DAILY CALL SHEET: JUNE 18, 2023

In Search of Noah’s Ark (1977) To every monster kid's delight, the crypto-craze of the swinging 70's resulted in a deluge of pseudo-documentaries featuring the likes of Bigfoot, the Bermuda Triangle, and UFO's. Inevitably, they were all cheaply made, padded to the gills with stock footage, and full of "evidence" a first grader could debunk without breaking a sweat. So, of course, they raked in millions.

Realizing that the monotheistic minded had wallets of their own to be plundered, Sunn Classic Pictures released In Search of Noah's Ark, an exploration of assertions that the remains of the Bible's most famous boat had at last been discovered on Mt. Ararat. As expected, it's mostly B.S., but where else can you get reenactments of Noah's story with the bonus content of a goofy chimp helping gather and care for all the animals? Besides, for some reason these old docs are oddly relaxing to watch, so a little fiction can be forgiven. Put it on if you need something to drift off to sleep to.

TIL: Skeptics of the Noah story love to point out that there is no scientific evidence the entire planet was ever inundated by a flood during human times. Catholics yawn at this gotcha. As the encyclical Humani Generis notes, the early books of Genesis often contain "simple and metaphorical language adapted to the mentality of a people but little cultured, [to] both state the principal truths which are fundamental for our salvation, and also give a popular description of the origin of the human race and the chosen people.”

This understanding allows Catholics the choice to interpret the Ark narrative as either a literal worldwide flood, as a localized event (as some evidence might support), or even as an attempt by the author of Genesis to use elements of existing flood narratives to illustrate how the God of the Israelites was superior to pagan deities. However, if we choose the latter, Humani Generis reminds us that "it must never be forgotten that they did so with the help of divine inspiration, through which they were rendered immune from any error in selecting and evaluating those documents."

One Sheet Words of Wisdom: Black Gestapo (1975) "I always disagree, however, when people end up saying that we can only combat Communism, Fascism or what not if we develop an equal fanaticism. It appears to me that one defeats the fanatic precisely by not being a fanatic oneself, but on the contrary by using one's intelligence." -

George Orwell