Noah and the Ark

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by pelathais

Just my humble opinion. Sorry to be so feisty, too. You're a good guy. Gotta check my meds, as they say.

You're alright with me Pel, this is a great conversation.

This is actually the same pic as the other... in a way. The "Hebrew Cosmology" pic has the stars, planets, sun and moon all on the "dome" of the sky. Beyond that was the watery abyss.

This picture takes into account the fact that we've discovered the stars to actually be a bit too massive to fit upon the "dome" and so the artist has simply backed everything away by a factor of who knows how many millions.

Amen.

The problem that I see here is trying to get the water from "the waters above" and onto the surface of the earth.

I was thinking the same thing. I came up with an idea, but it's a bit on the wild side. lol I'm going to consider theoretical quantum physics or more accurately hyperspace physics (personally I know very little about this stuff lol). The idea is that space and time can bend... or be bent. The Bible describes the "windows of heaven". The ancients believed these "windows" to be literal "windows" in the firmament. However, what if these "windows" were "openings" wherein space and time were "bent" to allow waters from above the firmament to enter our atmosphere without actually traveling the distance necessary to traverse the known universe to earth? I'm not sure of how much pressure the waters above the firmament are under, but in my mind I pictured a "window" opening transdimensionally high in our atmosphere through which these "waters" entered our atmosphere. I also don't know the form of these "waters". Are the waters above the firmament liquid, solid (ice), or gas (water vapor)? I imagined water vapor. Perhaps these "windows" were the size of an 8.5 X 11 sheet of paper or perhaps the size of your typical bedroom window. When these transdimensional "windows" were "opened" in the heavens the vapor from beyond the firmament poored forth into our atmosphere setting into motion atmospheric conditions leading to massive rains throughout our world. I know it's a wild notion... but God can do anything.

Then we'd have to find some way to accelerate the water up off the earth's surface after the flood.

That's assuming that water levels were what they are now before the flood. What if the oceans and seas were lower before Noah? The flood being on the earth a little over a year would have caused masssive glaciation. We see this geologically. As the waters receded to back below the earth's surface (fountains of the deep) the flood waters subsided to some degree. However water levels were still hightened and the glaciers began to melt and we're still witnessing this. This would imply that perhaps flood waters are still upon our world in the form of the oceans we know today. However, if there were need for a greater explaination the same "windows" could essentially open lower upon the earth and serve as "drains" for a sigificant amount of the flood waters, returning them to beyond the firmament.

Just theorizing in a wild way here. lol

The simplest solution is still to just accept the Bible for what it does say and not to try and force a literal interpretation on Genesis 1 through 11.

Accepting the Bible for what it does say is taking it literally.