Noahs Arc or Utnapishtims Boat?

"Take with you, on the boat you build, an instance of each thing living so that they may be sae from obliteration in the flood. " (pg66)
This section of the book reminds me to the christian story of noahs arc. It is based on the story of a man who makes a boat really big in which he saves a pair of each kind of living things and helps them survive a terrible flood. After the inundation the only survivors are the creatures that got protection in the boat. When the rain finally stops, in both stories, the main character lets out birds until they finally come back with a sign of land so they are able to start again from the begining.
This helps us realize how many of the stories of the church can be based on tales of stories we consider unreal while we have our complete trust on the fact that the bible tells us only truth. We might be able to find many other similar stories to the epics told in the bible.