Noah´s Ark

Since the very beginning of Tablet XI, I found many similarities to one of the stories published in the Bible, one called Noah´s Ark. In this Bible version, God was upset with his people because he thought they were all evil and did not deserve to live. However, there was once person who had been honest and noble, called Noah, so it was His decision to spare him and his family. Noah was told that an enormous flood was about to be poured over everyone, so he had to build an ark if he wanted to survive. He was also told that he had two bring two of every kind of animals alive, one male and one female, and to tell a story when people asked him what he was doing. In "Gilgamesh" we can find the following quote:

"Utnapishtim, son of Ubartutu, abandon your house, abandon what you possess...and build a boat instead...take with you, on the boat you build, an instance of each living thing so that they may be safe from obliteration in the flood...tell them (the other people in the village) you can no longer live in the city, because you are out of favor with Enlil."(pg. 65-67)

The similarities are pretty obvious. Both Noah and Utnapishtim were told to abandon their homes and build some sort of floating device because there was going to be a huge flood. They were also told to take animals on their boats and to tell any sort of story to those who asked questions. Seven is also a common number in the tales, Utnapishtim lasted seven days building the ark, and Noah waited seven days for the dove to return with the olive leaf in his beak. This is also part of another similarity, both characters used doves to prove if it was safe to disembark at the time. Once on the ground, both characters made sacrifices to their Gods, and both Gods swore never to inflict such a punishment on their people ever again. If you look at them really closely, they are almost the same story except for some very small differences.This leads me to the following questions: Is it possible that the stories in the Bible are all (or most of them) copied from other civilizations? Is it possible that the Catholic Religion is not an original one, just a religion that takes bits from here an there, changing some things around? Please feel free to respond to my posts with your comments.