In the Noah story, Noah saves his family and livestock by building an ark with which to weather a particularly severe flood. From the timing of this story, post Eden and pre Abraham or the beginning of the more historical Patriarchal period, I place this event as following the onset of the Holocene Epoch about 10,000 years ago. My conclusion is that since there are so many flood stories from tribes around the world and since they have all become mythological, the arrival of the Holocene seems a likely precipitating event. If Noah lived in Mesopotamia and fished the Euphrates river or Persian Gulf, this story doesn’t seem unlikely other than the direct interference of God. But, that aspect is characteristic of the Jewish view of God.
In any case if an extensive load of ice had built up on the mountains of Turkey during the Pleistocene, it would have melted during the early Holocene and could have produced a devastating flood in Mesopotamia. This is mainly interesting to me due to the tie in with Plato’s Atlantis which he not only did not label fiction but the opposite.
In addition, since there is no realistic explanation for the Arches National Park in the US other than a massive flood, taking into account the existence of the giant ice pack covering Canada and that that ice must have also covered the mountain chains to the east and west. I conclude the age of flooding following the onset of the Holocene is inescapable. I put down the denial to a desire during the early years of the scientific movement to dismiss the Bible as unscientific that we are only now beginning to outgrow.
I contend that as long as science continues to minimize pre scientific methods of understanding, we must conclude it is still in its infancy. This is not to minimize the amazing achievements of Darwin, Einstein, Hubble, and others too numerous to mention.



Meden Agan
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