The Noahs Ark World Wide Flood

[DUSTY]

Noahs world wide flood. Historical Fact? Fictional story to teach a lesson? Myth based on smaller incident?
What is your opinion and why?

The basics of the World Wide Flood story .... Noah was a good man who was dedicated to God.
He had a wife and three sons. They each had a wife. God decided that human creation was too sinful
to continue and He decided to wipe them all out and start over with just Noah and his family.
So God told Noah to build a big boat and that two of every kind of animal would come and be on
the boat to be saved. God then sent the rains and it rained for 40 days and nights, flooding the
earth to a mile over the highest mountains. Then, like a year later, the flood waters left and
Noah and his family landed on a mountain near where he started out and they restarted civilization.

There are 46 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament.
Each one was by a different author at a different time period.
Some are historical - as from the Hebrew perspective. Some are myth. Some are legend. Some are figurative poetry.
Some are allegory. Some are parables. Some are exaggerations on smaller real events. etc etc etc

So where does the Noahs Ark world wide flood story fit into all this?
There is a lot of information to consider. This thread will discuss that information.
Please feel free to add to it as you wish.

 

[DUSTY]

We can start a discussion with a timeline. If we read the bible literally, the Noahs Ark flood would have been 2349 BC.
I had an Orthodox Jew check my numbers and he says they are spot on. And I checked a few bible websites and my
numbers seem to match up well. So, according to the bible, the world wide flood would have been just 4368 years ago
(plus or minus).

God created everything. Genesis 1–2 year 0
Adam became the father of Seth at 130. Genesis 5:3 0 + 130 = 130
Seth became the father of Enosh at 105. Genesis 5:6 130 + 105 = 235
Enosh became the father of Kenan at 90. Genesis 5:9 235 + 90 = 325
Cainan became the father of Mahalalel at 70. Genesis 5:12 325 + 70 = 395
Mahalalel became the father of Jared at 65. Genesis 5:15 395 + 65 = 460
Jared became the father of Enoch at 162. Genesis 5:18 460 + 162 = 622
Enoch became the father of Methuselah at 65. Genesis 5:21 622 + 65 = 687
Methuselah became the father of Lamech at 187. Genesis 5:25 687 + 187 = 874
Lamech became the father of Noah at 182. Genesis 5:28 874 + 182 = 1056
The Flood started when Noah was 600. Genesis 7:6 1056 + 600 = 1656

The flood was 1656 years from creation according to scripture..

After the Flood was Shem (600), Aphraxad (436), Salah (433), Eber (464), Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Trah, birth of Abraham, Genesis 11:26,32, and Genesis 12:4

This takes you to the 430 year Sojourn of Israel. This includes the timelines/lives of Abraham, Issac, Jacob and Joseph. Jacob's family entered Egypt, Genesis 47:9–28.

This takes us to Moses and Joshua and the 'Exodus from Egypt. Exodus 12:40–41. This was 1500 B.C.

We then have 479 years during 'The Judges' (scripture). Saul, David, and Solomon. King Solomon ends 37 years of rule. Well documented death of 931 BC. End of Solomon's reign, 2 Chronicles 9:30.

We then have 387 years of Kings. From 2 Chronicles: 17 Rehoboam 9:31; 12:13; 3 Abijah 13:1–2; 41 Asa 16:13; 25 Jehoshaphat 20:31; (2*)+4+(2*) Jehoram 21:5, 20; 1 Ahaziah 22:1–2; 6 Athaliah 22:12; 40 Joash 24:1; (1*)+28 Amaziah 25:1; 52 Uzziah 26:1–3; 16 Jotham 27:1, 8; 16 Ahaz 28:1; (1*)+28 Hezekiah 29:1; 55 Manasseh 33:1; 2 Amon 33:21; 31 Josiah 34:1; ¼ Jehoahaz 36:1–2; 11 Jehoiakim; 36:4–5; ¼ Jehoiachin 36:9; 11 Zedekiah 36:11 . 2nd Chronicles, 1 Kings and 2nd Kings. Elisha and Elija during this time period. Assyrian Captivity, 2 Kings 17:1–6. These are documented both in scripture AND IRL (in real life).

The 20 kings of the Southern Kingdom are also discussed in 1 & 2 Kings and 2nd Chronicles. Their timelines come into the 387 years of Kings.

Ezra and Esther take us to 500 BC.

500 BC +/- gives us well documented - End of the reign of Zedekiah, 2 Chronicles 36:11–21, First Temple Destroyed, Second temple completed, Ezra 6:15–18.

From 500 BC +/- we have Daniel's Seventy Sevens. This is 490 years. Bringing us to YEAR 0 (+/-)... Jesus Birth.

The flood was 1656 years from creation according to scripture..
And Creation would have been in the year 4004 BC.
The flood would have been 2349 years before Jesus was born.

Math for BIBLICAL TIMELINE CLICK HERE

Complete Timeline According to Scripture

 

[DUSTY]

What was happening in the world and with people in that time period - 2349 BC?

http://www.churchofscience-intl.com/2016/07/the-story-of-noahs-ark-is-historically-scientifically-and-mathematically-impossible/
Ship Building 4,000 years ago. This was an era in which the extent of advanced naval technology was hollowed out logs and reed rafts. He would have had no source of information nor experience to help guide him through the building process.

The ancient civilizations of Egypt, India and China were very active and growing. Archeological evidence shows no break in their civilizations. They continued to grow and prosper and expand during this time period.

The 5th and 6th dynasties were going strong.
And there was no interruption to the Egyptian culture.
https://www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/egypt02-01enl.html

Mature Harappan phase of the Indus Valley Civilization begins. The cities of Harappa, Lothal, Kalibangan, Dholavira, Rakhigarhi and Mohenjo-daro become large metropolises and the civilization expands to over 2,500 cities and settlements. The civilization began using the mature Indus script.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Indian_history
http://www.culturalindia.net/indian-history/timeline.html - Cultural India - History Timeline Click Here

https://www.ancient.eu/timeline/china/ - Ancient China Time Line - Click Here
c. 3,000 BCE - c. 1,700 BCE - The Longshan culture flourishes in north-east China.
c. 2,700 BCE - The earliest known examples of woven silk from Qianshanyang, China.
c. 2,070 BCE - c. 1,600 BCE - The Xia Dynasty rules in China.

From 2,000 BC ... which would have been just 300 years after the alleged flood.
It was fully populated and going strong.
http://www.indiana.edu/~e232/Time1.html Indiana University - China Timeline from 2,000 BC to present.

 

[Lisa]

What does the Bible say happened..which matters more!

Genesis‬ ‭6:5-14, 17-22‬ ‭
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch.

Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them.” Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.
‭‭
So because of the violence and corruption that was on the earth, God brought a flood and decided to establish the covenant with the only good man on the earth..Noah. So He saved Noah, Noah’s wife and Noah’s sons and daughter in laws. He also made provision to bring the male and female of all animals on the ark to save them as well.

 

[Red Sky at Morning]

I thought this was a pretty good overview of the subject...

There are certain anomalies in the mainstream account of geology that certainly make better sense with a catastrophic flood rather than uniformitarian processes. A good topic to look into with an open mind!

 

[DUSTY]

What does the Bible say happened..which matters more!
.

That's the point. The bible says one thing happened ... and history/archeology/science say something else happened.
A tradition cannot make an historical claim and then refuse to have it evaluated by history

 

[DUSTY]

I thought this was a pretty good overview of the subject...

There is pretty good scientific evidence of a massive localized flood in the middle east, which is what the Noahs Flood myth could be based on. It obviously didn't cover the whole world. But it looks like the Sumerian story could be based on that from long ago and the Hebrews just adapted it (changed it) to fit their culture and narrative.

Scientific Evidence Against A World Wide Flood - Click Here

Because this flood was intended by God to destroy all flesh on earth (Genesis 6:13) and because sedimentary rocks on all continents contain fossils that supposedly represent the "destroyed flesh of all life," it might be thought that the Bible story, describing a wholeearth flood, was true. However, interlayered with these fossil-bearing sedimentary rocks on all continents are layers of evaporite rock salt (sodium chloride), gypsum (hydrated calcium sulfate), anhydrite (calcium sulfate), and various potash and magnesium salts, which are associated with red beds (shales) containing fossilized mud cracks (Schreiber and others 2007).

Many of these mineral compounds and red beds have combined thicknesses on different continents of more than one kilometer (~3,281 feet) (Collins 2006). The red beds are red because they contain red hematite (iron oxide) which formed from magnetite grains that were oxidized while the muds were exposed to oxygen in open air. The mud cracks can form only under drying conditions that cause the mud to shrink and form polygonal cracks. The evaporite mineral compounds in the layers are deposited in the correct chemical order predicted by the solubility of each kind of ion in these compounds and whose increasing concentrations during the evaporation of water would cause them to precipitate in a predictable depositional sequence as the water volume decreased. Such evaporite deposits would be expected to occur where a marine sea was once present and to disappear when the sea became completely dry. Therefore, one could expect these evaporites to be at the top of the supposed Noachian Flood deposits when the water supposedly receded and the land dried out, but certainly not in different levels in between older and younger fossiliferous "Flood deposits".

We read in the Bible that there is only one time in which the Flood waters are said to recede and leave the earth dry. That is, no multiple worldwide climatic conditions are described in which flooding, then drying to a dry earth, more flooding, more drying to a dry earth, in repeated cycles that occur over and over again in that Flood year. On that basis, it is logical that all the kinds of evaporite deposits and red beds in many different levels in the supposed Noachian Flood deposits could form only in local climates with desert drying-conditions and could not possibly have formed all at the same time — a time when a flood covered the whole earth for more than one year (Collins 2006). On that basis, the Noachian Flood story cannot describe a whole-earth flood, but it could only represent a large regional flood
[/quote]

 

[Red Sky at Morning]

There is pretty good scientific evidence of a massive localized flood in the middle east, which is what the Noahs Flood myth could be based on. It obviously didn't cover the whole world. But it looks like the Sumerian story could be based on that from long ago and the Hebrews just adapted it (changed it) to fit their culture and narrative.

What do you make of the fact that the proportions and shape of the Biblical Ark would have made it both seaworthy (in fact highly resistant to extreme waves etc)

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/could-noahs-ark-float-theory-yes-180950385/

...as well as theoretically being large enough to fit in the required animals and food...

https://arkencounter.com/noahs-ark/size/



while the Sumerian equivalent was shaped like a disc with a large tent on top?



To me, it begs the question, which was the original and which was “based on a true story”?

 

[DUSTY]

What do you make of the fact that the proportions and shape of the Biblical Ark would have made it both seaworthy (in fact highly resistant to extreme waves etc)

The people of 2400 bc didn't have the ability to build the ship. The instructions would have been great if it could have been done. But they couldn't have built it. They didn't know how.

...as well as theoretically being large enough to fit in the required animals and food...

Actually ... no. 2 of every critter species from around the world? plus their food. plus a years worth of fresh water. plus taking into account that many had special diets and many could only survive in certain climates? No. Just two of every species of beetle would have filled the boat to capacity.

 

[DUSTY]

FISH AND PLANTS CLICK HERE

…Fish…

The seemingly immune marine life could have fared no better than their terrestrial counterparts because, first of all, the rapid mixture of salt and fresh water from the conglomeration of various pure water sources would have killed all known marine creatures in a matter of hours. End of story. Of course, that is not really the end of the story. Like terrestrial creatures, some marine species have very specific requirements for their habitats. One such example would be the delicate breeding ground for salmon. The violent floodwaters would have certainly eradicated these fragile aspects of their environment. Similarly, the force of the rainfall would instigate an integration of large mud deposits with the now semi-salty water. This scenario would undoubtedly create an increasingly lethal environment for marine life requiring crystal clear water.

The required five-mile rise in the global water level would have drastically altered the pressure exerted within the ocean and forced many species to leave their only hospitable levels in order to avoid a pressure-inducing death by implosion. You may also recall that the oceans should already be boiling from subterranean lava, outer space asteroids, torrential raindrop impacts, and whatever else might be necessary to maintain apologetic proposals. Remarkably, we could consider salt and mud to be the least of the threats against aquatic survival.

…Plants

The world’s vegetation should also join the growing list of organisms without immunity from the effects of the morally shameful flood. Many plant species could not have survived throughout their continuous submersion in water, especially if the flood introduced them to the new saline mixture. Even so, is it possible that the vegetation could have vanquished, yet left viable seeds to continue their species as many have suggested? The answer is no for several reasons.

The flood would have buried the vast majority of vegetative offspring under hundreds of feet of sediment, far too deep for successful sprouting. Similarly, many seeds cannot survive the lengthy, yet necessary duration of the flood without undergoing germination. Others cannot germinate unless they’ve been exposed to fire or ingested by an animal, two specific conditions extremely unlikely to occur within the drenched post-flood era of tremendously reduced animal populations.

To compound the vegetative problems further, not all plants produce seeds as a method of reproduction. The common, nontextual, apologetic hypothesis proposes that Noah brought seeds onto the ark to assure plant survival, but this amateurish guess obviously fails to address the aforementioned problems. As I mentioned earlier, these obvious errors originally went unnoticed because ancient Hebrews almost certainly didn’t appreciate the living quality of plants as we do today. A wonderful case in point is the ridiculous inclusion of the dove returning and olive leaf that absolutely could not have had time to germinate after the flood (Genesis 8:11).

 

[DUSTY]

PEOPLE CLICK HERE

All the grueling but necessary maintenance undertaken by Noah and company would have certainly led to lethal levels of exhaustion if the tasks were successfully completed. In reality, Noah’s family couldn’t have accomplished waste sanitation alone because the crude layout of the ark requires them to carry the manure from the lower decks above the water line for disposal. Let’s also not forget that Noah’s family still has feeding duties along with whatever else the enormous crew at the San Diego Zoo accomplishes every day. All the while, Noah’s family would have to tackle and complete these superhuman tasks while serving as living hosts for viruses, bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms capable of producing pathologically based ailments in humans. A population of eight obviously had no chance to survive this fatal concoction of illnesses. If everyone had gone onboard disease-free, the microorganisms would have nowhere to thrive. Likewise, the animals carrying their own specific parasitic problems could not have realistically survived such turmoil. It should be a foregone conclusion that the author wasn’t well versed in the microorganism theory of disease.

Ignoring all these factors working against humans surviving the forty days of utter chaos, Noah’s family also lacked a sufficient gene pool to guarantee continuation of our species once the ark landed. Even if we assume that they were successful in surviving against these unprecedented odds, could we have all descended from only eight original members? Genetic markers, such as DNA, are excellent timekeepers to determine the interval back to a common ancestor. Since delving into the subject in sufficient detail would require a book in itself, just understand that it’s possible to observe the deviation of DNA strands by retroactively measuring them to a common strand. This period back to a common ancestor has been determined to be tens of thousands of years, an age remarkably consistent with the ones established for human civilization remains through previously mentioned dating methods. We do not see the five thousand years that our DNA would reveal if all humans descended from the sole survivors of God’s flood.

 

[DUSTY]

Vegetation click here

Noah's responsibilities did not end with animals, for without plants all life would perish. Whitcomb and Morris grant that many seeds were aboard the ark in the food stores (p. 70) but quote fellow creationist Walter Lammerts to the effect that "many thousands" of plants survived either upon their own "arks" of floating debris or simply by experiencing a rather thorough watering and then sprouted again as soon as the sun came out. George Howe, too, referring to an experiment where three of five species showed germination after twenty weeks of soaking in sea water, concluded that the survival rate through dormancy would have been high (December 1968). However, two of these three sprouted only when their seed coats were scarified (cut). This presents a special problem. The abrasive force of the deluge would have easily scarified the seed coats, but this would have been too soon. The seeds would have sprouted under water and died. But after the flood waters receded and the seeds were exposed to dry land, what would guarantee their being scarified then? Howe's experiments failed to properly duplicate the conditions required by the flood model and hence his work offers no support for seed survival during the deluge.

In reality, seed dormancy is a complex affair and involves metabolic and environmental prerequisites for entrance into and recovery from the state as well as several forms of quiescence. The vast majority of seeds which become dormant do so in order to endure cold temperatures or prolonged drought, and in the warm flood waters most would germinate immediately and then drown for lack of oxygen (cf. Villiers).

The waters weren't the only thing that would bury them, however, for huge deposits of silt and lava would have been laid down as well, entombing entire forests and paving the way for coal and oil formation. Today the surface of the ground consists of 80 percent Phanerozoic rock and only 20 percent Precambrian ("pre-diluvian"), the latter found mostly in large shields and entirely absent in many areas (Kummel, p. 87). These shields themselves would have been eroded to the bedrock by the flooding ("the vegetation would have been uprooted . . . leaving no protection at all for the exposed soils"—Whitcomb and Morris, p. 261), and in the rest of the world the few seeds that may have survived would have faced the task of pushing up a sprout through thousands of feet of mud and rock.

 

[DUSTY]

Water Click Here

As the title of this section indicates, we’ll now look at a few problems created by the water supply, most notably the lack thereof. The amount necessary to produce a flood of global proportions far exceeds the current amount available on, in, and above the earth. While this doesn’t prove the water wasn’t present, the burden of proof is on those who defend the story to provide it with a plausible explanation. As the “fountains of the deep” (Genesis 7:11) contain only 1% of the necessary water, 99% would have to fall from the supposed sky ocean. Thus, the goal of covering every mountain with only forty days’ worth of precipitation would require a rainfall of six inches per minute, which is far too tremendous for the primitive ark to remain intact. In great contrast, we would typically expect a rainfall of only six inches per hour from a category five hurricane. One can only decide that this requirement is hardly feasible to carry out, especially when the heat generated by the impact of the raindrops on the flood surface would have been more than sufficient to boil the water and prevent it from rising.

The water originating from underneath the earth’s surface would erupt with noxious gases, such as sulfuric acid, that would make their way into the atmosphere and cause the earth to become uninhabitable. The lava expected to accompany the subterranean water would also bring the already scalding liquid to its boiling point. Furthermore, if the oceans somehow miraculously avoided vaporization, nothing would have prevented the water from receding beneath the earth once the outpour ceased unless the pressure exerted by the water above collapsed the previous passageways. Such a scenario would then force the water to remain or evaporate. Since the water is no longer present and the clouds in the supposed sky ocean don’t have the capacity to hold this amount of liquid, we can only assume that it mysteriously vanished. However, the problems of the water’s source and destination are moot points since the entire ocean should have almost instantaneously been converted to steam. In fact, the steam rising from the ocean beds would have been concentrated enough to boil off the planet’s atmosphere.

Keep in mind that this tale would make sense to the early Hebrew who apparently believed there was an oceanic reservoir in the sky (Genesis 1:6-7). If a mysterious canopy of water existed above the earth at one time, as some Christians have offered as an explanation for the origin of the water, the mass of liquid would raise the atmospheric pressure enough to cause a dramatic increase of oxygen and nitrogen to toxic levels. Such a canopy would also extend beyond the ozone layer, a problem concluding with the denaturation of water molecules by high levels of ultraviolet light. If you subtract the requisite of covering the world’s highest mountains, of which we have no reason to believe the story’s inventors were aware, most of these problems would conveniently disappear. As it stands, however, the necessary water requirement is too extraordinary for covering the earth’s surface by fifteen cubits.

 

[elsbet]

That's the point. The bible says one thing happened ... and history/archeology/science say something else happened.
A tradition cannot make an historical claim and then refuse to have it evaluated by history

History, archaeology and science are of one, single, united opinion? My God... I didn't know that!

~

FLOOD
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS

​

​

 

[A.J.]

You mean scientism? Those people who defy their own methods, who claim something cannot come from nothing then defy their own claims? Who defy the limited reality of mutation, adaption, selection and in the end evolution? The scientists that perpetuate racism and genetic superiority over the sanctity of all living beings.....​

​

good luck with that!​

 

[Red Sky at Morning]

The people of 2400 bc didn't have the ability to build the ship. The instructions would have been great if it could have been done. But they couldn't have built it. They didn't know how.


Actually ... no. 2 of every critter species from around the world? plus their food. plus a years worth of fresh water. plus taking into account that many had special diets and many could only survive in certain climates? No. Just two of every species of beetle would have filled the boat to capacity.

@DUSTY - I get that you come from a position of disliking people who take the Bible to be the Word of God. Many of your responses reveal your assumptions about the where the weight of scientific evidence lies. Just a couple of observations in the above...

1: Take the Dark Ages - someone who looked at European society then would be amazed at the fact that the cultures thousands of years before were far more advanced. All it takes to make a generation of unearned and unsophisticated folk is a couple of generations, especially after a cataclysmic event. On the technological side, have you ever looked into the maths in the Great Pyramid?

https://www.vigilantcitizenforums.com/threads/the-cornerstone-the-capstone-and-the-pyramid.4727/

2: Beetles don’t have nostrils!

Genesis 7:22-23 King James Version (KJV)

22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

3: Much as I feel drawn to engage in a blow by blow battle, for now as I’m on holiday with my kids I submit a few resources for anyone who is interested in delving into both sides of the debate...

On a “show and tell” level, I found it interesting that many of the practical dimensions, storage, seaworthiness questions are presented in a concrete way at https://arkencounter.com

Rather than break the forum with another 49 copy-pasted articles, I suggest anyone wishing to hear some evidence FOR the Biblical account check out the link below ;-)

https://creation.com/topics/global-flood

 

[DUSTY]

To me, it begs the question, which was the original and which was “based on a true story”?

At least some of the jewish rabbis are now admitting the Noahs story is based on the Sumerian one.
Even the Jewish Rabbis are having to admit the story isn't literally true.

Jewish Learning Click Here

The great flood was the deluge in which God destroyed all mankind (with the exception of Noah and his family) because of their evil deeds, as told in the book of Genesis (6:9-9:28). The mythical nature of the flood narrative has often been noted, especially in the account of the animals coming in two by two into Noah’s Ark, which is not a huge ship but a comparatively small, box-like structure. Moreover, parallels to the flood story are found in ancient Babylonian myths, especially in the Gilgamesh epic in which the gods decide to destroy mankind because people are disturbing them by making too much noise!

Orthodox Judaism, stressing that the whole of the Pentateuch (the Five Books of Moses) is the very word of God, accepts the narrative as factually true in all its details; although Chief Rabbi J. H. Hertz is prepared to admit that the Pentateuchal narrative is paralleled in the Babylonian myth. Hertz’s view is that the narrative is factual. There really was a flood of universal proportions and Noah is a historical figure, both the Babylonian myth and the Genesis narrative being no more than different versions of the same facts.

Even on the critical view that the Genesis narrative is mythical and that there is more than one account combined in the present form of the narrative, the critics readily note the vast difference between the monotheistic account of the Torah and the polytheistic Babylonian account. In the Babylonian myth, for instance, Ut-Napishtim, the Babylonian Noah, is saved by the god of whom he was a special favorite and he himself eventually became a god, unlike in the biblical account in which Noah is a righteous man, saved because of his righteousness.

On this view, the biblical authors used the ancient myth to create a myth of their own, but one infused with moral concern in the monotheistic vein. Many modern Jewish scholars and thinkers, while acknowledging the mythical elements in the Genesis narrative and its indebtedness to the Babylonian epic, maintain that the narrative is in part at least factual, although, naturally, it is impossible to determine how much is history and how much legend.

Beyond the particular problem of the Flood, the whole discussion centers on the question of the degree to which the Bible conveys infallible information on all matters, and this questions turns on how the traditional doctrine “the Torah is from heaven” is to be understood.

 

[shankara]

The reason the story about the flood is found in a lot of different cultures with slight variation is because it's about Atlantis. In the Bible God says:

"And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth."

Which is to say that this present civilization will be destroyed by fire.

 

[DUSTY]

History, archaeology and science are of one, single, united opinion? My God... I didn't know that!

​

History, archaeology and science all point to the same educated conclusion based on the facts - there was no Noahs Ark World Wide flood. There was, however, a localized middle eastern flood that was 15 feet deep or so that went through the area and that is what could have been the basis for the much exaggerated Noahs Flood myth.

https://ncse.com/cej/8/2/flood-mesopotamian-archaeological-evidence

 

[DUSTY]

You mean scientism?​

No. I mean reality. Noahs world wide flood didn't happen.