My Past Experience with the Bible

If anyone knew anything about my experience with Christianity and the bible...one might classify me and my knowledge as falling under the principals of heathenism. Until now, I have never questioned my upbringing. But as soon as I opened and began reading the bible, I realized that I have missed out on tremendous amounts of knowledge and history about the Christian way of living and believing. I was born with absolutely no religious affiliations. I was always taught to have faith in myself and not rely off other forms of influence...such as the bible or the torah and so on...but that is another blog in itself...
This is my first time ever reading the bible. When I was younger, I would read the first couple pages in a hotel room or wherever a bible was present, but I did not stick with it for too long. I did not do this much, but it did occur occasionally. Reading Genesis was a huge eye opener for me! Since I am not familiar with this text, classical biblical stories was absent from my knowledge and understanding of the bible. Reading about the Tree of Knowledge, Noah's arch, the tales of Abram...then later Abraham all interested me. The most interesting account I read thus far, was the story of Noah. But more importantly, was the telling of how God flooded the Earth to kill every living organism. A question I had, although it may seem very basic....were fish destroyed by the flood too? I understand God intended on destroying every living thing...but flooding the Earth is not the best way to kill every animal or specimen. Fish survive in water! But I'm sure God knew that, right?

I did state earlier in this blog that I found the bible interesting..probably because this is my first reading of it, but just as you said, Dr. Sexon, there seem to be hundreds if not thousands of names! It does get a little confusing. I also find there are plenty of instances where a story or a history of family is repeated. Why is this? Wouldn't God assume man would find this compelling enough to remember? Another thing I found interesting from the reading was the fact that there were two creation stories. Noah's building of the ark and keeping two of every animal was the conclusion to the first of God's creation and the flood seemed to mark the beginning of the second creation.

P.S. I feel a little threatened by some of the people and their knowledge of the bible in the class. Not that it is a bad thing, just feel a little behind the ball...See you all in class!