Here's something some people know, but many don't...
The bible takes many stories from pre-christian and pre-biblical eras and makes them their own, not unlike the common Remake in hollywood today.
Here are just SOME Deluge stories predating the bible:
Sumeria: 2150-2000 BC: God tells Ziusudra he is going to destory mankind, after which he will have to repopulate the earth. The flood lasts seven days. Tablets found have predated this story to as far back as 2900 BC.
Babylon: 1300-1000 BC: The Epic of Gilgamesh, where Utnapishtim tells gilgamesh the story of how he and his wife survived a great flood. In earlier versions, it started out as a river flood, but gradually changed into a great flood from the sea.
China: 700 BC: The Shujing describes emperor Yao tries to control the rivers of heaven, yet is unable. Da Yu steps in, and successfully fights the tides,which takes him 10 years, and later goes on to establish china's first dynasty. Nuwa helps to repair the heavens, and repopulate the earth.
India: 500-300 BC: Hindu Puranas account of the story of king Satyavrata, also known as Manu, who finds a fish when washing his hands in the river. The fish begs for his life to be spared, and the king obliges. The king puts him back into the ocean, and the fish warns of an impending flood a week away. The king builds a boat, and the fish tows it up to the highest mountain top along with other "seeds of life" to re-establish life on earth.
There are hundreds, and hundreds more stories from all around the world (And this is before a lot of cultures even knew of each other, let alone interacted and conversed. All of these stories lead archeologists to believe a great flood did in fact take place, spawning countless tales of flood myths, but most agree they weren't an on epic scale that actually flooded the entire earth.
With this evidence in light, it's fairly easy to see how any one story is merely a fictitious tale based off of real-life events.
Not to mention most ancient stories are simply tools of propaganda to cement and solidify the ruler of a kingdom as all-mighty and all-powerful and deserving to be in power.
And as for us evolving from apes...that's not quite right. We did NOT evolve FROM apes, monkeys, or any other primate walking today's earth. Most people who don't believe in evolution see pictures of monkeys and chimps, and say "How could we have come FROM THAT?!"
Comparisons of DNA show that our closest living relatives are the ape species of Africa, and most studies by geneticists show that chimpanzees and humans are more closely related to each other than either is to gorillas. However, it must be stressed that humans did not evolve from living chimpanzees. Rather, our species and chimpanzees are both the descendants of a common ancestor that was distinct from other African apes. This common ancestor is thought to have existed in the Pliocene between 5 and 8 million years ago, based on the estimated rates of genetic change. Both of our species have since undergone 5 to 8 million years of evolution after this split of the two lineages.
The split between apes and man happened roughly 5 - 8 million years ago.
Think of other species of animals. The best example I can give are Fish, Cats, and Dogs. How many different kinds of dogs are there? Cats? Only god himself could count the number of fish species there are...yet they all share similar DNA in their respective family tree.
It is also important I stress that Evolution DOES NOT equate to there being no God, or vice versa. I guess, however, it does rule out the creationary theory the earth was constructed in 7 days.
In closing, the bible is a great tool to learn from. It has the ability to make people nicer to each other, and gives people something to live for. However, it should not be taken literally. The bible has inspired many great things (such as art) yet it has also given mankind many tragic events, such as wars and inquisitions. There are two sides of every coin.
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