Why Would Noah's Flood Have Been the Best Way for God to Cleanse the Earth?

[SkepticThinker]

There is a lot of faith within the spiritual path too. It is not just one thing, thats why it is so difficult to gain deep understanding.

That you dont find any sense in it is not something i can fix for you i can only speak from my own understanding (and i could be wrong)

No wonder faith is required - there is no logical sense to be made there.

In my opinion, faith is the excuse people give for believing things when they don't have a good reason. I.e. Faith is not a pathway to truth. Your response has confirmed that for me.

 

[David Davidovich]

Why is baptism by water the best and the most efficient way for God to cleanse us of our saturated evil?

Sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about.

 

[robocop (actually)]

Just disappearing all the dissident humans?

Tweaking the problematic neural pathways that generated man's rebellious nature?

But the flood story provides extra moral support to children.

 

[Valjean]

Faith is unjustified belief; belief without sufficient evidence.

 

[David Davidovich]

In any event, it didn't work. God is incompetent or corrupt.

Or, don't interpret the Bible literally.

But from what I understand, it did work as far as getting rid of the super strong and violent hybrid offspring of rebellious angels and beautiful earth women.

 

[Spirit of Light]

No wonder faith is required - there is no logical sense to be made there.

In my opinion, faith is the excuse people give for believing when they don't have a good reason. I.e. Faith is not a pathway to truth. Your response has confirmed that for me.

Ok, no problem

 

[David Davidovich]

His purpose was not to kill all humanity, just to suppress the excessive evils around at the time. imo
His purpose was to save as much of humanity as He could and the flood ended up being probably a necessary part of that so that a more righteous people might arise from which the Messiah would be born. imo

So, was that the best and most efficient way for God to suppress the excessive evils around at that time, considering that God's actions caused the earth to have excessive 'evil' weather, extremes at the north and south poles, and deserts that have extreme heat and cold and little water? And not to mention the supposed rearranged continents.

 

[SkepticThinker]

But the flood story provides extra moral support to children.

That reminds me of this Children's Illustrated Bible I used to have as a kid ...
The page with the flood on it used to scare the wits out of me because it featured a lovely illustration of a drowning woman holding a dead baby while a bunch of dead people swirled around all around them.
The message I got was God is a heinous murderer.
I still have that horrible picture in my mind, to this day, at the age of 42.
Some "extra moral support" I got out of it, eh?

 

[Wandering Monk]

Well, since it is believed that God is perfect and that all his ways are perfect, then that would dictate that the flood was the best way for God to cleanse the earth at that time.

And that doesn't sound a bit circular to you?

 

[David Davidovich]

It wasn't God that drown the entire earth, it was the Hebrew authors who were finalizing Genesis during the Babylonian captivity. In their attempt to trace their bloodlines back to the Adam of Mesopotamian lore, they encountered great difficulty with the genealogy So, they decided to drown the entire earth in its own wickedness. An authoritative line of decent for the priest class is what they established. They would have used a locally know flood legend and expanded it to encompass the entire know world.

That's interesting. So, do you have any references or documentation for that point of view?

As if the story isn't bad enough one might ask why God drown all the humans but kept the Satan creature alive to continue the corruption???

From what I understand, it was because God felt like he had to settle the questions raised about His rightful authority and sovereignty over the earth because of Satan's rebellion against God.

 

[robocop (actually)]

That reminds me of this Children's Illustrated Bible I used to have as a kid ...
The page with the flood on it used to scare the wits out of me because it featured a lovely illustration of a drowning woman holding a dead baby while a bunch of dead people swirled around all around them.
The message I got was God is a heinous murderer.
I still have that horrible picture in my mind, to this day, at the age of 42.
Some "extra moral support" I got out of it, eh?

Did you understand that the world had become wicked beyond repair?

That reminds me of this Children's Illustrated Bible I used to have as a kid ...
The page with the flood on it used to scare the wits out of me because it featured a lovely illustration of a drowning woman holding a dead baby while a bunch of dead people swirled around all around them.
The message I got was God is a heinous murderer.
I still have that horrible picture in my mind, to this day, at the age of 42.
Some "extra moral support" I got out of it, eh?

Did you understand that they were wicked beyond repair? Did you understand that God was a jealous God?

 

[Colt]

That's interesting. So, do you have any references or documentation for that point of view?



From what I understand, it was because God felt like he had to settle the questions raised about His rightful authority and sovereignty over the earth because of Satan's rebellion against God.

In terms of the dates of the completion of Genesis as well as dating the rest of the OT Dating the Bible - Wikipedia

 

[David Davidovich]

What would be a better way than the flood?

I've never been asked that question before, therefore, I'll try to brainstorm some other possible better ways:

1. He could have made the Nephilim (evil hybrid offspring) and the wicked humans dissolve away into smoke or nothingness.
2. He could have sucked the Nephilim and the wicked humans into an active volcano to get rid of them... That is, if there were volcanoes that existed at that time.
3. He could have made the Nephilim and the wicked humans drop dead on the face of the earth.

That's all that I could think of without becoming repetitive, but by doing something other than a flood, then that would have prevented the horrible weather that we often have on this planet and the extreme cold at the poles and the extreme heat and the lack water in the deserts.

 

[SkepticThinker]

Did you understand that the world had become wicked beyond repair?

So says the story. It was kinda hard for me to view a baby as something wicked though. How about you?

Did you understand that they were wicked beyond repair? Did you understand that God was a jealous God?

Perfect deities get jealous? That's weird. So this deity is not only a heinous murderer but he's also a jealous one. That sounds pretty consistent with the impression I got from that illustration.

 

[David Davidovich]

Just disappearing all the dissident humans?

Good answer.

Tweaking the problematic neural pathways that generated man's rebellious nature?

The only problem with that is that it would not have answered the questions raised as a result of humans rebelling against God, which is: Are God's ways and authority and sovereignty, the best way of living, or is rebelling against God just as legitimate?

 

[David Davidovich]

And that doesn't sound a bit circular to you?

Yes, it does, however, I was just answering someone else's question.

 

[robocop (actually)]

So says the story. It was kinda hard for me to view a baby as something wicked though. How about you?


Perfect deities get jealous? That's weird. So this deity is not only a heinous murderer but he's also a jealous one. That sounds pretty consistent with the impression I got from that illustration.

When I was young I thought the people were wicked and Noah tried to preach to them but they didn't listen so God helped him with the ark and saved him and his family and the animals.

I read in Torah commentary yesterday that it's better to anthropomorphize God than to make Him some subtle part of Physics. Jealosy, like any emotion I know of, can be good or bad.

 

[F1fan]

What didn't work?

Well if there’s a perfect God that made a perfect creation that went off the rails to a degree that God decided to flood the planet, something bad happened. And it indicates things aren’t perfect as claimed.

 

[Trailblazer]

What I wonder is, after ridding the world of a faulty model, why did he repopulate it with the same, unaltered model?
You know what they say about people who repeat acts hoping for different results...

Everyone who actually believes that God flooded the whole earth so He could start over please raise their hand.

 

[URAVIP2ME]

I've never been asked that question before, therefore, I'll try to brainstorm some other possible better ways:
1. He could have made the Nephilim (evil hybrid offspring) and the wicked humans dissolve away into smoke or nothingness.
2. He could have sucked the Nephilim and the wicked humans into an active volcano to get rid of them... That is, if there were volcanoes that existed at that time.
3. He could have made the Nephilim and the wicked humans drop dead on the face of the earth.
That's all that I could think of without becoming repetitive, but by doing something other than a flood, then that would have prevented the horrible weather that we often have on this planet and the extreme cold at the poles and the extreme heat and the lack water in the deserts.

First of all, I find Revelation 11:18 B says God will bring to ruin those ruining the Earth.
So, Man, Not God, is the one polluting the Earth ( includes highway litter bugs ).
Not another Flood, but the 'words from Jesus' mouth' will rid the Earth of the wicked - Isaiah 11:3-4; Rev. 19:14-15
Jesus will regulate weather phenomenon as he did at Mark 6:51; Mark 4:39
The deserts will blossom as described in Isaiah 35th chapter.
So, what we see today is temporary just until calendar Day One of Jesus' coming 1,000 year reign over Earth.