I made the picture above ten years ago to illustrate the 4000 year old legend of Gilgamesh, the Sumerian king from Uruk in today’s Iraq who seeks immortality. On his wanderings he talks to the old Utnapishtim who has survived the great flood, a story that later on became the story of Noah in Genesis 6-9, the Bible. Even if Noah is not just a mythological figure but the story of the flood is a reminiscence of our ancestors’ horror to experience the floods that occured globally after the last Ice Age. About 12 000 years ago the ice began to melt and bit by bit large parts of the coastal regions were swallowed by the seas. 7,500 years ago e.g. the water masses from the Mediterranean dug through land, creating the Bosphorous strait and flooded a lower sweet water lake. Fairly quickly the water level rose with 150 meters and created the Black Sea. In 1998 the two geologists Walter Pitman and William Ryan presented this theory, which then was proven by Robert Ballard during his expeditions on the spot in 1999.
Today the situation on our Earth is dire. The conflicts we see are very serious. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is one of them that now is very much in focus. On November 15th I wrote on this blog about “The Janus face of every faith” and last Monday, November 26th, “Wise like an owl and tremendous like a deer?”. There I deal with some of these issues as well. The conflicts in the Middle East are very serious, thousands of lives are lost every day in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, (even though we now see an unstable cease fire), the civil war in Syria, and all the other existing war zones and troubled areas. I’m not naïve. The problems and conflicts will continue, but I still plead for peaceful negotiations instead, and a give-and-take-attitude that allows us to at least create improved bonds between the various groups.
According to the World Meterological Organization 2001 – 2011 have been much warmer than the previous periods. The WMO also pinpoint the unprecedented melt of the ice in the Arctic and the multiple extreme forms of weather that has become a result of that. During United Nation’s Change Conference in Doha, Qatar, on November 28th this was highlighted. Since the weather records began in 1850 January – October 2012 has been the ninth warmest period ever, and it’s increasing. The temperatures on land and in the oceans have ascended 0.45 Centigrades since 1961 – 1990. La Niña in the Pacific Ocean has a cooling effect on the temperatures on a global scale. The weather system is changing and affects us all. We see now an increasing amount of tropical cyclones, drought, extreme cold, heat waves and floods. If we want to survive floods of Biblical proportions or worse, we must realise that it’s quite futile whether West wins over the East or the other way round, if Muslims believe that they will inherit an Earth that is falling apart, or Fascists or Africans, Russians, Chinese, Indians or others think so. If we want to live in a world that is at least inhabitable, we must learn to co-operate, realise that Yeshua = Jesus the Messiah is the only Saviour, because only in Him can any human put his trust through the help of the Holy Spirit. Yeshua is the way, the truth and the life itself. With his help, by repenting from our sins, asking for his forgiveness and turning our lives in gratitude, then we can also humble ourselves and see the fellow human being irrespective of background. Peaceful co-operation – Not killing each other. Yeshua = Jesus is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords and Creator of the Universe as part of the Holy Trinity GOD-head: Father YHWH, Son Yeshua and the Holy Spirit. Only in Him can we be saved. http://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/press_releases/pr_966_en.html
Anders Moberg, December 3d 2012 (upgraded on March 31st 2022)
swedish heart and soul 