1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
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1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
God shortened the human lifespan to 120 years because humans are (also?) "flesh" and he was tired of fighting with them. [2]
4There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
God saw that humans were wicked and he regretted making them. [4]
7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
God said,
I'm going to kill every living thing I have created, for I regret that I made them.
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
Except for Noah, that is. Because Noah was a just and perfect man, who walked with God. [5]
10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
(Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.) [6]
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
God said to Noah,
The end of all flesh is here.
The earth is filled with violence, so I will destroy the earth. [7]
Make an ark of gopher wood: 300 cubits long [8], 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits tall.
Put some pitch inside and outside the ark.
16A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
Make the ark three stories, with a cubit-long window, and a door in the side.
17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
I, even I, am going to kill everything that breathes in a flood.
Everything on earth will die.
18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.
Except for you and your sons and your sons' wives, who will be in the ark that you're going to build.
19And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
And two of every living thing, which you will bring into the ark, one male and one female. [9]
20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
Bring birds, cattle, and creeping things onto the ark, two of each kind.
21And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
And take enough food to feed your family and all of the animals.
22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
Noah followed all of God's instructions about the ark.
In the last chapter, the average age for a man to have his first son was 158 years. And yet here, God decides to shorten the human lifespan to 120 years. How's that going to work?
God decides to kill all living things because the human imagination is evil.
Later (8:21), after he kills everything, he promises never to do it again because the human imagination is evil.
The mind of God is a frightening thing.
He didn't seem so just and perfect when he was drunk and naked in front of his sons (9:20-21).
God was angry because "the earth was filled with violence." So he killed every living thing to make the world less violent.
Noah's ark was 450 feet long.
The longest wooden ships ever built were were about that size, but they required diagonal iron strapping for support. Even so, they leaked so badly that they had to be pumped constantly. And yet Noah, with no shipbuilding knowledge, was able to construct a wooden ship as long as the longest that have been built since.
But not only was the ark too big to be seaworthy, it was far too small to be able to contain the earth's millions of plant and animal species.
Within this chapter, God shows regret for creating humans and decides to hit the reset button on humanity. If the claim is that God is omniscient and knows all, including that which has yet to occur, then we would have known humans would behave as they apparently did. He saves Noah and his family, and annihilates everyone else.
It brings up doubt towards God's omniscience. Is there room for regret when you know the outcome of every situation? If I know my first born child is destined to become a mass murderer, would I be justified in my regret if I decide to have a child, let it grow up, and cause heinous atrocities towards others? No. If anything, I'm an accomplice to those murders.
God is responsible for what the humans did. Free will arguments are not applicable because God already knows the outcome regardless of how the humans view their own autonomy. Either God isn't omniscient, or he simply enjoys annihilation. (Maybe both.)
Sometime between creation and God giving the blueprints for the ark to Noah, complex math was discovered. Given the insistence of sharing tedious genealogies in the Bible, the opportunity to name-drop just a single individual who had the smarts to discover something we still use today would have been a real good idea when considering the legitimacy of the Bible. ...but no. Let's skip giving credit to the ancient Greeks and just let God be the one who set the mathematical stone rolling...and let's just presume Noah has any clue what basic geometry is.
Now here's the point where things start to get really interesting.
It is at this point where the 'sons of God' (Which I will interpret to mean God's Angels, as not only is that interpretation common within fundamentalist circles, it's also a tad funnier than the interpretation common amongst Jewish and other circles, being that 'sons of God' refers to Seth's descendants.) start to become attracted to human women. They boink, and the result is... Giants.
This whole thing pisses God off so much, that he decides to conduct an omnicide. (That means he wants to kill everyone.)
Now, this is where Noah and his family come in. Remember them? Apparently, God is totally cool with Noah, so he gives Noah a little heads-up, along with instructions on how to build a huge fucking boat that he can fill with all the 'kinds' of animals in the world, along with food for them and his family. And Noah, despite having no prior experience in engineering or shipbuilding, manages to pull it off.
It's at this point where I could bring up all the standard atheist objections to this story, (For example: How the fuck did Noah manage to fit all those animals on that tiny boat? How did they manage to distribute all the necessary food and water to all the animals? And, of course... Where the hell did all the rainwater come from?) but tons of other people have already done so. Also, there's just so many issues with this story that I honestly can't put them all in one comment, so I might come back later and add some additional notes.
For now, look up 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' (There's a particular section that might seem... familiar, if you know what I mean...), and watch the Youtube Video '39 Problems with the Noah's Ark Story' by The Atheist Voice.
Go on, I'll wait.