Noah's Ark Research Paper
Growing up, I loved the story of Noah’s Ark. I loved the underdog theme in which it was presented in Sunday school lessons and sermons: Noah and his family against the world, laughed at by the pagan masses—the terrible, bloodthirsty people who would soon get their comeuppance.
I pictured poor Noah, laboring day after day with his sons to build an ark to save his family, the chosen of God’s creation, from a cataclysmic flood that would wipe out all of civilization. I imagined the threats and the taunts he endured as he built this massive ship, how strong his faith was, and how good God was to spare such a righteous man and his family. They alone were holy, they alone were worthy of salvation. And after the heavens poured down God’s wrath in the form of rain, after the planet was flooded and the evil purged, God (so mercifully) promised to never again flood the earth and annihilate all of creation.
What a story.
I heard this story countless times throughout my childhood, and I even taught it in children’s Sunday school lessons and children’s church groups. But I never thought much about it. After all, the Bible did say that God was sad to destroy humanity. He didn’t want to do it, but it was necessary and He regretted creating humans in the first place. Man was corrupt, evil beyond repair, and only …show more content…
From what I’ve read and seen of the Ark Encounter, there isn’t even a memorial garden, or a plaque: “We here recognize and mourn the millions lost in the greatest catastrophe to touch our planet as recorded in the Bible, where our God drowned all of civilization”—nothing. I reached out to the Ark Encounter to ask if perhaps this was overlooked on social media, and maybe there is some sort of recognition for the lives lost in this story. After all, they believed this really happened, so surely they must somehow recognize and mourn the enormous death toll. I have not received a
I pictured poor Noah, laboring day after day with his sons to build an ark to save his family, the chosen of God’s creation, from a cataclysmic flood that would wipe out all of civilization. I imagined the threats and the taunts he endured as he built this massive ship, how strong his faith was, and how good God was to spare such a righteous man and his family. They alone were holy, they alone were worthy of salvation. And after the heavens poured down God’s wrath in the form of rain, after the planet was flooded and the evil purged, God (so mercifully) promised to never again flood the earth and annihilate all of creation.
What a story.
I heard this story countless times throughout my childhood, and I even taught it in children’s Sunday school lessons and children’s church groups. But I never thought much about it. After all, the Bible did say that God was sad to destroy humanity. He didn’t want to do it, but it was necessary and He regretted creating humans in the first place. Man was corrupt, evil beyond repair, and only …show more content…
From what I’ve read and seen of the Ark Encounter, there isn’t even a memorial garden, or a plaque: “We here recognize and mourn the millions lost in the greatest catastrophe to touch our planet as recorded in the Bible, where our God drowned all of civilization”—nothing. I reached out to the Ark Encounter to ask if perhaps this was overlooked on social media, and maybe there is some sort of recognition for the lives lost in this story. After all, they believed this really happened, so surely they must somehow recognize and mourn the enormous death toll. I have not received a