It is heralded as "God'sPromise" to Noah, that he would never destroy
the world in such a way again.Today we know that a rainbow is a prismatic
effect of sunlight througha light rain or fine mist hence the proverbial
"pot of gold at the endof the rainbow" (you can never reach the point
where a rainbow touches ground, because its appearance is relative
to the observer). Many of thelight effects we see in the sky are due
to these types of "light bending"or "light filtering" in our atmosphere.
From coronas, or halos, aroundthe moon, to most twinkling stars, to
the color of the sky itself ~ it all depends on whatthe light is passing
through before it reaches our eyes.
At the time of the Great Flood, Noah had grown children, but was not
yet a grandfather. Still, we must assume that he had been on
this Earth long enough to have seen mosteveryday things. But in order
for Noah to have never seen a rainbow before,in his long life, he
would have had to have either never encountered rain,or never seen
a clear sky. We know he knew what rain was, even before the famous
40 days and 40 nights. Until they landed on Mount Ararat, Noah'sfamily
were
vegetarians ~ and besides, he hadtrees to build the Ark. So we may
tenatively assume that the skies were overcast all his life (as hard
as that may be for us modern Earthlingsto imagine). Now for someone
to have never encountered even a tiny patchof blue yonder or twinkling
starlight ~that is interesting !
Noah ultimately lived to the astounding age of about 950 years. His
father, Methusalah, is saidto have tripled that. If the Earth were
in such a state that the skieswere cloudy all day, this would push
the oxygen content of the atmosphereup to extremely high and healthy
levels. Without natural (or unnatural)degeneration of the Human body's
internal organs, you or I could quiteeasily endure as many centuries.
As we get older, our heart, lungs,liver and brain all grow tired until
enough of them have ceased to functionefficiently enough to keep us
alive. Sadly, for all of us, in the end,if we survive everything else,
what it ultimately comes down to is simpleoxygen deprivation.
If the Earth does in fact change its axial tilt periodically, then
it is possible that this over saturatedatmospheric condition could
have reigned for a period of several thousandyears ~ which would well
explain an abandonment, or eventual atrophy, ofastronomy. If such
an ancient culture had found itself without reference to the stars,
when they appeared again in the sky several thousand yearslater, they
would undoubtedly seem very strange, perhaps like Gods or demonsor
countless fixed points of light in a celestial sphere. But if therewere
any artifacts or monuments dedicated to such sciences, aligned to
important formations, who would know
what to make of them ?