Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and the Yahoo Answers website is now in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

When the validity of Noah's ark is questioned, the response is often that there are flood stories from all?

over the world.

If the flood killed everyone except the 8 on the ark, who wrote those stories, since there were no survivors to tell it?

Update:

Arie- what makes you think I forgot that? It is pretty much the whole point of my question!

26 Answers

Relevance
  • Anonymous
    10 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    And the stories are all different, too. Deukalion and Pyrrha? Utnapishtim?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth

    And Egypt has no such flood myth, which is, like, hilarious. Egypt has been inhabited uninterruptedly for at least eight thousand years. You'd think they'd have noticed a world-wide flood.

    Of course, no aspect of the Biblical (or any other) flood myth makes a lick of sense. Abram was born about 250 years after the Flood. By that time, there were already several large, influential and wholly separate cultures again, mainly Chaldean, Canaanite and Egyptian. If you start out with just three breeding couples, with a total genetic stock equivalent to only five people since the three males were brothers (and that's assuming the women weren't their nieces or something) you'd get total genetic breakdown in a few generations. Not to mention the numbers. It is an insane story. And people believe it.

  • Arie
    Lv 7
    10 years ago

    Good point... but you forgot two other very important points, which is that all these flood stories are not regarding the same moment in time, therefore it cannot be the same flood and that there is no evidence to be found of a global flood whatsoever. The flood mentioned in the Bible refers at best to a local flood, which only covered part of the known land, but since the Bible mentions that that the whole world was covered in water, killing everything, this argument that some Christians use is flawed as well. Either the Bible is the word of God and flawless or it is not the word of God. If the Bible mentions a worldwide flood, it has to be worldwide therefore and since there is no evidence for such a global flood, the Bible can no longer be the word of God.

  • 10 years ago

    The book of Geneisis where the Flood account is found was written in 1513 B.C.E by Moses while he and the nation of Israel were wandering in the wilderness. Such a cataclysm as the Deluge, which washed the whole world of that time out of existence, would never be forgotten by the survivors. They would talk about it to their children and their children’s children. For 500 years after the Deluge, Shem lived on to relate the event to many generations. He died only ten years before the birth of Jacob. Moses preserved the true account in Genesis. Sometime after the Flood, when God-defying people built the Tower of Babel, Jehovah confused their language and scattered them “over all the surface of the earth.” (Ge 11:9) It was only natural that these people took with them stories of the Flood and passed them on from father to son. The fact that there are not merely a few but perhaps hundreds of different stories about that great Deluge, and that such stories are found among the traditions of many primitive races the world over, is a strong proof that all these people had a common origin and that their early forefathers shared that Flood experience in common.

  • Anonymous
    10 years ago

    Noah's ark. Isn't it fun?

    In my opinion, Noah's ark was dinosaur. Not a ship.

    Ark of Noah is a medium through which data of the gene is transferred.

    Genesis 6:19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.

    Evolution of species doesn't have a linear time till mankind open eyes.

    Genesis 9:13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

    Pitch / Bitumen / Crude oil / Where could we find them, today? It's fun, too.

    Genesis 6:14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.

    Today's annual rhythms begins "From Genesis 9:13". (This is my assumption.)

    Today's light speed begins from Genesis 9:13, too. (I mean, position.)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq98MskQ6rc

    Anyway...

    People can make an answer but there is no a reason. (This is your so-called free will.)

    God can make a reason but there is no an answer. (This is your so-called destiny & chance.)

    Sometimes I say, Newton's apple is more clever than Newton.

  • Anonymous
    10 years ago

    It is legend. It validly teaches the spread of evil. It is not reconcilable with written history or even sensible pre-history.

    An angry god destroying humanity is a common theme in many religions. How the story is told and the relationship between people and God is more the point being made. Shane and Wild-Wild West and that Mel Brooks cowboy comedy are all cowboy movies, but they tell a different story.

    The Flood story or its analog is in many religions, but they tell a different story.

    Studying the legends of the contemporaries of the Bible stories as well as modern aboriginal stories and those of recent history show that legend is a way to pass ideas from one generation to the next; the ideas, "the danger and spread of evil" in this case is more important than the details.

    Truth is not only spread by dry sermons and historical records. It is spread with stories of heroic people in legendary time as well. It is critical to note that Jesus was a person in history and not a story of legendary times as were the pagan gods. For Christians, who Jesus was and how he lived is central to our understanding of God.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    10 years ago

    Actually, there are only flood myths from civilizations that were built in low-lying areas around very large bodies of water. Inland societies tended to go with annihilation by fire in their myths.

    If the flood was truly global, why don't those societies that didn't arise near water have flood myths? Obviously, because it wasn't global. People built myths around natural disasters that tended to happen in their geological area.

    This is of course ignoring the fact that all geological and biological evidence contradicts the idea of a "global flood". AND the fact that many societies were contiguous right through the supposed "flood" times. Gee, did someone forget to tell those people in the Indus Valley, Sumeria, and China that they were all supposed to die in a global cataclysm?

  • Anonymous
    10 years ago

    There are floods all over the world but not one flood which destroyed the whole of creation all in one go all over the world apart from 8 people - Noah, his wife, his 3 sons and their wives. This is all recorded in the Bible.

    Where have you seen any similar account which has been verified? Anyone can copy someone else's work which is what has happened here. Everyone knows about Noah's Ark. Nobody has heard of any other occurrences this big and widespread I wonder why. Because there aren't any others.

    Satan is the deceiver and the counterfeit. He puts out all sorts of lies for he is the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning.

    Don't believe stories unless they are verifiable. The Bible is 100 percent accurate and true.

  • 10 years ago

    If the story does not make sense let alone even possible today to carry out such a feat as putting every creature on earth in the ark, then common sense should be your guide. Can you fit every creature on earth in the ark if you had one? Daunting task...don't you think?

  • 10 years ago

    @ Uncle Thesis: Then why are they considerably-different stories? From times before the Flood was supposed to have occurred? They can't have gone back in time or else we would have that technology available. And they wouldn't have survived even if the people had gone back in time.

    --

    @ Asker: They parrot without understanding.

  • 10 years ago

    It is a proven fact that "Flood Myths" are common stories in all cultures...what makes you think that Noah had the only boat in the whole wide world ? Or that there is enough water on the planet to flood all the land ? There ain't.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.