His father takes him to church on the Sundays when he has him, and it's a Baptist church, as you probably know, where many of the people are biblical literalists.

So anyhow, he looks at the stool and says, "Hey, I remember that! That's from when God flooded the world!"

I said, "Yes, it's Noah's Ark, isn't it?"

He said, "Yeah! When God flooded the world!"

So then I said, "Do you think that really happened?" expecting him to answer strongly in the affirmative.

So I was (pleasantly) shocked when he said, "No!"

I said, "You don't think it really happened?"

He said, "Noooo...it's just a story!" in a tone of voice that seemed to chide me for my incredulity.

I love it. Maybe I won't have to do as much deprogramming as I thought I was going to have to do when he gets older.

[ 25 October 2003: Message edited by: Michelle ]

However, a "local" flood, one which would drown, say, a city-state in a short time, is a very real possibility. It's a game among archaeologists to try to find evidence of a particular flood that might have given rise to the story. Great stuff. Basically, myths seem to be our societal rememberance of past events, but considerably distorted and exaggerated rememberances.