I prefer,however, to see the Creator of all seen and unseen as unchanging and eternally wise and omniscient.
And yet, in the Flood story the Lord had
regret...
Such a Creator would make no mistakes and would allow parables, metaphors and symbolism to be written so as to teach the people certain precepts and lessons from the stories.
But it is written as if it really happened. Was Noah a real person or was he a fictional character in a metaphor?
While many of the Biblical inerrency crowd insist--despite evidence to the contrary--that a global flood actually occurred, I prefer to view the whole story metaphorically.
How's that work though? In the comprehensive story of the Old Testament, where does the metaphor end and where does the real world begin?
I don't see how you can isolate the Flood as a metaphor and not have it as part of a larger story that was taken to be real.