It is entirely within the realm of possibility that Noah and his ark were part of a historical account of a cataclysmic flood.
Suppose we imagine the Black Sea ten thousand years ago. At the time the water levels of the earth were much lower and the Black Sea was but a large lake about one tenth the size of the present day Black Sea. The lake provided sustenance to a great number of people; it was rich with fish and also facilitated commerce by boat merchants. As time went by settlements on the lakeside grew and the lake was able to support a large population.
But at the end of the last ice age, when all the snows and glaciers began to melt; water levels world-wide began to rise. For the most part the lake of our concern had not evaporated fast enough; the rains kept coming more copious every year and the people on its shores saw themselves being displaced by the rising waters.
Enter Noah; a cantankerous old man who lived on the shores of Lake Black Sea and had a prosperous farm with animals of all kinds…he was a true lover of the diversity of fauna. But one day he began to notice the water in the lake was rising…he did every year and came to the conclusion that the lake would rise enough in the next couple of years to make his farm waterfront property.
But Noah also made one yearly pilgrimage to a place in the vicinity of what is present day Istanbul. Noah would go there to trade and purchase luxury items which he brought back and sold at a profit to the locals around the lake.
Noah was a very intelligent and observant fellow. He noticed that the journey from his homestead was almost all uphill and upon reaching his destination by the shores of the Mediterranean, year after year he noticed how the shoreline had changed and how it was possible for that same Mediterranean Sea to get even higher and spill over into the Black Sea Lake. Noah figured that the distance was rather small and that the place where his homestead was located would be underwater if this happened. He knew it because the man realized that it was several hundred feet lower than the Mediterranean and one tsunami would send Noah’s world crashing to a watery end.
Noah was so alarmed that upon his return he began building a craft of sizeable proportions. Everyone in the villages in the vicinity of Black Sea Lake thought he was crazy. Noah made one more trip to the trading center near Istanbul/Constantinople and noticed that this time the Mediterranean had actually risen a good ten feet and was encroaching properties and structures that had to be abandoned. Noah also noticed that the distance separating the Mediterranean and the Black Sea Lake of his had grown considerably shorter.
He kept building the ark and then it began: relentless rains and flooding. He wanted to keep his animals safe and dry so he placed them in his vessel. Noah did have pairs of some rare animals as well as the more normal domesticated kind. He marched them in there as the rains intensified and then there was a very powerful earthquake and he looked at the hills above his homestead and saw a waterfall…perhaps the size of Niagara and the thunderous noise it was making as well as the water it was bringing into Lake Black Sea.
Noah knew then that it was the Mediterranean spilling into the Black Sea Lake and that eventually both waters would take on the same level. But the whole ordeal took more than forty days and as his neighbors drowned or were driven up the mountains he gloated with pride that he had enough common sense to accurately predict a very natural phenomena.
Noah’s vessel was well built; it was impermeable to water and impregnable from the harsh elements…it floated like a piece of cork. But during the endless storm Noah noticed people drowning and came to their rescue…he was not heartless or devoid of compassion; he rescued more than two dozen people among which was one of his neighbors who criticized him and ridiculed him for building his craft.
Eventually the rains stopped…so far in the history of the world it hasn’t happened that it began to rain and it didn’t stop. The vessel came to rest on the shores of what is now the Black Sea and it just rotted there and some of the wood was used by Noah’s descendants to build houses.
If indeed there had been a Noah and an ark; the story would have been told from father to son until written language made its appearance; but by then, the account of Noah's adventure had been embellished and exaggerated to serve the purpose of religion to dupe and confuse its followers.
We must clarify one thing: Noah didn’t have any visitors from another dimension or was contacted by a messenger from God. Noah didn’t even practice the pagan religions of his time. The only thing that leaves me wondering is: If Noah saved a pair of all the species, why in the fuck did he put two rats, two cockroaches and two mosquitoes in his ark?
