The great flood as told in the Bible is a myth; a story retold through the generations that predates Christianity itself. Meanwhile, the Epic of Gilgamesh is the same story, but thousands of years older, according to Neil deGrasse Tyson in the latest installment of the television series, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.
Biblical literalist Christians, as you might expect, are not happy with this version of events.
Creationist Ken Ham’s group, Answers in Genesis (AiG), were at the forefront of complaints, stating, “The Epic of Gilgamesh contains one of the hundreds of flood legends that abound in cultures all over the world. These legends are ubiquitous because all people in the world are descendants of Noah’s family, the only people to survive the global Flood.” They continue, “The biblical historical account, recorded under the inspiration of God by Moses, is completely believable in all its details.”
Yet, in reality, neither myth is believable for countless reasons. The first reason is literally the very large elephant in the room, which is how does one fit millions of species onto one boat?
Then, there is absolutely no scientific evidence of any great flood. Furthermore, creationists would have you believe the Biblical flood took place first and all myths then followed, but the evidence suggests the Epic of Gilgamesh was clearly written first, some time in the 18th Century BCE, copied, retold, and then included as a new story when the Book of Genesis was first authored and edited between the 5th and 8th Centuries BCE.
Of course, AiG uses the Bible as their evidence, stating, “In contrast to the Gilgamesh epic, the authenticity of the biblical account is supported by internal consistency of the Scriptural account.”
AiG then tries to discredit Tyson on global warming, quoting a fringe scientist at odds with over 97% of the scientific community.
“It is not at all clear that the small amount of additional CO2 produced by the burning of fossil fuels is detrimental to the environment" says Dr. Alan White on their site. "Let’s obey God’s command and use our scientific knowledge to be good stewards of our natural resources and preserve our environment for the next generation until He comes again.”
What they leave out is that only 3 percent of scientists worldwide share their climate change denialism. Climate change, like all the other science presented each week on Cosmos, is based on fact. AiG appears to strongly oppose facts.
Tyson ended the most recent show on a positive note, hoping for a world where we settle our differences and work together to solve the damaging effects of climate change, and if we must, even find a way off a planet that will eventually be destroyed when our Sun dies.
AiG disagreed, essentially saying that humanity deserves death, stating, “We, however, choose to place our faith not in the evolutionary future of a perfectible “more-evolved” human but rather to believe God’s assessment of humanity. Neither evolution nor our own personal moral efforts will ever make us perfect. We have all sinned against our Creator and, falling short of His holy standards (Romans 3:23), deserve death.”
Here, creationists appear to be the real doomsday advocates, courting calamity so they can welcome the afterlife they desire.