“Year-long”...? What happened to 40 days and 40 nights? Also, where does the Bible call post-Eden Earth “idyllic” or suggest that the continents were fused until the flood?!
>>What happened to 40 days and 40 nights?<<
This is not directed at you, but I am using your comment as a springboard.
It is amazing how many of those who condemn the teachings of Christianity from what they see as an “I studied Christianity and know that it is silly” viewpoint when, in fact, they have a “vacation bible school” understanding of it.
Your comment is the type one of these may make. Anyone who actually studied (or even read with average reading comprehension) the Bible account of Noah would know that 40 days was how long it rained, not how long he was actually “at sea”, which was significantly longer.
C. S. Lewis once commented (and I paraphrase) that Bible detractors often put up a childes perspective of the bible against an adults perspective on that teaching to which they are comparing it. Not surprisingly, the Bible then comes up lacking.
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There's an old joke about a pioneer who claimed he could count in Indian. When pressed for proof he said, "One, two, three, many."
Same with the Middle Eastern myths. "Forty" was the equivalent to "many". Ali Baba and the 40 thieves, rained for 40 days/nights, Moses on Mount Sinai for 40 days/nights, Elijah fed by ravens for 40 days, Jesus fasted for 40 days, and was seen 40 days after his resurrection, etc.