The Flood Legend

I've reading a number of articles and I'm still constantly amazed that many reputable scientists are still denying there was ever a Great flood despite the fact that nearly every culture around the globe mentions it, despite sunken cities are being found off Coastlines all the time and despite the fact that land and water sinking and rising is a natural phenomenon.

The Flood Legend is one of those that both Christians and non Christians can work together and investigate further. We may come to different conclusions and disagree with interpretation but The flood is an essential part of Christian History and a major event in the study of Pre History.

So this is what I propose...we list links and sources that may shed light on what the world was like before, during and immediately after the flood.

If we all contribute we will discover contrasting stories, similar stories and undoubtedly some bizzare stories but the more information we have the clearer the picture will hopefully be.

I think this is a good idea...what says you all?


[edit on 26-8-2005 by BobDylan]

[edit on 26-8-2005 by BobDylan]

This is a good site to start investigating

Ancient Religionshtm

Originally posted by BobDylan
I've reading a number of articles and I'm still constantly amazed that many reputable scientists are still denying there was ever a Great flood despite the fact that nearly every culture around the globe mentions it, despite sunken cities are being found off Coastlines all the time and despite the fact that land and water sinking and rising is a natural phenomenon.

Nearly every culture also has its own religion, but that doesn't mean there is a God or because nearly one billion people believe in Allah, Allah also exists. It just happens that supreme beings, floods, great fires, earthquakes etcetera are of great fascination to people.

Originally posted by BobDylan
I've reading a number of articles and I'm still constantly amazed that many reputable scientists are still denying there was ever a Great flood

Science works off of evidence. There is no evidence for a global flood. In fact, the evidence that is out there seems to indicate that there wasn't a flood, and that such a flood is rather immpossible.

despite the fact that nearly every culture around the globe mentions it,

Floods happen everywhere, hence stories about floods everywhere.

despite sunken cities are being found off Coastlines

Sea level changes. That doesn't mean that the entire globe was flooded.

all the time and despite the fact that land and water sinking and rising is a natural phenomenon.

The entire planet being covered by water is hardly in the same category as that.

The Flood Legend is one of those that both Christians and non Christians can work together and investigate further.

Its been investigated, there is no evidence for it.

So this is what I propose...we list links and sources that may shed light on what the world was like before, during and immediately after the flood.

Please demonstrate that a global flood occured first.

If I'm not mistaken, at the time of the writing of the bible, the "Entire world" consisted of the mesopotamian region of the world. There are documented cases of the tigris and euphrates rivers flooding. If you put two and two together, there WAS a flood, but it only encompassed that area, not the whole world as we know it today.

What is strange is that i see sea shells 500 feet up in the mountains

Originally posted by Son of the lost maji
What is strange is that i see sea shells 500 feet up in the mountains

Some mountains form when tectonic plates smash into eachother.. it's much more logical to to conclude that it was part of the ocean floor that was forced up and not the sea level.

[edit on 27-8-2005 by riley]

Originally posted by Son of the lost maji
What is strange is that i see sea shells 500 feet up in the mountains

Why is this strange?? The seashells found are of types that are extinct and that correleate with types that are from lower lying formations that are of great age. The formations that they are found in are strongly folded, indicating that the rock was under immense pressure for a great amount of time, and the overall tectonic structure indicates that the mountains are composed of rock layers that have been built up and folded into mountains via the forces of colliding tectonic plates.

there is also the possibiltiy that the biblical flood legend is an account of a post glacial catastrophic flood, of which there were plenty.

I think there's something to the 'post-glacial' catastrophe--and I think a catastrophic deluge might have happened twice.

Here is a pretty good link. This one is pretty good, too.

Originally posted by queenannie38
Here is a pretty good link.This one is pretty good, too.[/

That site is very poorly researched.

Ironically, the scientific views on the question of origins have a tendency to go full circle. Although catastrophism was rejected by exponents of the theory of evolution, many scientists are today returning to catastrophism and even to the Biblical account of the flood to explain many of the features of the geological column and the fossil record.

A patent untruth. What argument from those pages did you find most convincing?

It was a noble idea.
I have done this and have compiled a nice heap of flood stories from around the world. Creation stories also. People who know that bible history are always amazed at how the legends from cultures around the world agree and fall into line with the bible.
Dont be put off by those who dont want to investigate. Go ahead and do it.

Let us deconstruct archaeological evidence of floods by way of comparison today as reconstructed from evidence 5,000 years hence, and let us further place the floods of today along the lines of engineering capabilities of 2,000 years ago.

Eight months ago a gigantic wave erased the shorelines of impoverished areas far away from North America. Today, torrential rains and floods caused waist high flood waters within a matter of hours in areas heavily reliant on the latest engineering and technological advances in dams and levees, and where the land has been modified by wood; steel and asphalt. Not only are these two parts of the globe thousands of miles apart, they are like day and night in engineering capability.

Now consider that today happened thouands of years ago where today,geologists are left to determine silt changes. Not only can they not determine an eight month event differential, all they can attest to is that Indonesia; Sri Lanka and the like, along with the Gulf coast of North America shows evidence of extreme flooding. The conclusion then according to Biblial adherents would be that both provide evidence of a global flood.

In fact, there was no global flood, and in fact, while one vacinity was eclipsed by the waters from wind and rain, the other was buried by virtue of the fact that earth ruptured.


Evidence of flooding as recorded by just about every country below sea level , and every country with poor drainage, and every country with a river which swells and cannot be controlled, is hardly evidence of global flooding, much less one as idiotic as put forth by those who attempted to explain the end of their meagre piece of land which they concluded was the whole earth.

Originally posted by jake1997
It was a noble idea.
I have done this and have compiled a nice heap of flood stories from around the world. Creation stories also. People who know that bible history are always amazed at how the legends from cultures around the world agree and fall into line with the bible.
Dont be put off by those who dont want to investigate. Go ahead and do it.

post hoc ergo propter hoc

I hope this might be the type of info for which you are looking:

www.drdino.com...

Originally posted by jake1997
Dont be put off by those who dont want to investigate.

Please show how, in the course of your investigations, you have been able to show that a global flood occurred.

TC
www.drdino.com...

What from that page did you find the most convincing?

Did a GLOBAL flood ever happen? I don't know, but I seriously doubt it.

Did the flood mentioned in the bible happen? Being a believer, I would say yes. So, how is it I believe the bible account, yet I do not believe a GLOBAL flood happened? Simple:

In the Hebrew language, the word for "World" is "Tebel", and is referenced 36 times. Not one single reference regards the flood. The word used to identify WHAT was flooded is "erets", which is translated "LAND" 1543 times, "EARTH" 712 times, and "COUNTRY" 140 times. In the case where it is translated Earth, the reader must be re-educated to understand the PLANET Earth was NOT being referenced, since at the time, it is likely they had no clue they were living on a huge ball floating in space that ONLY TODAY do we call Planet Earth. My point; if the whole WORLD were flooded, then the word used would have undoubtedly been "Tebel", NOT, "erets". It is foolish thinking which claims that Noah and 7 others collected ONE BILLION SPECIES and fit them all into a boat, such thinking STRENGTHENS the arguments of nonbelievers that say the bible must be a fairy tale. Think of it this way, imagine for a moment, the Old World as One Continent (a land mass of approx 57 million sq mi[149 million sq km]). Then get to one corner of this massive continent, say somewhere in South America, and then collect one pair of animals from the one billion different species of animals that exist between there and Russia, a distance greater than 7560 mi [12166 km], and remember, YOU CAN ONLY TRAVEL AS FAST AS THE SLOWEST ANIMAL. And you have to feed them all during the time you are collecting them, as well as during the time they are on the boat.

Once you realize just how unrealistic the above scenario is, you begin to understand the unbeliever a little better. However, there really is no need, since their position is based on the christian fallacy that the entire globe was once under water, and in a boat lived one billion species of animals for a whole year. It is highly unlikely that man would have spread to every corner of this super continent. That being the case, to wipe out man, God only needed to flood the region inhabited by man (very likely a small region, probably no bigger than a square encompassing Turkey, Syria, Irag, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and half of Saudi Arabia). Also, Noah would have only needed to save those species that were NOT FOUND in any other regions of the world. In other words, Noah only needed to concern himself with saving a species indigenous only to the local region. God did not want to be the cause of mass extinctions of hundreds, or perhaps, thousands, of species. There would be no reason for Noah to have in the Ark, elephants, lions, bears, dogs, etc.

Now, since Noah repopulated the earth, it becomes painfully obvious how so many cultures have a flood story, it originated with Granpa Noah !!! In fact, for a christian to say otherwise is too look rather silly himself, since what he is saying is that pre-flood cultures SURVIVED the flood, and passed the story onto their descendants.

Hey, at some time in a christian's life, one has to grow up and dare to question if their teachers have the Truth or NOT, ortherwise, they'll just end up BEING THEM, teaching MYTHOLOGY and calling it christian doctrine.

[edit on 30-8-2005 by Behold]

Originally posted by Behold

... get to one corner of this massive continent, say somewhere in South America, and then collect one pair of animals from the one billion different species of animals that exist between there and Russia ...

FYI: Even if Noah had 120 years (43,830 days) in which to collect all these animals, it would mean he would have to collect over 45,000 animals (22,500 pairs) EACH AND EVERY DAY. It would mean he would be removing many of these animals from their natural environment, where they prey on food, and he would have to feed them for the 120 years it would take to collect the number. It is so unrealistic you have to be plain foolish to believe it happened that way. But, read the bible, and toss out the mythological teachings you get at sunday school, and then perhaps you'll see a more realistic scenario. Every portion of the bible shows a God that works thru realistic and natural means.

Yeah you tell 'em Behold.

Originally posted by Nygdan
www.drdino.com...

What from that page did you find the most convincing?

Admitadly the site isn't very well referenced, but I think you will find lots of worth in it:

1. Over 250 Flood legends from all parts of the world have been found. Most have similarities to the Genesis story.

Well all the flood stories I know involve water and, err, land being sumberged. How much more evidence do you need?

10. Only land-dwelling, air-breathing animals had to be included on the ark (Gen. 7:15, "in which is the breath of life," 7:22). Noah did not need to bring all the thousands of insects varieties.

As insects dont breath air, as they err, live under water or something, Noah didn't need to get them on the Ark.

6. The ark may have had large drogue (anchor) stones suspended over the sides to keep it more stable in rough weather. Many of these stones have been found in the region where the ark landed.

Yes, the fact that they have found stones in Turkey proves beyond doubt that a global flood occured.

11. Many animals sleep, hibernate, or become very inactive during bad weather.

Yes, it is well know that during global flooding many animals go to sleep, making them easier to get on the big boat while it was raining.

16. There is enough water in the oceans right now to cover the earth 8,000 feet deep if the surface of the earth were smooth.

I know this is quite hard to get your head round (certainly made mine hurt) but once you work it out it is obvious.

And here is the clincher that is unarguable proof of the great flood:

21. Petrified clams in the closed position (found all over the world) testify to their rapid burial while they were still alive, even on top of Mount Everest.

Personally I'm not sure why this only applies to clams, but there you go.


Nygdan - Me and Dr Dino could go on embarrasing you with cold hard facts (there are many more of such quality) but I'm worried you might cry and never come back to ATS.

If you simply agree that was a global flood 6,000 years ago and Noah saved the animals on a big boat I will let you off and we can forget about the whole thing ever happened.