Reply #39: This is so dumb dumb dumb

[hedgehog]

and if you're a believer, misses the point of the story. Of course the Hebrew Scriptures and other cultures all have flood stories. The important point isn't the Ark but the interplay between God and Noah. For example, at the end, God promises never again to drown all of mankind. That's kind of comforting given the state of the weather these days! (By the way, Noah isn't really a very good guy. He follows God's orders without a single argument and lets everyone else drown. Abraham on the other hand, bargained for the lives of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.)

On a more rational basis, I go with recent studies tying the story of the flood to the collapse of an ice dam in the Mediterranean Sea (?) that allowed a huge flow of water into the Black Sea flooding out early agricultural settlements at the end of the last Ice Age. Apparently the flow of water through the Bosporus still echoes this event and the archeology is fascinating.