What does the RCC say about the Great Flood described in the Bible?

[gtar100]

35. Don't blame me, myths are filled with really bizarre and crazy stories

filled with violence and really strange behavior. The flood myth is one such that is about destruction and renewal. There is strong evidence that the world has suffered major cataclysmic floods in the past with the melting of glaciers from ice ages in the not-so-distant past and some suggest that the multitude of flood stories from around the world - as told in their cultural myths - is a remnant in our collective memory of the occurance. It makes sense to me but I'm not the expert on that. As for metaphorical meaning, I'd recommend reading Joseph Campbell if you want a more thoroughly researched explanation that isn't bound to a specific dogma. I can tell you what it means to me but I don't claim any authority.

Death and renewal, following "the voice of God" (one's inner connection to the power and wisdom in life) as a means of getting through troubled times. The death and destruction of everything and everyone else is symbolic of the loss of the many things we hold dear as we pass through troubled times. But we come through it to a life that is renewed. The ark and the animals are symbolic of protecting that which sustains us in life as we go through the journey. Being a global flood means that the process is a power greater than what we as individuals can influence or stop. We have no choice but to go through it. That God does this because of the wickedness in the world implies that this may be a process of recovery from our own "wicked" ways and what we can expect to encounter on the path to getting back in tune with nature.

To take it absolutely literally puts one in a position of having to explain the absurd with the absurd. I'll leave that to those who insist it be that way. But why this ties into a possibly real event of a great flood, I surmise it has to do with the way we humans make stories which comes from our own experiences. Hunter cultures have hunting stories, agricultural people would speak in metaphors related to their own practices. And our collective memory (the knowledge that is passed from generation to generation) is what is preserved through these stories. In past cultures, many had a tradition of preparing certain people to tell the stories of their ancestors. Those who took it seriously were very precise in teaching how they should be told. This may be the roots of religious practices. With the advent of writing, much of that tradition has been lost. And it seems to have had some strange results, such as the burgeoning of religions centered on "holy scriptures" that then somehow end up being dogmatically interpreted as "this really happened in this way" no matter how wild or outlandish the story. I think that's a mistake.