Well I must concede that most of you have certainly researched the subject far more than I have. My belief in the flood is based on religion and little more, so I can't pretend to be able to offer hard evidence such a you have presented.
And that's
exactly the point of this thread. Christians tend to loudly exclaim the historical veracity of the Bible, and are woefully ignorant of the rather significant areas where there is either no external support at all or actual contradictory evidence that conclusively shows the
literal Biblical account to be complete bunk.
There never was a
global Flood as depicted in Genesis. The formation of life on Earth had nothing to do with the Creation story. There is no support for the Exodus account outside of the Biblical account itself. There's more, of course, but that's
enough. The Bible is no different from any other ancient mythological text. It's the attempt by teh Hebrew culture to explain the world around them, just like the Creation and historical myths of all other cultures. Some of the historical events are based in fact, but to say that the Bible is literally true in its historical claims completely contradicts direct observation.
It's fortunate that you're able to admit that you have no evidenciary support for your beliefs, but the mere fact that you
believe without
ever having seriously investigated the
accuracy of your beliefs is one of the most disturbing results of theological dogma.
As for me, a worldwide flood is not all all a prerequisite for believing the important parts of the Noah story, so it doesn't shake my faith.
You are free to believe there was never such an event and I will stay with what I believe, but I have to say you have presented far more quality evidence for your belief than I can for my position.
And for most everyone, that's just fine. Faith has nothing to do with evidence, and at worst simply having faith means that you might be gullible. Problems only ensue when people insist that their beliefs are
factual rather than simply faith. That's when we get people who try to force their religious faith to be taught to people who don't share their faith-based beliefs in public schools, and worse people who try to establish a theocratic government.