Think about all the people you have ever loved and spent time with. Think about the hard work you and your friends and family have put forth to create a life for yourselves. Think about your grandchildren, your fathers, your mothers and your siblings. Then think about one day a flood coming through and all of the sudden you find yourself one of few survivors as you walk through the wreckage in search of the corpes of your loved ones to bury. This has happened recently in places like Indonesia and Japan. One day they were living their lives and the next they were sorting through carnage and lost loved ones.
That scene has played out on this planet for as long as humans have been here. For the vast majority of our time here people have considered these tragedies acts of God, when in reality they were just acts of chance. Also given to chance is who lives and who dies. The ones that live are faced with the bitter confusion as to WHY they lived and the others died. What if you knew that a person that died was a better person than you? Would you question their morality? Would you assume that yours is superior because you still breathe and they do not? These were the questions that haunted our ancient ancestors.
After the peices are picked up and the loved ones buried the survivors tell their tale, but which to tell? Science has proven that when we remember events that have happened in our life that our brain actually has to recreate the event from scratch using memory cells in our brain. Because we know this we also know that any story that has been recorded from some type of oral tradition will be wrong. There is nothing left to chance, we KNOW it will be wrong. However it will be wrong so consistantly that it may be possible to deduce the real events behind the myth.
The Watchtower teaches, however, that the story is 100% accurate. This is a grave mistake for an entity calling themselves an interpreter of the Bible and a general disservice to the truth. Experiment after experiment has been done in order to prove, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that the Great Flood of the Genesis was NOT a flood that destroyed every living thing on the planet. However it would be easy to misconcieve floods that have occured in our history as global. In fact for some remote people they would have no chance but to think the flood was the entire world and would tell the story as such and henceforth be written down that way.
Without the shackle of Biblical inerrancy at our ankles we can really dig into the Bible and use our imagination. Consider the following verses in Genesis and read them with an open mind:
Genesis 7 - 1 The LORD then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”
Now the word "wipe" is an interesting one to use in my opinion. Think of the motion that is required for that word to be used. A start point, a track and an end point. If the writer wanted to depict an obliteration of the earth largely by rainfall, the word wipe doesn't seem ideal to me. However a flash flood, or a tsunami work much better with the word "wipe."
Rain is mentioned though, but it doesn't seem to be a main factor in the destruction of the earth. It's actually depicted as a first step before the "wiping" takes place. It's essentially saying there will be rain and then God would wipe the earth clean. Which is exactly how a flash flood can work:
Flash flooding occurs when precipitation falls too quickly on saturated soil or dry soil that has poor absorption ability. The runoff collects in low-lying areas and rapidly flows downhill. Flash floods most often occur in normally dry areas that have recently received precipitation, but may be seen anywhere downstream from the source of the precipitation, even many miles from the source. In areas on or near volcanoes, flash floods have also occurred after eruptions, when glaciers have been melted by the intense heat. Flash floods are known to occur in the highest mountain ranges of the United States and are also common in the arid plains of southwestern United States. Flash flooding can also be caused by extensive rainfall released by hurricanes and other tropical storms , as well as the sudden thawing effect of ice dams. Human activities can also cause flash floods to occur. When dams , constructed for hydro-electricity, have failed, large quantities of water can be released and can destroy everything within its path.
Further evidence that the flood of the Bible is actually a localized flash flood is Jesus reference to it in the Gospels:
Matthew 24 - 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
Since flash floods often occur in normally dry areas they will always come at a surprise. Jesus actually uses the flood as represenative of his second coming which will come completely unexpectedly.
As a side note the Book of Daniel metions a destructive flood in it's last days prophecy as well. Jesus may have been expounding upon it.
Daniel 9 - 25 “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”
The Bible's great flood seems to be actually describing a localized flash flood. Other theories could include glacier melts and even tsunamis. It's apparent that unexpected natural disasters can create entire new ways of thinking as it did for the oral transmitters of the Flood story. The question is can a localized flood be tied to what ended up in Genesis? I believe so which leads me to a Chinese folklore legend by the name of Fu Xi:
Creation legend of Fu Xi
According to legend, the land was swept by a great flood and only Fu Xi and his sister Nüwa survived. They retired to Kunlun Mountain , where they prayed for a sign from the Emperor of Heaven . The divine being approved their union and the siblings set about procreating the human race. In order to speed up the process, Fu Xi and Nüwa used clay to create human figures, and with the power divine entrusted to them made the clay figures come alive. Fu Xi then came to rule over his descendants, although reports of his long reign vary between sources, from 115 years (2852–2737 BCE) to 116 years (2952–2836 BCE).
-Sab