Plato's Playground
You describe the flood, etc., (dismissively) as a miracle - but is this actually what Christians mean when they talk about miracles? Aren't miracles what Christ did (is said to have done)? I know miracles are what the Pope needs 'evidence' of before people are canonized (or beatified, or whatever the process is). This leads me to wonder if this would be called a miracle, or should be classed as an event of some other type - are there any Christians, particularly Catholics, reading who could clarify this: are miracles a post-Jesus phenomena, or can we call all inexplicable events "miracles"?
On another matter, I find it remarkable that there would be a flood of such dimensions that it covers all or most of the known world, even the known world of preliterate people. Didn't even early societies have migrant group, trading links, and so on?
iain
Yes Iaian, as I suggested in the post, it seems to me that the most likely theory is that a local flood gave rise to legends which then spread widely. But, it could also be that similar legends arose independently because the experience of a great flood would not be unusual in the history of most peoples.
As for the definition of a miracle, as far as I know it is a generic term for divine intervention in worldly affairs. So this would certainly qualify. But I agree that it is of a very different kind from the miracles ascribed to Jesus.
Commenting by HaloScan
