Distinctions are important. Distinctions have meaning, and they have purpose. They help us sort out reality from fantasy. If we needed any reminder of this fact, the hype over Robert Ballard's latest work should be sufficient to reinforce just how useful distinctions are. Imagine my surprise, after years arguing that the Flood of Genesis is a myth, to read that no less a respected authority than Robert Ballard, the man who discovered the location of the Titanic, "says Noah's Ark evidence comes to light," as this story from MSN has it. But if one reads the actual story, Ballard claims no such thing. After working with his team in the Black Sea region, Ballard announced his support of the hypothesis advanced by William Ryan and Walter Pitman that an ancient flood substantially raised the water level of the Black Sea, a flood event which formed the basis of many of the Flood myths. But trust the media to never let reality get in the way of a good headline! The hype continues with this (slightly) more balanced treatment in the UK Daily Mail here. As one might expect, the hype was even worse with Fox News' "reporting", and Glenn Beck's The Blaze coverage.
What is one to make of all of these news stories claiming that evidence of Noah's Flood has been found? Should a person reconsider their ideas about human history, throw out everything they think they knew and accept a literal Genesis? The answer is emphatically no! The assertions of Ballard, based on evidence of an ancient shoreline far below the current water levels of the Black Sea, may represent the reality that a local flood triggered the many myths involving a global Flood, myths that came to be represented by the story of Noah in Genesis and a similar flood myth in the Epic of Gilgamesh. If true, and this is by no means accepted, what it would prove is that, at the end of the last Ice Age, as sea levels rose while the great glaciers retreated, a massive flooding of the Black Sea occurred, one which Ballard asserts happened rapidly. If such an event happened rapidly, raising the level of the Black Sea by around 400 ft., it would represent a true catastrophe for the people who lived at the water's edge. It would have been chaos, and thousands might have died. But for all of that tragedy, it was and remained a local flood, rather than the global Flood of Genesis fame. Proving a Black Sea flood is not the same as having proven the reality of Noah's Flood, and that is the important distinction in a nutshell, one that those currently reporting on this story are shamefully failing to make clear. Whether it is incompetence, stupidity, or simply pandering to your audience (I'm talking about you, Fox News), the coverage of Ballard's work is reprehensible.
I haven't seen any of the creationists pick this up yet, or for that matter many of the usual anti-creationist blogs, but I expect it is only a matter of time. Rather than report the reality of Ballard's work, the media has decided to continually assert, in the total absence of evidence, that the current research gives support to the myth of Noah's Flood. Whether or not the story, along with the other Flood legends, is based on a kernel of truth from this Black Sea flood event remains to be seen, but those who assert that the Genesis story is literally true have no ground to stand upon! There is no evidence of a global flood event at any point in earth's history, in spite of over two centuries of creationists trying very hard to find that evidence. The idea that a global flood literally happened, that one family saved the animals of the earth on a giant boat remains ludicrous in the extreme, but any fundamentalists encountering the story of Bob Ballard's work will likely walk away with an unjustified sense of self-assurance. More is the pity, for all of us.
What is one to make of all of these news stories claiming that evidence of Noah's Flood has been found? Should a person reconsider their ideas about human history, throw out everything they think they knew and accept a literal Genesis? The answer is emphatically no! The assertions of Ballard, based on evidence of an ancient shoreline far below the current water levels of the Black Sea, may represent the reality that a local flood triggered the many myths involving a global Flood, myths that came to be represented by the story of Noah in Genesis and a similar flood myth in the Epic of Gilgamesh. If true, and this is by no means accepted, what it would prove is that, at the end of the last Ice Age, as sea levels rose while the great glaciers retreated, a massive flooding of the Black Sea occurred, one which Ballard asserts happened rapidly. If such an event happened rapidly, raising the level of the Black Sea by around 400 ft., it would represent a true catastrophe for the people who lived at the water's edge. It would have been chaos, and thousands might have died. But for all of that tragedy, it was and remained a local flood, rather than the global Flood of Genesis fame. Proving a Black Sea flood is not the same as having proven the reality of Noah's Flood, and that is the important distinction in a nutshell, one that those currently reporting on this story are shamefully failing to make clear. Whether it is incompetence, stupidity, or simply pandering to your audience (I'm talking about you, Fox News), the coverage of Ballard's work is reprehensible.
I haven't seen any of the creationists pick this up yet, or for that matter many of the usual anti-creationist blogs, but I expect it is only a matter of time. Rather than report the reality of Ballard's work, the media has decided to continually assert, in the total absence of evidence, that the current research gives support to the myth of Noah's Flood. Whether or not the story, along with the other Flood legends, is based on a kernel of truth from this Black Sea flood event remains to be seen, but those who assert that the Genesis story is literally true have no ground to stand upon! There is no evidence of a global flood event at any point in earth's history, in spite of over two centuries of creationists trying very hard to find that evidence. The idea that a global flood literally happened, that one family saved the animals of the earth on a giant boat remains ludicrous in the extreme, but any fundamentalists encountering the story of Bob Ballard's work will likely walk away with an unjustified sense of self-assurance. More is the pity, for all of us.
Face-palm.
ReplyDeleteWell written piece, Brady. Personally, I find the actual story, apart from the potential media response, to be quite interesting. Of course, the media sensationalizes-- they are in the information selling business, and in the case of Fox, also in the propaganda business. The possibility that a large flood around the Black Sea led to the Noah myth is quite fascinating. First, because it speaks to the human expression to create meaning through myths. The creation of such meaning in turn can have profound consequences on culture and civilization. Secondly, the enduring quality of preliterate stories is nothing short of amazing. This could be another examples of modern myths that have been traced to prehistoric events. Third, we are learning more and more how climate change shapes the evolution of human civilization, and this could be another case in point.
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