As someone who once aspired to the ministry and remains interested in matters of faith and religion, I was rather tickled to see that Noah’s Ark had once again been discovered. I am a columnist, and in a recent survey of the daily doom-scroll, I ran across the headline: “Archaeologists discover boat-shaped mound that could be NOAH’S ARK in Turkish ruins.”
My fellow writers have often dismissed the website offering the story as sketchy, but bless my soul, the armchair religious scholar in me could not help but click on it. Why? For the same reason that people indulged in “Ancient Aliens” or why I used to faithfully settle into my easy chair and tune in to “MonsterQuest” every week. I was not expecting to be edified but entertained for an hour. Think of it as mental Twinkies. No nutritional value, but plenty of fun. I was not disappointed to learn that archeologists had found a mound containing “clayey and marine materials and seafood.” I suppose the mound could be the ruins of Noah’s Ark. It could also be the remains of an ancient Turkish food truck.
Others claim that the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh contains a similar story of a flood and predates Genesis by centuries. Some people are quick to mention that the Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh has a similar flood story and predates Genesis.
For example, the killing of the dragon Tiamat. An example is the killing of the dragon Tiamat. The gods also had greed and hunger.
Genesis explains that God created the universe to bring order out of chaos. It was not a random act. God views the creation of humans and their union with the earth as “very good”. Utnapishtim arrives late to the action of the “Epic of Gilgamesh” and Gilgamesh hears the story of how the gods destroyed mankind because they were loud. This is like being at a neighbor’s party with stereo bass that keeps you awake until early morning.
This is a story that is not related to the Epic of Gilgamesh. We would shrug our shoulders and say, “Well, this is how it is.” The Genesis accounts of Creation and the Flood encourage us to think about our own lives, our relationships with God, and how we have failed to live up to our social agreements. Genesis is the answer to all of the questions that arise when anti-Semitism returns, Ohio votes to support abortion policies, and Megan Rapinoe claims that her injury proves there is no God. The age of the earth or whether there was an Ark are irrelevant.
