In the Bible, God takes credit for the Great Flood – Who Will We Blame Now?

A Photoshop manipulation combining an idyllic image of Pittsfield as seen from the dam
and a wave crashing at Hampton beach in  the aftermath of Sandy
CC Jean Stimmell

In the Bible, God takes credit for the Great Flood,

when perhaps a comet was to blame 

Genesis 6:13...The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.

Still today 60% of Americans accept as truth the Biblical account of the Great Flood, and most cultures record a world-destroying flood in their oral or written histories.

The Great Flood refers to the most catastrophic flood and the most catastrophic geological event that has ever taken place in human history. Virtually nothing historical, from writings to civilization to long-living organisms like trees, has survived from before about 3000 or 3300 B.C., approximates date given to the Great Flood.^⁠1 

An alternative scientific explanation to the Biblical account for the Great Flood is that “a 3-mile wide comet crashed into the ocean off the coast of what is now Madagascar, resulting in worldwide chaos, including violent 600-foot  high tsunamis and massive hurricanes… All of this terror was accompanied by a week of darkness caused by material expelled into the atmosphere.”^⁠2

Interestingly, the effects from this comet-induced flood are almost identical to the Biblical version: And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth…all the fountains of the great deep broken up (Genesis 7:10-11).

Now scientists say – and events confirm –  another 

cataclysmic climate event is barreling toward us

A prestigious panel of international scientists has just released its conclusions, confirming previous studies on climate change: "Global warming is leading to such severe storms, droughts and heat waves that nations should prepare for an unprecedented onslaught of deadly and costly weather disasters.^⁠3 "

But this time God is leaving us to our own devices. A recent article by Patricia Williams makes this case, warning us of the dangers ahead and why it is imperative that we take action now: 

“the risk to planetary life [from climate change] places us all onboard a sinking ship. All hands are desperately needed to widen our sense of what’s at stake: Will a tree dying in the forest be heard? Will a bee dying of insecticide be felt as a loss in the human hive? Will humanity see itself—in all its variety—as one species, to say nothing of one species interdependent with many?”

“There’s nothing wrong with the babble of prayer politicians proffer in the face of disaster, but faith and miracles do not a system of earthly governance make.,. After all, even Noah finally got down to the business of building an ark.”^⁠4

This time we can’t blame the usual suspects–

the enemy lies within

Bill McKibben states the case very well: "There's no one we can shoot to make global warming disappear. But we could, if we wanted to, devote the scale of resources we've spent in the last decade invading Iraq and Afghanistan to the task of retooling our energy infrastructure. That's the kind of commitment it would take, an effort we usually seem to muster only in the face of military threat."

"But the danger that comes from climate change is every bit as real, and in the long run far greater, than anything Al Qaeda could throw at us. We're really fighting for our civilization,”^⁠5 as, unfortunately, so many of our fellow Americans are finding out the hard way in the aftermath of  Superstorm Sandy .

Amen

Click below to see other of my blog entries on climate change: 
Ecocide: The End of Eden
How to Have Hope in an Era Between No Longer and Not Yet
Back to the Future

¹ http://www.conservapedia.com/Great_Flood

² From: http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/great-flood1.htm

³ http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/28/climate-change-global-warming-storms-floods

⁴ http://www.thenation.com/authors/patricia-j-williams

⁵ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-mckibben/great-floods-climate-change_b_859927.html