While some scholars have offered possible explanations for the origins of the flood myth including a legendary retelling of a possible Black Sea deluge, the general mythological exaggeration and implausibility of the story are widely recognized by relevant academic fields. The acknowledgement of this follows closely the development of understanding of the natural history and especially the geology and paleontology of the planet ("Genesis flood narrative." Wikipedia.).I will grant that a global flood is not something anyone living has seen.
"The Flood?" Answers in Genesis. 2016. Web. March 5, 2016.
With no one living to tell the tale, I'll turn again to present-day facts and widespread beliefs:
- No worldwide flood in modern, accepted history
- This requires no specific sources.
- Genesis 9:11, "'I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.'"
- The rainbow, broadly visible to both man and beast following rainstorms
- This requires no specific sources.
- Genesis 9:12-15, "God said, 'This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.'"
- Giants (i.e. very tall people, often of great strength, some with more than the normal number of toes/fingers)
- Robert Wadlow, native of Illinois, reached 8 ft 11.1 in.
- Anna Swan, Canadian, reached 7 ft 6 in.
- Pranamya Menaria and Devendra Harne, Indian, having 25 total fingers & toes.
- Andre the Giant (a.k.a. the giant "Fezzik" in The Princess Bride movie), French, was a wrestler and reached 7 ft 4 in.
- Jorge Gonzales, Argentinian, was the tallest World Wrestling Federation member, reaching 7 ft 7in.
- Genesis 6:4, "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown."
- Numbers 13:32-33, "So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, 'The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.'"
- II Samuel 21:20-21, "There was war at Gath again, where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also had been born to the giant. When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, struck him down."
- Multicultural accounts of a great flood similar to Noah's
- Escape in an ark/chest:
- Flood covering the mountains:
- Survival of only a few people and pairs of animals:
- Sending out a bird/animal to discover if the waters had subsided:
- Genesis 7:13-20, "On the very same day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark, they and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, all sorts of birds. So they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which was the breath of life. Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the LORD closed it behind him. Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth. The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. The water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered. The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered."
- Ability of ancients to build large boats
"How large was Noah's Ark?" Answers in Genesis. 2016. Web. March 5, 2016.
- The Leontifera and a 420 ft long later model
- Chinese junks over 400 ft long
- Egyptian ship made of cedar around 450 ft long
- Genesis 6:14-16, "'Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.'"
- Length = 300 cubits = ~450 ft
- Breadth = 50 cubits = ~75 ft
- Height = 30 cubits = ~45 ft
- Worldwide fossil beds
- Essentially no need for a specific source. Here is one general reference.
- Genesis 6:17, "'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.'"
- Rapid Fossilization
- Fossilization largely occurs when animal/creature/plant is buried in mud, quickly enough to avoid complete decay.
- Rapid petrifaction of wood with volcanic eruption.
- Fossilization of soft tissue: "The Medusa Effect"
But specimens where no phosphate could be seen still yielded small pieces of phosphatized soft tissue.Tissue types so far recovered include muscle fibres with banding present (Fig.6). Some muscle fibres display ultrastructure and show fibrils and even cell nuclei arranged in neat rows (Fig.7). Underneath the scales small pieces of dermis (skin) are preserved and show thin sheets of muscle and connective tissue. A female Notelops had ovaries with developing eggs inside, and one egg even had phosphatized yolk.
Martill, David M. "The Medusa effect: instantaneous fossilization." Geology Today (1989): 203. Web. Feb. 5, 2016.
- 80-day mineralization of plants: "Understanding fossilization: Experimental pyritization of plants"
- Genesis 7:11-8:5, "In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights . . . Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth . . . In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. The water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible."
