(:

Why do you think so many of these ancient stories (Gilgamesh, Noah, etc.) have the same themes and ideas? What does this say about the state of the world thousands of years ago? What can we learn from these similarities?

I think they have the same kind of ideas because every ancient story is told orally and well through out time it some what changes it might be the name of the "characters" or the time it took place or where it took place. The Noah story about him and his family survived an enormous global flood. Obviously, to thinkers worldwide this story is logically to be considered an impossible 'fable', not history but then again have you heard of the quote that says "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.", well history has been repeating itself in my opinion with the whole flood when Hurricane Katrina happened in New Orleans. Yes we can learn from all of these similarities, we can learn what to do in those type of situations we can also learn how things were back then.