Commonalities Of Accounts Of A Universal Flood?

I am a new member to this forum, and this is my first post. I chose this particular string because I have encountered many arguments (arguments because very little in the way of debating in the formal sense has occurred) based on and around the flood as portrayed in the bible.First off, a bit of background. I am a geologist by training, and I have some experience in the kinds of things floods leave behind, because my backyard is essentially one of the best examples of what a catastrophic flood would do to any landscape (Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington). Also, I have been witness to a very good discussion amongst professional scientists in the field of geology that have written extensively on the specific subject of the flood(s) that may have been the inspiration for the Epic of Gilgamesh, and consequently the Noachian Flood Myth in the bible.I mention all this, in part, because I feel responsible as a scientist and a geologist to say that there is absolutely no evidence for a global flooding event, and this is based on many lines of support. Invoking flood stories from various cultures around the world doesn't signify a commonality explaining one single event... (cont.)

Cont. from previous post...It stands to reason that the most likely reason why flood stories are so pervasive throughout the worlds cultures is most likely because most cultures existed on or near flooding bodies of water. Depending on that body of water (e.g. the Nile, or the Yellow River) cultures can even be created and destroyed. This inherently gives power to the idea behind water being a force of life and/or death which is part of the 'moral' backing of the story we find in the bible and other religious books inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Another perspective to consider (I haven't made my way through all of the posts on this string, so this may or may not have been previously mentioned) is the mindset of the author(s) behind the story we now know. It has been assumed, and it would seem rather recently in history, that the story as mentioned in the bible refers to a large global event, when in fact there isn't any mention of such in the story. Even scholars, such as Leonardo Da Vinci seemed to have problems corroborating the flood story from the bible, preferring to find a natural explanation for why there were fossils of sea creatures found on mountaintops (something that Stephen Jay Gould has written about and covered more extensively). Why is it so important for biblical literalists and creationists to maintain that the story in the bible is global?Now, getting back to mindsets, consider a typical human 3000 years ago, or even farther back to say, 10,000 years ago. With the exception of nomadic peoples, the 'world' primarily existed in the roughly 20 square miles or so around your family home. Stories surely existed of lands faraway, but your WORLD was here. Having suggested this, I posit that when stories talk about the world flooding, its a reference to the destruction of local and familiar geographies, which uprooted peoples and forced them to migrate to foreign lands. This idea is certainly the impetus behind recent studies in the Black Sea region of Eurasia, which coincidentally happens to be the same area the Epic of Gilgamesh was written in. To my knowledge, this is the best possible candidate for any scientific relationship to the story we find in the bible, and it is a very large, but very localized flood.

Of course there is merit to Noah saving two (or seven) of every kind of animal, you only need look to what the story itself is about.God was greived, sad, angry, etc. about having created man. Why, though? Going by the bible, every thing was corrupt, the earth was filled with violence, and there was only one perfect man: Noah. Why was Noah perfect? Because he listened to god. Long story short, god killed of all of mankind with the exception of Noah, because Noah did what god wanted him to without question. The moral of the story is simply, follow what god says to do, and he will save you. Of course, in reality this clearly isn't the case.Now, getting to the beginning of your response, I was very specific in the words I chose to write with, and referring to the flood I did not use the word 'universal.' I specifically chose global, because that is the interpretation that is now being used by biblical literalists and creationists. As for it being 'recent,' I make reference to the wave of literal interpretation, having its roots in the Fundamentalist movement which only goes back a few centuries.

Now, if you want to get into the geological interpretation of what we should expect to see had there been a global (or universal) flood, I'd be happy to accommodate.Floods leave telltale signs after they've occurred, and catastrophic floods leave even bigger signs. As I mentioned before, I live in an area of the United States that is well-known for its unique geology and geography called the Channeled Scablands. This region, forming most of the geography of eastern Washington is rife with signs of a massive flooding event, some so large that the only way they could be seen was by airplane. This includes such things as ripple marks, erratic boulders, strandlines, gravel deposits, dry falls, etc. These features were carved out of basalt and granite (not soft rock types, mind you) from flooding events (somewhere between 40 to perhaps 100 separate events) stemming from Glacial Lake Missoula. These are catastrophic events (if I recall, the amount of water transported through the Columbia River channels through to the Pacific Ocean equaled more than the output of many of the world's longest rivers today at one time) that lasted for weeks to perhaps months, and had the potential to completely erase and reform the landscapes it touched. Why do we not see these signs associated with Noah's flood?

To my knowledge, the floods were toward the end of the last Ice Age and happened when an ice dam blocking the flow of a river (I believe the Clark Fork) filled up the areas in and around present day Missoula, which lends the name to Glacial Lake Missoula. What would happen is that the water filling up behind was affecting the ice dam in several ways, eventually undermining it completely, and the lake would drain. The size of the lake is estimated, as I recall, is comparable to the Great Lakes of the Midwest, and may have been happening as recent as 10-12,000 years ago. With current North American archaeological support, the flooding events may have been witnessed by humans.