The "no brainer" common evidence you cited is actually just bits and pieces of the major common theme and message of the flood legends I cited in my original post.
(1) Yes, but the "common theme and message" doesn't actually exist. The flood legends are as disparate as can be. The gods send the flood because of the wickedness of mankind, or simply because of overpopulation --- or even by accident. The flood is local or global. People survive by means of a boat or climbing up a high mountain or clinging to driftwood or by the intervention of a giant fish; or there are no survivors and the gods repopulate the world by magic.
What they have in common is that they
are flood legends --- and that almost always the flood is attributed to supernatural beings, which is no surprise because primitive people attribute all meteorological events and all remarkable events to supernatural beings, and this was both.
The legends most similar to the Biblical one are all found in the same region, and there is a fairly obvious non-magical explanation for that.
(2) You have generally ignored the possibility of cultural transmission. In most cultures, the missionaries have turned up before the anthropologists. Many flood myths may have been seeded by missionaries, and this needs to be taken into account.
Does the widespread myth of Santa Claus show that he really exists, or just that it's an appealing myth which has spread easily?
(3) You have also not considered the possibility that these myths have sprung from common errors. What I mean is that people all over the world have been able to observe marine fossils in mountains. What could be more natural than to assume that at some time the water level was higher rather than the rock constituting the mountains being lower? (To witness a small flood is after all commonplace, whereas most people will not
observe geological uplift, which is less dramatic.)
(4) You do not say how your reasoning applies to other legends found all over the world. Stories of talking animals are very widespread; so are stories of fairy-like beings.
Or take the legend of stealing fire from the gods. Some common (though not quite universal) features:
* What is stolen is fire itself, not the secret of making it. This is odd when you think about it, because the cultures having such legends did in fact have the secret of making fire. (I know of no exceptions to this.)
* The thief steals fire
out of compassion for humanity, because they need fire to keep warm and cook.
* The thief steals without fee or reward; the gesture is purely altruistic.
* The thief is male (I know of one exception, in Hawai'i).
* The thief usually is not himself human, and often would not qualify as a god either, but is a third class of being.
* The thief is not subsequently caught and punished by the gods (I know of one exception, the Greek legend of Prometheus.)
* The gods do not, of course, take fire back from humanity, explaining why we still have it.
* The thief is sometimes marked by the fire; if this is the case, the marking is hereditary.
I have found examples of the myth from India, South Africa, North America, Central America, Europe, Australia, and various Pacific islands. So, did it actually happen?
Also the flood date recorded in the Bible coincides with celebrations of the dead held in many lands. The date of the biblical flood and the massive loss of life resulting from it connects it with these celebrations and the common flood legends that share its theme.
Where are you getting this from? The only thing I can find supporting this is
this three-paragraph wikipedia article, which, instead of giving references to the various alleged festivals of the dead, has a
single reference to a book by Charles Piazzi Smith, the well-known pyramidologist, numerologist, and all-round crackpot.
Halloween, to be sure, is a day of the dead, but as I have pointed out, the Church that instituted it never said anything about it commemorating the Flood.
Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.
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