For many years the story of the flood has been considered to be a mythological legend. By the end of year 2000, Geologists and Archeologists proved that our mythical natural disaster is based on a real incidence. Two American geologists, William Ryan and Walter Pitman wrote a book about it called "Noah's flood". Information regarding their theory and archeological findings gathered in the depth of the black sea is found on the National Geographic website. 1 During that time, (seven thousand and six hundred years ago) the ice age ended, and the glaciers' melting greatly raised the Mediterranean's sea-level. Due to the enormous water pressure, a big fracture was created in a continuous mountain ridge in the Bosporus area, and so the physical barrier separating between the Mediterranean and the black sea basin was breached. This can be described as the collapse of a huge natural dam. The level of the Black Sea, which that was sweet-water, shallow, inland sea, has risen by more than one hundred meters (in less than a year). The salty large wave covered a huge planar area and the agricultural settlements that were built along the sweet water inland sea. The story of the flood already appears in ancient myths of Samarian Mesopotamia and it was integrated into the Bible. The fact it was preserved in our cultural messaging for thousands of years, indicates its important value. Let us check how the flood myth serves us today, and examine the role of religion in this context. According to the bible, the ancient story deals with destroying the world in a divine tantrum due to sexual promiscuity. Such a fascinating story, supported by a real natural disaster, is a strategic asset for any religious belief. But this alone does not justify its popularity today.
The importance of any natural disaster declines long time after it occurrence, but it seems that statue of limitation does not apply for the story of the flood. It is featured in children's books and is a favorite of adults as well. All the Israeli children as well as children from other countries, study it enthusiastically in primary school, year after year, and are even tested for their mastery of the subject. What is the reason for the current importance of this story?
The story contains two ancient false beliefs, which became two wrong basic assumptions in our world-view: the first idea is that God has created us as different species, males and females, with different social roles, men and women.
The second idea is the belief in the natural existence of pairs of other mammals. In all the children books about the flood uncle Noah is seen standing smiling at the Arc's door, inviting in pairs of different animals: a pair of lions, a pair of elephants… all animals arrive and go into the arc in pairs.
If we will examine the animal world around us, we can find many examples of pairs of parents, but this family model is mostly common with birds, compared to them the "social" mammals usually live in groups and not in pairs.
Two parents can gather more food and this way significantly increase the chances of their offspring to survive. The advantage of living in a pair was gone when the mammary glands of the mammal females developed. Milk is a perfect food and the male mammals were freed from gathering food for the offspring. Milk secretion is accompanied by the release of the hormone Prolactin (see pages 24-25) thus making sure the puppies are born in a rate suitable for their mother's ability to feed them. If we examine mammals' parenthood, we shall find that most mammal females need males only for insemination.
The normal family cell of social mammals is made of groups of mothers and young offspring. The adult males left the family cell and received a new role, guarding and protecting the group from predators. For male mammals there are two important features: size and power. Deterrence ability is the name of the modern game and male mammals are forced to pump up their muscles and fight each other. For males aggressive behavior becomes a surviving advantage, but it usually sends them away from caring for the young. Maybe this is why when we wish to name a successful human pairing, we use a metaphor based on observing birds' behavior: "love birds".
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