doubts....

ok, so it is my turn to teach sunday school tomorrow, and i am already having doubts.......the lesson is a familiar story....noah....and the ark....and the dove and the rainbow.....anf the promise never to destroy the earth again by flood......and i can not seem to get myself past the part where noah believes he and his family are the only humans left alive on the entire planet earth........and the two by two animals are the only living examples of their kinds......and i just don't buy it.......maybe the from the angle that the world as noah knew it was destroyed......and the earth as far as he could see was covered in water.......maybe......but everywhere.......mt everest.....? i think not.......and mt ararat.....the place where the ark supposedly ended up when the floods receded isn't much of a mihtain compared to the alps or the rockies.......i am reminded of an embarassing comment i made last year about this time...when we visited my spouse's eldest sister in upstate ny....and her family gathered....sons, daughters-in-law....children.....and i happened to pick up a board book to read to one of the smaller of the bunch.....and was startled to discover that the animals in this noah's ark book included a dinosaur.....and i commented aloud about the notion....and was told quietly that the eldest ( an engineer) and his spouse attend a church that holds to the premise that the bible is the literal truth......and that earth as we know it is less than 5000 years old.....and that means that the dinosaurs are not as old as advertised......such a continuum of understanding of the same passage.....i who sees it as a snapshot version of just what noah could see for himself.......and our kin who see the verses as....well....gospel.....and authentic down to the reality of an inbred band of noah's family multiplying after the waters receded......ok, so i through that last bit in.....but when you think about it........if genesis were utterly and completely true.....just who did cain and abel marry in order to propegate the land just outside the garden?.......lots of unaswered questions......and therefore....lots of room to have doubts...at least as i see things.......and so i will approach my lesson in the morning with more questions than i have answers........and if i am truly lucky...i won't be the only one who has doubts.......