Editing 1684: Rainbow

{{incomplete| More details needed, for instance is there a specific reference to the burning of the Earth in the bible before Noah, or is this just the meteor(s) in the past? And what about the planned Armageddon, is that then off? More about issues with raccoons and what immortality would do to an ecosystem. More about the sims for the title text explanation. Are there other hidden meanings/interpretations?}}

In this comic the patriarch {{w|Noah}}, from the {{w|Abrahamic religions}} represented by [[Cueball]], talks to {{w|God}} after {{w|Genesis flood narrative|the biblical flood}}. He asks what the coloured band across the sky is, and God tells him it is a {{w|rainbow}}. According to the Book of Genesis, God placed the {{w|Rainbows in mythology|worlds first rainbow}} in the sky as a promise to humanity that he would never again make a flood to cleanse the world of sin ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis%209:2-9:17&version=KJV Genesis 9:2–17]).  A {{w|rainbow}} is an {{w|optical phenomena|optical phenomenon}} caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a {{w|spectrum}} of light appearing in the sky, one of many light phenomena caused by sunlight and precipitation.

Then Noah notices a {{w|Rainbow#Variations|double rainbow}} outside the original ''promise rainbow''. Secondary rainbows are caused by double reflection of sunlight inside the raindrops. When asked about this God seems to falter, but recovers and claims he made it to show that he will never again set the Earth on fire. As an afterthought he says sorry about that, although it was a while back. This may refer to the early Earth being a liquid ball of molten rock (the {{w|Hadean|Hadean period}}), or later global fire catastrophes caused by asteroid impacts and volcanic eruptions.

Noah begins to notice some other optical phenomena, first he spots a {{w|Halo (optical phenomenon)|halo}}. Halos can appear around the Sun (as is the case here) or the Moon. The one he spots is most likely the {{w|22° halo|circular 22° halo}}, which is a halo forming a circle with a radius of approximately 22° around the Sun, or occasionally the Moon.  God promptly claims it is a promise to never again make {{w|raccoons}} {{w|Immortality|immortal}} as it destroyed the Earth's {{w|ecosystem}}. Although today these animals can be a pest, see [[1565: Back Seat]], they are luckily not immortal. Randall is likely referring to an unkillable form of immortality rather than {{w|Biological Immortality|biological immortal}} as while that would likely cause some issues, the raccoons can still fall to predation and disease. Should raccoons have been rendered unkillable by predation or disease as well as {{w|Senescence|aging}} then the combination of an average gestational period of 65 days, a litter size of 2-5 individuals, and an omnivorous appetite makes for a creature that could easily dominate any and all ecological niches.

Noah continues by noticing two {{w|sun dogs}} (or parahelia) which often co-occur with the 22° halo. These consist of a pair of bright spots either side on the Sun, intersected by the halo. God gets tired of this and tries to stop Noah by saying that he has said sorry, and asks him to drop the subject. That is probably sensible because there are 23 different {{w|Optical_phenomena#Atmospheric_optical_phenomena|atmospheric optical phenomena}} listed on Wikipedia alone. Following the logic of the comic and the evasive answer of God, it could mean there are some more skeletons in the closet.  

There are also "tertiary rainbow" (and even higher orders), which forms a ring around the sun, but this is normally lost in the glare of the sunlight passing through raindrops and it is the halo that has the sun dogs, so it was not such a tertiary rainbow Noah saw in the third panel. A new [[what if?]] about rainbows was released on the same day as this comic (and it was the first release for quite some time). See the ''{{what if|150|Tatooine Rainbow}}'' which mentions the third rainbow.

The title text is a continuation where God tells Noah that in the future humanity will invent a game called {{w|SimCity}}. This is a strategy computer game in which the player creates and manages an environment wherein ''sims'' autonomously build a city (or in later versions a country, or a planet). The player has God-like control of the world, including a [http://www.ign.com/wikis/simcity/Disasters disaster button], for when the player can't wait for a disaster to happen by chance. God is suggesting that it is too tempting, once a civilization has been built up, to push the disaster button just to see what happens.

:[Noah, here represented as Cueball, is looking up on a rainbow band going through the top right corner of the panel. The band displays the following colors from outward and in: Red, yellow, green, blue and purple. A black blob in the bottom of the panel right of Noah, has white text with the reply from God to Noah's questions. This continues through the rest of the comic.]

:Noah: Wow, God- What's that band of color?

:[In this frameless panel Noah is not looking so much up. God's reply is split in two black blobs with a small connection between them.]

:Noah: Oh, good! Hey, what about that second bow above the first one?

:[Noah points left, God's black reply blob hangs higher, only above Noah's shoulders]

:Noah: What about that third faint bow near the sun?

:[Noah points even higher up towards left, with God's reply situated as before]

:Noah: And the little rainbow clouds on either side of-

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Animals]] <!-- Raccoons -->