In December, former U.S. Navy officer and famous oceanographer Robert Ballard, the man who discovered the Titanic, said he and "his team of researchers have uncovered evidence that suggests The Great Flood described in the Bible was actually based on real events," (Source: "Was the story of Noah's Ark true? Archaeologist who found the Titanic claims Biblical flood DID happen 12,000 years ago," Leon Watson, Daily Mail, December 11, 2012).
To learn more about this story, read "Evidence Suggests Noah's Ark Flood Existed, Says Robert Ballard, Archaeologist Who Found Titanic," by Meredith Bennett-Smith.
Ballard's word carries a lot of weight because of his well-earned reputation. If it was any other archaeologist making the claim that the Biblical Flood was a real historical event and that he can prove it, people would've shrugged their shoulders in disbelief.
The Bible is an allegorical text, and should not serve as a primary historical source for archaeologists. It's one thing for Christians and religious people to treat the Bible as a historical document, but an archaeologist must start from a more solid foundation if he wants his findings to be taken seriously. A sacred book is not a reliable guide when it comes to mapping the earth's history.
The scholar Henry Corbin wrote in his book, "Swedenborg and Esoteric Islam" that the Biblical Flood was an internal, spiritual event, not an actual physical catastrophe, saying:
"The Flood, in its internal signification and its spiritual truth, is not a geological cataclysm, nor is it a cataclysm affecting the physical totality of the earth, of its telluric mass." (Corbin, H. Swedenborg and Esoteric Islam. Translated by Leonard Fox. Swedenborg Foundation: West Chester, PA. 1995. Pg. 88.If an archaeologist or anyone wants to prove the existence of something that was written down in the Bible he should at least first unearth the Bible before moving on to exploring his theories and ideas. Otherwise, the exploration will quickly devolve into another case of the blind leading the blind.
If you are interested in this topic, read "Biblical and Scientific Shortcomings of Flood Geology," by Gregg Davidson and Ken Wolgemuth.
