Antediluvian Widespread Evil

As someone interested in both science and theology, I have a particular interest in the human race and it's history.  Contrary to some people who believe the human race is only 6,000 years old (based on their arithmetic of Bible accounts) the overwhelming, irrefutable evidence of science is that humans have been around for a lot longer.  That does not mean the Bible is wrong, just that the Bible is not that interested in telling us about exact time periods of human history.   The Bible is not a science handbook but a book of infallible truth, carried in a variety of literary genres, most of which are not concerned with being a text book.

One such idea is that there was once a great flood that God used to wipe all humanity off the face of the earth, except for 8 people he preserved in a boat. The Noah's Ark and the Flood story is about evil human nature and it's relationship to the environment, disinterest in the good God, God's sovereignty and right of judgment, and His continuous desire to redeem and recreate, and finally His inviting us into that recreating process.   The timescales are quite irrelevant. The exact extent of the flood is not the point.  The essence and quality of the truth conveyed in the Bible narrative is what is intended.

I spent my teen years tramping the upland massif of Dartmoor in Devon in England, where bronze age relics are everywhere to be seen.  Perhaps that is why i have no problem thinking about human in great antiquity.

That's Grimspound - the remains of a Bronze age settlement on Dartmoor dating from about 1300 BC.  I read today a story from the nearby county of Somerset:

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150416-our-ancestors-were-cannibals

Our ongoing research shows that ancient people, although great artists and craftspeople, had a poor view of human sanctity.  If cannibalism and human sacrifice were normal ancient impulses, how much suffering did God abate when he selected a few people in a global 'do over' for humanity?
Do we need historical evidence of the 'fallenness' of human nature?  Perhaps the news headlines from various war zones and ISIS provide evidence that human morality is not evolving or improving as many modernists might suppose or hope.  Human nature, like God, is the same yesterday, today and I fully expect, tomorrow.

Thank God - for he has made a way of saving us from ourselves, from the darkness we each carry, and has made a path of forgiveness, affirmation, healing and growth.  That is the Way of Christ.

(And just in case you were worried about all the ancient humans who died in those days of flood and rain...see my previous blog post.)