· Life expectancy in biblical times was amazing! See below:
o Adam lived to 930 years old
o Seth (son of Adam) 912
o Enosh (son of Seth) 905
o Kenan (son of Enosh) 910
o Methuselah 969
Don’t we now know the life expectancy of that time to be significantly shorter? Not only were these men able to surpass modern man’s life expectancy, but they were able to procreate well into their 800’s. Too bad all their offspring (except for Noah) are going to be killed by god. Longevity and an incredibly healthy sex-drive would have been great traits to pass down the gene pool.
· Gen 6:3 “My spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are corrupt, their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” So, god arbitrarily cuts the life expectancy from 900+ years to 120… and it still surpasses modern humans?
· Gen 6:7 “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I created--- and with them all the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground…” Now they’ve done it! The humans have gone and pissed off god. First of all, as an omniscient being, he knew this was coming and literally had thousands of years since the time of Adam to prepare emotionally for this upset… not that I’d believe an omnipotent being would be so emotionally feeble… But I digress. So, god is pissed and decides to commit genocide on the entire human race. In addition, he’s going to kill all the animals? Why?!?
Looking at this from another angle, even though the ten commandments weren’t handed down yet, an omniscient being should be well aware of the commandment he will impose on the humans that says “thou shall not kill.”…Does that make him a spiteful hypocrite?
· Gen 6:13 “I am surely going to destroy both them (the humans) and the earth.”
If god is going to destroy the earth, why even have Noah build the ark in the first place? Where would the ark sail without an earth? Does the fact that the earth wasn’t destroyed demonstrate a limit to god’s power or did he simply lie to Noah? If god is really omniscient, then he knew he wouldn’t destroy (or wasn’t capable of destroying) the earth, so why say that in the first place?
· Gen 6:19 to Noah: “You are to bring into the ark two of ALL living creatures (a pair), male and female.”
Gen 7:2 “Take with you 7 pairs of every kind of clean animal--- and one pair of every kind of unclean animal.”
Got that? No? Good! god is apparently terrible with giving instructions.
· Gen 7:4 Noah had only 7 days to build the ark AND collect all the animals? Oh, those are biblical days, not modern days? So, then the average life expectancy of that time has now increased to several modern millennium… now I really feel cheated.
· Gen 7:6 Noah was 600 years old when the floods came…
Wait, didn’t god reduce the life expectancy to 120 years? Noah really did ALL that work by himself at 600 years old?!?
· Gen 7:12 “And rain fell on the earth for 40 days and 4o nights”
… So now it rains!
On a side note, I wonder if the command for “2 of all living creatures” (Gen 6:19) or “Pairs of ALL creatures that have breath of life in them” (Gen 7:15) included sea creatures? This seems to be an arbitrary if not confusing command, but they would be included in “ALL living creatures.” Seems to me that they would have no problem surviving a massive flood. Is it just me, or is god really inept at giving clear and meaningful instructions?
· Gen 8:13 Noah and his family spent an entire year on the ark?!? The upkeep of having to clean after the animals must have been a daunting, if not perpetual task.
· Gen 8:20 “Noah built an altar to the lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.”
Gen 8:21 “The lord smelled the pleasing aroma…” Wait… Noah sacrificed and burned animals, and the scent of burning flesh was an aroma god found pleasing? That’s dark!
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