Genesis spends several chapters talking about the heroic work of Noah with his whole ark-building business, collecting and housing every animal on the planet for several months while God washed the entire world away, then repopulating the earth full of humans with just him, his wife, and his sons and their wives. Sure there are innumerable logistical problems with this story – actually finding and keeping every species of animal in one place for that long, repopulating the earth with such a small gene pool (which means he had to get it on with his son's hot wives, go Noah), no fossil record of a true global-wide flood (though much evidence does exist of catastrophic floods in many parts of the world), etc. Nonetheless, the Bible spends a good amount of precious scripture telling us the noble tale of how Noah was single-handedly responsible for continuing life on earth.
However, ironically in the final chapter of Noah's bold life, he gets drunk on wine from grapes that he grew and passes out naked on the floor of his tent. And when his sons find him there, they are kind enough to cover him with a sheet, all the while keeping their back to him to respect their father and not gawk as his old wrinkly naked drunk ass on the floor. And what does he do in return? Gets pissed and curses his grandchild Canaan to be a slave to his sons for the rest of this life. Thanks Grandpa, I was in the yard shooting marbles during your happy hour and now I'm a slave to my dad and uncles forever.
And apparently nothing else worthy of mention happens in Noah's life for the next THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS until he finally dies.
Not quite sure why this last story was so important that Moses and his scribes included it in the holy scripture, and it was copied down meticulously hundreds of times by the highest of Hebrew scholars for 2000 years, so that we could read about Noah saving the world, then being a drunk old fart.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
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As I read through the bible at the age of 23 I feel utter embarrassment at the fact that I once believed this junk to be a moral guide.
ReplyDeleteThe curse of Canaan is surely one of the most absurd, morally nonsensical stories ever penned, but it makes one think: If Noah, an utter douche was considered worth saving, what stupendous levels of douchebaggery did the other humans who were flooded reach?