All through my Witness childhood I was constantly reminded (it seemed like at least) of the people of the "Days of Noah." The Watchtower would often point out the general dispositions the victims of the Global Flood had. "They took no note, and the were all washed away by the flood" or some respect.
As a kid this always irked me. Your telling me that God wiped out the earth AND the people had no idea what hit them? They died a horrific death, not ever getting to know where they erred? So they didn't listen to what really would look like the ravings of an old man. Noah went around telling everyone about doom and gloom and they didn't listen... who was Noah? Why should they believe him?
These types of questions would flood (heh, heh) my 12 year old brain. The only answer that made sense to me was that the Flood didn't happen the way the Bible said it happened. Time to rewrite the story using logic as the pen and paper!
Floods can be catastrophic disasters, especially the large ones. Flash floods have this odd characteristic... they affect unsuspecting victims... wrong place... wrong time... ya drowned, horribly.
So a flash flood came and killed a bunch of people (12 year old brain still talking here) I can be sure of that, and there were survivers. It must have been a seriously big flood. As the waters receded and life starting going back to normal the survivers must have started wondering what the hell happened, and more importantly why... they knew floods existed, but had never seen such devistating and death come from just a single flood. They must have started speculating as to the reason why it happened... a major contender for becoming the Reason would be "God was Pissed". So they ended up saying God did it. The survivers must have been righteous (cause God spared them) and the not-so-fortunate, well they must have been warned somehow and didn't heed it in time... they just took no note until they were washed away by The Great Flood Because God Was Pissed.
So the actual eye witnesses of this flood went about their life fully believing that God was behind the devistating flash flood. This is the period where the myth will start to form. Humans are imaginative and passionate (I believe more back then, actually) so they started getting more "colorful" with what actually happened.... Throw in a few thousand years and BAM! You got yourself Genuine Human History, baby!
-Sab