of the earth's internal structure and composition)
What effect will such a high flood have on plants on the ground and creatures in lakes and oceans? Friends who like to grow flowers must know that some flowers and plants are very delicate, and they are easy to die because of careless watering or insufficient sunshine. Under the water pressure of 8848 meters high, plants on the ground can hardly survive if they are immersed in salt water for half a year without sunlight and air. Without these plants, animals and people preserved on the square boat would not survive because they could not find food. Freshwater fish in lakes and rivers will also die because of seawater intrusion. At present, the deepest ocean record of fish is 8370 meters, so once the water level of 8848 meters is increased on the earth, most animals in the ocean will escape from their original living space because of pressure and light, and many will become extinct because they can't find food. Many plants under the sea floor will also die because of great pressure. However, all this is not what the God in the Bible wants to do (he just wants to destroy all land animals), and it is not in line with the actual situation we have seen so far.
(6) Why should modern myths and ancient myths be treated differently?
Few people will believe in the modern Luo Yamin myth, but why do many people firmly believe in the more absurd myth in the Bible? Stories like "Three Men Become a Tiger" and "The Emperor's New Clothes" are familiar to everyone. They vividly explain to the world that as long as something that doesn't exist is repeatedly spread to the world, many people will eventually take it as a fact. This is the so-called Goebbels law: a lie, repeated a thousand times, becomes the truth. If governments all over the world, governments all over the world and major media keep making positive reports and propaganda on Luo Yamin's modern myths, and find some people to "testify", thousands of people will definitely believe it. After a long period of media publicity, many people have believed that there are aliens in the mysterious military base in the 5 1 area of the United States, which is a good example.
In fact, several religions in the world have flourished with the strong support of ancient rulers. Many devout believers began to instill their beliefs and beliefs into their children before their minds were open and they lacked the ability to judge right and wrong independently. Thus, faith and belief, like the genetic function of genes, continue to burn incense from generation to generation. Some religions with strong civilizations rely on their strong political, political and economic strength to expand to weak civilizations and groups through various means. In history, some religions have developed the function of fear, and even bound their followers with usage, laws and social norms, so that believers can't doubt any teachings taught by religions and even worship blindly. From this point of view, it is not easy for a person to remain independent and establish objective judgment without external interference.
(Reference: 5.6.7.8.9. 10).
Third, a lot of disproof.
Traditionally, according to the calculation of James Arthur, the Irish Catholic Church in17th century, the Christian Church set the age of the Great Flood in 2349 BC. It stands to reason that archaeologists all over the world should find a lot of evidence of this important event, so as to scientifically determine its exact age. However, the fact is disappointing-scientists have found countless contrary evidence that such a global flood has never happened, such as:
1. Up to now, there are a large number of freshwater fish and a wide variety of terrestrial plants living on the earth.
2. The annual record of the ice core in Greenland, Denmark can be traced back to 40,000 years ago, but there is no trace of being interrupted by the global flood [1 1].
Conservative Christian educators believe that all the stratigraphic fossils discovered by scientists all over the world were formed in Noah's flood. For example, many species like dinosaurs died out in the flood, but the following facts prove them wrong:
Only human fossils or tools used by human beings were found on the top floor, and no fossils mixed with dinosaurs or other ancient creatures (such as trilobites) were found on the bottom floor. Floods cannot be stratified by class.
Most of the bottom layers are fossils of tiny paleontology. If they were formed in floods, they should be deposited in the upper layer according to the principle of buoyancy.
A large number of fossils, such as footprints, water droplets, water waves, soil, beaches, etc., which could not be formed in floods were found.
In New Jersey, USA, there is a 4-mile-thick accumulation layer gradually formed in 30 million years, and the arrangement of rock layers is very continuous and orderly. This is definitely not a big flood [12].
The geological ages around the world are very consistent. Many countries or companies look for oil according to paleogeological age. No country or company is looking for oil according to the story of the flood in the Old Testament, because the biological remains produced by the flood more than 4,000 years ago cannot form oil.
However, in the past few decades, it has been reported that Noah Zhou Fang was found in the Turkish Mount Ararat, among which the following influential examples:
1993 According to the information provided by Sun International Pictures, CBS broadcasted a documentary called Noah's Ark-An Incredible Discovery in its entertainment program, announcing the discovery of Noah's Ark in Mount Ararat, Turkey. But it turns out that the plan is based entirely on evidence forged by George Jamal. George Gamo himself exposed his cheating at the FFRF meeting.
1960, American Life magazine sent a group of experts to Dou Bayazet in eastern Turkey to investigate the rock structure of a ship. Some people claim that this is a Noah's Ark. They gave up soon because they didn't find any reliable evidence. Since 1⑨85, dаVid Fasold has re-studied this site. At first, he was convinced that this ship-shaped geological structure was Noah's ship. Later, due to too many doubts, he invited the geologist Lorence Gene Collins to help. Collins has made metallographic and chemical analysis of various parts of this geological structure, which proves that it is purely the natural formation of various rocks and minerals, and explains its formation process according to the surrounding geological structure. Collins also found that this rock structure is 50% wider than the square boat described in the Bible, and its shape is not square. No fossils of wood and food were found next to it, and the location was inconsistent with that described in the Bible, and there were no traces left by the flood around it. He also found that some so-called "anchor rocks" distributed nearby are very close to the local volcanic rocks, so they are probably made of local materials earlier [14].
To be sure, if someone proves the discovery of Noah Zhou Fang, it will be the most sensational archaeological discovery in the world in this century, and it was reported by scientific authorities such as Nature, so don't believe some unfounded reports.
(Reference:11.12.13.14).
4. Is Noah the ancestor of China?
According to the record of Genesis flood in the Bible, Noah naturally became the ancestor of modern human beings. Some people say that China people are descendants of Noah's son Shem, and others say that they are descendants of his other son Japheth, but these are speculations made out of nothing, because in the Bible, China people do not exist-just like a nation completely forgotten by God. In the Old Testament, Ye and Hua always made a wish to their loved ones, hoping that their descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the earth. On today's earth, China people are the most prosperous, but the inheritance of China people cannot be recorded in the Bible. On the other hand, Jews are sparsely populated, but their inheritance is clearly described in the Bible.
Therefore, some people at home and abroad want to find evidence in their own historical documents. But up to now, their attempts have been very unsuccessful, and the so-called evidence presented is mostly patchwork and far-fetched words. For example, the word "equal" in Tian Wen is interpreted as Adam, "thought" in Lao Zi is interpreted as Ye Hehua, and Nu Wa is interpreted as Eve or Noah. Obviously, all this is unconvincing, but finally there is a word that makes them feel very well-founded and weighty, and that is the word "boat" which is widely circulated among believers in China. They interpreted it as "a boat with eight mouths", which means Noah's family with eight mouths, which proves the existence of Noah's flood and our ancestors created the word "boat" according to the story of Noah Zhou Fang.
"Boat" is a unique and complete word, from which "boat" is derived. Like "lead" and "edge", the right part of "ship" is only a sound, and the "eight" in it is evolved from the strokes of "two waters" instead of the meaning of "eight". Shuowen Zhoubu says that "a boat is also a boat", and the paragraph notes that "the ancients said a boat, and the Han people said a boat". "Ship" has appeared in Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Ruins, but it does not exist in Laozi and Thirteen Classics. Confucius was the first educator in China. At that time, he could be called a master of ancient and modern times, but he never used the word "boat". Obviously, "boat plus eight" is just another word-splitting game.
The myth of the great flood before the history of China mainly said: * * hit Tianzhu, and the sky suddenly collapsed, and the Tianhe River poured down, leading to the great flood in the world. Nu Wa sympathizes with human sufferings and melts colored stones to make up the sky. This is a far cry from the story of the great flood in the Bible, which ignores human life. There is no shadow of Zhou Fang in the story. Nu Wa and Noah are also different: one is a woman and the other is a man; One is the god who created man from above, and the other is the ordinary people who shut themselves up with animals until the flood subsides.
During the Great Flood recorded in the Bible (estimated by James Arthur, about 2349 BC), China was in the archaeological period of Longshan culture (about 2500-2000 BC, the legendary Emperor Yan and the Yellow Emperor were in this period). Longshan culture inherited Yangshao culture (about 4800-2500 BC) and Dawenkou culture (about 4300-2400 BC), and started Erlitou culture (about 2000- 1600 BC, equivalent to the legendary Xia Dynasty established by Dayu), which is an important period for the formation of Chinese civilization. The ancient cultural sites bearing this thousand-year history are scattered in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the vast areas of the Huaihe River Basin. Unearthed precious cultural relics emerge one after another, clearly reappearing the complex relationship and changing route of various cultures at that time, but there is no sign that the formation of the whole Chinese civilization was destroyed or interrupted by a disastrous flood. For example, Professor Cai, a famous archaeologist, pointed out in the article "Descriptive symbols in ancient times and the origin of Chinese characters" that from Peiligang culture (in the early Yangshao culture, about 7000-5000 BC, when Fu was a legend) to the Han and Wei dynasties, common characters, descriptive symbols, graphic characters and characters were widely distributed in ancient China. Most of these symbols and characters are unique. They were immediately cast in the special position of vessels (or inscriptions) to reflect the image of the Eight Diagrams, which is the product and reflection of the custom of "making vessels and respecting images" of China people and China ancestors [15].
Chinese people all over the world agree that they are descendants of the dragon in the cultural sense, and other nations and ethnic groups in the world also respect our cultural traditions. However, if someone claims that the people and ethnic groups in China are the descendants of dragons in history and other ethnic groups are descendants of barbarians according to the records in the Book of Changes, The Classic of Mountains and Seas, it will definitely make people laugh. By the same token, ancient Jews thought they had a special contractual relationship with God, and we also respected their cultural traditions. However, if someone insists on the basis of the Bible, claiming that Jews are indeed God's voters, while China, the nation and many others are second-class citizens who can be ignored and forgotten before God, is this equally absurd?
(Reference: 15. Omitted)
Verb (abbreviation for verb) "perfect" Noah's "imperfect" God
According to the description in the Bible, there is a vast sea of people in the world, but only Noah was a completely righteous man at that time (Gen. 6: 8-9). But according to Christianity, since our ancestors stole the forbidden fruit (committed "original sin"), human beings are no longer perfect, and God severely punished human beings for this, which shows that God has accepted the established fact that "human beings are no longer perfect". How can Noah be perfect? Why does God demand or hope that human beings are perfect? In order to "save" imperfect human beings, God almost wiped out human beings. However, God's chosen "perfect" Noah and his descendants eventually went to ruin. So, is it meaningless for God to implement flood extinction?
Newborn babies or unborn fetuses, besides Noah's so-called "original sin", are of course more pure and innocent than Noah. Jesus also said, "Anyone who wants to inherit the kingdom of God can never enter it unless he is like a child." (Ke 10: 15) So, why did they suffer this fate? At present, on the one hand, some churches resolutely oppose abortion regardless of specific circumstances, on the other hand, they defend the killing of babies and fetuses in the Genesis flood, which is obviously unfounded.
Humans have fallen, but innocent animals have been hurt, even the lambs of that generation. When preying on weak animals, sharks are as bloody, fierce and disabled as jackals, but God prefers and "forgives" all marine animals.
Therefore, the legend of the Genesis Flood in the Old Testament inevitably gives people the impression that "imperfect" God chose "perfect" Noah to carry out an "imperfect" plan. As a result, the rescued human beings are getting farther and farther away from "perfection"-more than 2,000 years after the flood of creation, God wants to save human beings again, so he let his son come into the world!