NYTimes OP-ED COLUMNIST
Harvey, Irma, Jose … and Noah
Is there anything we can learn from
hurricanes, storms and floods?
People have been asking that
question for thousands of years, and telling stories that try to make sense of
natural disasters. These flood myths are remarkably similar to one another.
A researcher named John D. Morris
collected more than 200 of them, from ancient China, India, Native American
cultures and beyond. He calculates that in 88 percent of the tales there is a
favored family. In 70 percent, they survive the flood in a boat. In 67 percent,
the animals are also saved in the boat. In 66 percent, the flood is due to the
wickedness of man, and in 57 percent the boat comes to rest on a mountain top.
The authors of these myths are
trying to make sense of vast and powerful forces. They are trying to figure out
what sort of world they live in. Is it a capricious world, where cities are
destroyed for no reason? Or perhaps it’s a just but merciless world, where
civilizations are wiped out for their iniquity?
The most famous story, of course,
is the biblical story of Noah. As the story begins, the human race is living
without law, and as a result is living violently and badly. But there was one
righteous man, Noah. God tells Noah to build an ark because He is going to wipe
out the rest of humanity with a great deluge.
What does Noah say when he hears
this? Nothing. Abraham protested to God when the city of Sodom was under threat
of destruction. Moses protested when God was going to harm the Israelites. But
Noah is silent. He doesn’t try to save his neighbors or argue with his God.
