Christians - Do you believe the flood occurred?

AlmostAtheist

When I was a Bible believer, I accepted the flood. The frozen mammoths and seashells on mountaintops were "evidence", but the only needed proof was simply that the Bible said so.

As a Christian, do you believe the flood story?

If not, why do you think it's in the Bible?

I'm also interested in any "sort of" beliefs involving for instance more localized flooding and why you think the Bible supports that view.

This isn't meant to be a "prove there was/prove there wasn't" thread, but more of a poll of those that believe in the Bible and their views on the flood.

Dave

Hecklerboy

I don't believe the flood happened as written in the bible. I think it's more of a moral story to show how listening to God can save you life and the life of your family.

I believe the story came from older versions of the same story from different cultures. The story of Gilgamesh for example is almost identical to the flood story and was told hundreds of years earlier.

I'm thinking it was more of a local flood that devastated everything in sight. Essintially destroying their "world".

I also have a great article on some great reasoning as to why the flood never happened. If anyones interested.

GetBusyLiving

LOL. Okay, I'm a Christian who doesn't believe the global flood happened. Or that the Bible was referring to a local flood because of the contextual problems. Or that Jesus was entirely serious about damning homosexuality. Or that the counsel from the Bible has to be entirely followed. Or that Jesus is the almighty God and all non-Christian religions are wrong. Or that Jesus was really God's "son". Or that he necessarily even existed. But I'm still a Christian, dammit.

GBL (of the NOT CHRISTIAN class)

M.J.

honestly--still sorting through much info. Haven't got to that one in depth yet! My initial take is along the lines of what Heckler boy said.

stillajwexelder

There is abundant evidence that a flood occurred

Did it occur around Noahs time - no before that

Was it Global - no around the Black Sea Area

Was there an ark - not as written in the bible but there would have been a boat of some sort for carrying belongings in

james_woods

Some observations:

If it really covered up everything (even the highest mountains), then where did all that water come from and subsequently go?

How did any of the normal salt water sea creatures survive it? - that much rain must have really screwed up the chemical balance of normal ocean water...I leave it to those who have tried to run a salt water aquarium to ponder this further.

How did Noah collect all the marsupials and then manage to get them back to Australia - (and ONLY Australia...)?

And all this aside from the obvious - could this few people really build that big a seaworthy boat with not much more than flint knives?

And catch all those animals in that short a time without getting eaten in the process?

And as long as I am on this rant; I ALWAYS HATED the WT depiction of the Ark as a sort of coffin-shaped box. At least the romantic religionists painted it as sort of a good-looking ship...

So, I put it just about up there with the trojan horse, jason and the argonauts, and captain Nemo and the Nautilus. Great literature and maybe good moral tales; but too many fantastic details to take literally.

stillajwexelder

and to me the killer - who collected the >850,000 pairs of insects know to exist

jwfacts

I did the public talk on the flood, and so researched a lot about it. I have heaps of information that one day I hope to collate. Basically a global flood is impossible for many reasons.
I believe in a local flood. The existence of global flood stories shows that there have been major floods globally. One reason for this is suggested that at the end of the ice age 10,000 years ago, as large chunks of ice broke away the water trapped behind them released great walls of water.
The bible contains the flood story as there is evidence of a great flood in the region, and the lesson is there as a warning to follow God. Inspiration?

willyloman

Oh, sure, somewhere. But not everywhere.

tijkmo

i accepted it for all the same reasons as AA. but i think im more inclined to go along with the localized thingy..if only for the marsupial reason..the bible speaking about it being a global flood could be taken in the same context as 'world' powers being only relative to the israelites..but to me the killer is why would an all wise god destroy everything he had created.."which was good" in order to rid a small community of some troublemakers most of whom dematerialised anyway...doesnt make any sense to me

Christians - Do you believe the flood occurred?

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