When Literalists have to literally lie to sell their literal truth (AKA Adventures in Ark-itecture)

[Tom Sawyer]

ETA: Currently, the Y Chromosomal common ancestor (commonly called 'Adam') is estimated to have lived between 200,000-300,000 years ago. If the flood story is true, we should call that guy 'Noah' instead.

That makes absolutely no sense. There were no unicorns 200,000 years ago. What are you suggesting that Noah ate on the Ark?

Your story falls apart pretty quickly, dude.

 

[Atheos]

In what way does not believing in the Ark cause the whole thing to unravel?

Frankly, I find the idea that 'God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son to save it,' incompatable with the idea 'God was so disgusted with the world, he drowned everyone except for eight people.'

And another thing: If the entire human race is descended from Noah, around 4,000 years ago wouldn't there only be one single version of the Y-chromosome? Noah's sons would all have his Y. All other human Y chromosomes would have ceased to exist. There would have been one Y and eight X chromosome versions. You would think that would be a testable way to prove (or disprove) the flood, comparing the diversity of the X and Y chromosomes.

ETA: Currently, the Y Chromosomal common ancestor (commonly called 'Adam') is estimated to have lived between 200,000-300,000 years ago. If the flood story is true, we should call that guy 'Noah' instead.

Yeah, but while "Mitochondrial Noah" may work, Mitochondrial Noah's Unnamed Wife" just doesn't have quite the panache we're looking for.

 

[Sarpedon]

The Y chromosome is the male thing. Mitochondrially, there'd be three lines, from each of the unnamed wives of Noah's sons. Noah's wife would not pass down her mitochondria, it would have died with her sons.

 

[Atheos]

Good point. That bottleneck would have to go back to the most recent common female ancestor of those three unnamed wives. Would be genetically convenient if the three bros had married triplets.

Good thing these women were all righteous enough to make the cut. Being as they were all raised in environments where every thought of the imagination of each of their hearts was only evil continually.

 

[Sarpedon]

Obviously, since God drowned the world to destroy evil and sin, but evil and sin still exist anyway, obviously the wives must have been the vector by which evil and sin survived. Because it couldn't have been the men.

 

[funinspace]

It seems that the Arc has had a timely accident with a reef...

 

[Underseer]

If they had a problem with using lies to support other lies, they would not be Christian in the first place.

You should not be surprised that the most Christian or all the Christians are doing this.

 

[bigfield]

If they had a problem with using lies to support other lies, they would not be Christian in the first place.

You should not be surprised that the most Christian or all the Christians are doing this.

That's not fair: I know plenty of Christians whose beliefs are don't depend on lies--not counting others' lies they believe unwittingly.

Apologists, on the other hand...

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Obviously, since God drowned the world to destroy evil and sin, but evil and sin still exist anyway, obviously the wives must have been the vector by which evil and sin survived. Because it couldn't have been the men.

So, God forgot to eliminate original sin that contaminated Noah's family. What a silly God.

 

[Underseer]

If they had a problem with using lies to support other lies, they would not be Christian in the first place.

You should not be surprised that the most Christian or all the Christians are doing this.

That's not fair: I know plenty of Christians whose beliefs are don't depend on lies--not counting others' lies they believe unwittingly.

Apologists, on the other hand...

Sooner or later, every Christian has to choose between the truth and their religion. Literalists have to do it a great deal more often, but they all have to do it. It's an inevitable consequence of the fact that their religion makes claims about physical reality and does not back up those claims with anything substantive.

 

[bigfield]

That's not fair: I know plenty of Christians whose beliefs are don't depend on lies--not counting others' lies they believe unwittingly.

Apologists, on the other hand...

Sooner or later, every Christian has to choose between the truth and their religion. Literalists have to do it a great deal more often, but they all have to do it. It's an inevitable consequence of the fact that their religion makes claims about physical reality and does not back up those claims with anything substantive.

Not necessarily--plenty of people hold dissonant beliefs, and while this may create discomfort, people don't necessarily need to confront and resolve that dissonance.