Evidence for the Great Flood

A flood generally causes a rather large amount of land to end up underwater. The Great Flood was no different, it caused almost all the land in the world to go underwater. Did the FloodвЂ"as recorded in Genesis chapters 6-8вЂ"really happen? Was there a humongous amount of water that completely eradicated man from the face of the earth with the exceptions of Noah and his family and subsequently sent vast amounts of land underwater? There is a substantial amount of evidence from various sources that shows there was indeed a large flood of some sort that destroyed a fair amount of human civilization several thousand years ago.

Then again, today, there are evangelical teachers who claim “that Noah’s flood did not cover the entire earth nor all the mountains of the day. Further, they claim that Noah and the animals lived on a shallow, temporary inland island sea caused by the flood, somehow covering only the Mesopotamian region.” Nevertheless, there is substantial evidence from the Bible alone that proves that the flood was not merely local, but global. In fact, creation was destroyed in the order in which it was createdвЂ"according to Genesis 7:21. First the dry land was submerged, then the animals and humans perished. The waters covered the mountains completely to 20eet above the tops of the tallest mountains in the world, and remained at that impressive depth for at least five months. If Noah, his family, and all the animals were living in the ark, it would have to be absolutely huge. Not some silly вЂ?temporary island.’ If the flood had been merely local, wouldn’t God have just sent Noah and all the rest of his entourage to a safer part of the world? In that case, then the ark was larger then it needed to be for just that land area. But the flood was a worldwide occurrence, something for which there is substantial evidence.

There are over two hundred seventy ancient civilizations that have stories and/or historic records of a great flood happening. From the Sumerians and the Egyptians to the peoples of Indonesia and South America, each has myth dealing with a flood of some sort. However, not all of these civilization’s stories deal with God or the gods destroying all of mankind for being wicked and evil. Most of these come from the same areaвЂ"Sumerian, Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Chaldean, Hebrew, Islamic, Persian, and ZoroastrianвЂ"of the Near East. Of these, only the Islamic and Hebrew myths/stories have Noah as the person who builds an ark that saves the animals and his family. All of these stories/myths do have God or the gods destroying mankind for being wicked, as well as having one man, his family, and animals escape in some sort of vessel designed to travel in water.

The most notable two stories that have survived the passage of time are the �Hihking Classic’ from China and the �Epic of Gligamesh’ from Babylon. These flood traditions are remarkably consistent, considering the relative isolation of the cultures, the length of time since the flood, and the human tendency to embellish and exaggerate stories over time. The flood recorded in the Bible is not merely a story told to tell us about God’s judgment for sin, but a real event for which there is still evidence on the earth today. Some of the evidence includes major geological structures such as sedimentary rock, plateaus, and the Grand Canyon.

It has been believed for quite a long time now that the Colorado River created the Grand Canyon over a long period of time. However, scientists have discovered that there is well over “nine hundred cubic miles of dirt that is missing from the end of the river, there is no delta which would have been formed by slow water erosion. Creationists believe that the Grand Canyon was formed as a result of the Flood. ” If the Grand Canyon had been formed by the Colorado River, then there would be a delta at the mouth of it. However, there is no delta, which supports the theory that the Grand Canyon was formed by the Flood.

Another thing that supposedly supports the Flood is the oldest living thing in the worldвЂ"which used to be a Bristlecone Pine located in the desert of the White Mountains bordering California and Nevada, but was recently claimed to be a Tasmanian Huon Pine in Tasmania which is reported to be at least 8,000 years older than Christ himself. However, it is not really possible for that particular tree to be that old, considering the Flood occurred somewhere between 4,500 years and 5,000 years ago. However, the Bristlecone Pine is just over 4,000 years old, and is located at a fairly high altitude, which makes it safe to say that if there were other Bristlecone Pines further down at a lower altitude, they were killed by the Flood. There is an Alerce Tree in Chile, South America that is roughly 3,631 years oldвЂ"but is rumored to be related to the giant redwood family. More evidence of the Flood? Could the flood have carried seeds from the Sequoia trees in Northern California