There are many consistencies among mythologies across the world, and one of the most noteworthy is the flood story. It always features a flood hero, someone chosen to be a survivor when the rest of humanity will be destroyed.
Why do so many peoples relate a version of this story? Because many places throughout the world were struck by very wet conditions that made living almost impossible. Ur, Abraham’s home city, was one place hit very cruelly by the flood, and as result endured a period of no activity during that time.
The oldest known literary tradition features this flood—the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which the flood hero Utnapishtim attained immortality. Other examples of flood narratives include the well-known Noah’s Ark and Triton flooding the world in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”.
It was not a flood covering the whole world with an ocean, according to archeological records, but it was definitely a real flood with equally real consequences. Though not every place on earth was scourged, to many people, it certainly felt that humanity might have not been able to survive.
As we stand in the era of climate change, perhaps the flood story will take on new significance. If the ancients’ flood were of the magnitude of our climate change-era heavy rainfall, perhaps their flood stories would not feature any human survivor at all.
Combined flood narratives feature some of the same fears and consequences that many people have felt and predicted in our own day. As of now, the futures of many animal species are uncertain, reflecting a similar sentiment that compelled the mass animal salvation of the Ark. In almost all flood narratives, the cause of the destruction is the sinning of mankind. In our own day, some humans are growing introspective as to where they went wrong.
Then the occasional New Age believer might think that forthcoming disaster will mean forthcoming enlightenment for humanity. This is silently modeled on what happened to Utnapishtim, the Sumerian flood hero, who became an immortal.
Should we expect G-d to fulfill His promise to Noah that He would never flood the world again, even as many islands within our lifetime are being submerged? Yes. But should we do nothing on account of our faith in that promise? Not in the least.
The same way Noah needed to actually do something that G-d commanded him to do to survive the flood, so too should we, as humans, spring to action if we expect this promise to be fulfilled.
Concerning exactly what to do on the large scale of the whole human race, I will have to cite Socrates: the only thing I know is that I know nothing. But many communities, including Wesleyan’s, are aptly putting in effort so that another flood will not overtake us again. If there are people who might be building the metaphorical Ark of the modern day, then that duty lies with environmental organizers and political action.
If many portions of the world, even holy sites, were to go underwater due to the changing earth, would religious faith suffer? On the contrary—it might even be strengthened, as truths hidden in the scriptures, previously unknown, will suddenly come to light in the wake of the changing future.
Even the mass extinctions will perhaps serve as a blot on the conscience of humanity. But much like the Tower of Babel narrative, they can become an example of the type of mindset never to take up again.
After all, if the earth is indeed becoming a new planet unlike the human race has ever seen, this will not be the first time that it happened.
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